Prime Minister requests to increase high-tech agricultural credit package to 100,000 billion VND

Government leaders proposed four ways to solve the problem of high-tech agriculture and requested to increase the credit package for this sector from 60,000 billion VND to 100,000 billion VND.

On the first working day after Lunar New Year (February 2), Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc pressed the button to launch a high-tech agricultural production project in Ha Nam province and raised issues on developing this important field.

Speaking at the event, he also expressed concern that agriculture - the mainstay of the economy - is greatly affected by climate change, production costs are still high, using a lot of irrigation water and other inputs. Therefore, production efficiency and farmers' lives are still low.

Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development - Nguyen Xuan Cuong, Prime Minister - Nguyen Xuan Phuc, Chairman of Vingroup - Pham Nhat Vuong and Chairman of Hanoi People's Committee - Nguyen Duc Chung (from right to left) at the launching ceremony of the high-tech agricultural project on the morning of February 2. Photo: VGP

“How is Vietnam’s current agriculture? What is the new Government’s innovative spirit in agriculture?”, the Government leader asked a series of questions and said that this was also what he and many members of the Government were concerned about. He affirmed that Vietnam must move from an unfettered agriculture to an innovative agriculture.

Solving Vietnam's agricultural problems, according to the Prime Minister, requires the participation of both the private sector and high-quality agricultural cooperatives. "Therefore, we encourage startups in agriculture and apply cloud computing to create smart agriculture in Vietnam," said the Prime Minister.

Another solution is to expand agricultural land areas, accumulate land more strongly and transfer science and technology to agriculture.

“There must be capital for high-tech agriculture,” the Prime Minister emphasized, requesting to increase the support package limit for high-tech agricultural investment from 60,000 billion VND to 100,000 billion VND and assigning the State Bank to mobilize banks with necessary credit support packages to do this.

In addition, human resources from farmers for high-tech agriculture must be focused on investment and development, not to let the image of "the buffalo goes first, the plow follows" continue to exist. Expand the market, improve the quality of designs, packaging, build brands, and apply e-commerce in agricultural product consumption.

The Prime Minister visited workers at a high-tech agricultural production farm during the first working session of the new year. Photo: TM

He requested that when planning land, localities must expand land areas and accumulate land more strongly. Any place planned for high agricultural development needs irrigation systems, canals, roads, electricity... and not just build in the middle of a deserted field.

"The Government will accompany businesses to do high-tech agriculture. The Prime Minister and members of the Government will also directly introduce clean agricultural products of Vietnam to the world," the Prime Minister affirmed, adding that if switching to organic clean agriculture, there will be no shortage of output because temperate vegetable growing countries have a huge demand.

The Prime Minister also affirmed that he will step up the untangling and creation of organic agriculture using high technology and production according to market demand, targeting the domestic market of nearly 100 million people and export. He also said that he will report to the National Assembly on the amendment of the 2013 Land Law to pave the way for high-tech agricultural development in localities.

Mr. Nguyen Viet Quang, Vice President of Vingroup Corporation - the investor of the clean agricultural production project in Ha Nam, said that by the end of 2017, the project is expected to complete infrastructure and production on the entire area of ​​180 hectares. This will be a farm applying high technology in mechanization and automation. Products are vegetables and fruits in greenhouses, covered houses and other safe vegetables. In addition to production, the project has reserved 5 hectares of land to test new quality varieties suitable for the soil of the Red River Delta with the aim of supplying the market with safe products, gradually exporting, marking the position of Vietnamese agricultural products on the world map.

From the project to launch high-tech agricultural production in Ha Nam province, the Prime Minister hopes that many other provinces will continue to implement this policy.

According to VNE