We returned to Ngoc Son commune (Quynh Luu) on a day in early August 2023, the fields were still bare of stubble, with dead rice growing and becoming grazing grounds for people's cattle. "This crop is almost abandoned because there was drought at the beginning of the season and floods at the end of the season," explained Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Chuong - Chairman of the People's Committee of Ngoc Son commune.
Implementing land consolidation according to Directives 02 and 08 of the Provincial Party Committee Standing Committee on mobilizing farmers to consolidate land plots and encourage land consolidation to develop large-scale production in agriculture, Ngoc Son commune issued programs and projects and considered it a key, core task throughout the past terms. “At that time, commune cadres, hamlet cadres and people were enthusiastic and determined to actively participate. During the day, they measured, did fieldwork, and renovated the fields, and in the evening, they went from house to house to propagate and mobilize. For months on end…”, Mr. Ho Huu Loc, former commune and hamlet cadre from 2000 to 2013, recalled.
The result of the days of struggling with the land consolidation work is that now, instead of each household's fields being scattered in 5-7 fields, they are now concentrated in 1-2 fields. However, according to Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Chuong's admission, the land consolidation is still heavily mechanical, meaning that households' fields have been concentrated in 1-2 fields instead of 5-6 fields as before, but the plots are still basically small, so the application of mechanization in production is still limited; the conversion of crop structure is facing many difficulties. Basically, rice is still grown in one crop, and the other crop is left fallow, leaving the rice dead. Therefore, the economic value per unit area is not high.
Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Chuong added: “Due to the characteristics of the semi-mountainous area, with many terraced fields and valleys, it is very difficult to accumulate into large fields. To accumulate, it is necessary to improve the field foundation and level the area, which is very costly. Besides, in Ngoc Son commune, the fields are divided into distinct areas, which are areas with favorable water sources and fertile land, and areas far from irrigation water sources and less fertile land, so people still have the mentality of "dividing equally", "playing it safe", losing one place and gaining another. Therefore, the conversion has encountered many difficulties, leading to the introduction of new crop varieties into production not being implemented; there is still no connection in production in the commune".
In Binh Son commune - one of the leading localities in Anh Son district and the province in land consolidation, there are also many difficulties. Mr. Hoang Van Thuan - Vice Chairman of Binh Son Commune People's Committee said: "The most difficult thing in Binh Son is the terraced field terrain. To build large plots, people have to spend a lot of money to level the fields and create flat fields. On average, each sao of land costs from 3-5 million VND to rent machinery for renovation. Some households have to spend nearly 100 million VND to renovate the land after land consolidation; many households, after the fields have been consolidated into one area, do not have money to renovate, so they still have to keep small plots for cultivation." That is the common difficulty, the biggest "bottleneck" in the process of converting and consolidating land in mountainous localities in the province.
Many localities have converted their fields; the banks, plot banks, and intra-field traffic have been expanded, but have not yet met the requirements; most of the intra-field irrigation systems have not been solidified, making irrigation ineffective and wasting water resources. In many places, intra-field traffic is dirt roads, making it very difficult for cars to purchase products, especially on rainy days. In fact, there have been accidents when putting machines into production. Up to now, many people have not yet recovered from the shock of the accident in May 2023 in Thuy Hoa village, Thanh Thuy commune (Thanh Chuong). Mr. Nguyen Duy K. residing in Chi Thinh hamlet, Thanh Chi commune, while moving a harvester on the field bank to prepare to harvest rice, the harvester overturned and crushed him, causing him to die on the spot...
In many localities, the dossiers for granting certificates of agricultural land use rights after conversion still face many difficulties and problems; the handling of surplus areas after dam breaking, the subjects inheriting agricultural land... Mr. Nguyen Xuan Dinh - Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Quynh Luu district, said: "Consolidation of land plots on rice land is easier to implement, but on colored land it is very difficult. Therefore, for Quynh Luu district, the communes in the coastal areas specializing in vegetable cultivation find it very difficult to carry out land consolidation. Every family wants to keep colored land for cultivation because it is the main income of the family, the economic value on colored land is many times higher than on rice land... In addition, disputes over inheritance rights make the dossiers for granting and exchanging land face many difficulties".
Similarly, in Anh Son district, the Deputy Head of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment said that after 2 times of consolidation, the agricultural land area of households has basically been granted Land Use Right Certificates, and the State is recognizing the legal right to use. The principle of conversion is to basically stabilize the land area that is legally used by households and individuals that have been allocated according to Decree 64/1993/ND-CP, not to redistribute land, so people born after 1993 are not divided. For those who have been allocated land, there is a fear of having a part of the allocated land area cut off through conversion, so there is a "defensive, safe" mindset. Therefore, a part of the people are not interested, even have the mindset of opposing the conversion. In addition, the construction of large fields, land accumulation models in the direction of transferring agricultural land use rights are still limited, leading to a situation where enterprises lack land to build raw material areas and processing zones.
In the province's approval decision, Nghe An Rubber Investment and Development Joint Stock Company was planned to have 8,700 hectares of land for rubber planting; however, up to now, after 13 years of project implementation, the enterprise has only been able to plant 4,500 hectares of rubber, due to lack of land. This has led to the failure of the project's progress and the plan to build a processing factory in the raw material area, causing many difficulties and losses for the enterprise.
Regarding the issue of land lease, Mr. Nguyen Van Son - Director of Phu Thinh Agricultural and Service Cooperative - boldly invested in greenhouses, applying high technology in production on an area of 2,500m2in Hung Thanh commune (Hung Nguyen) said: The greenhouse area and surrounding land of the cooperative are all used to grow valuable vegetables and fruits. We hope to be facilitated to rent more land to expand the scale of production. In the immediate future, we hope that the local government will facilitate the leasing of an additional 1.5 - 2 hectares of land, 5% of which people are currently growing peanuts, with the aim of both agricultural production and "welcoming" the development trend of agricultural tourism.
These limitations are also the reason why Nghe An has not yet produced many high-quality agricultural products, low competitiveness in the market, most of which are in raw or semi-processed form with low added value. Citing the example of Nghe An's corn products, agricultural expert and engineer Doan Tri Tue assessed: Although our alluvial land is large, the output does not meet the demand for consumption and processing, each year importing 1.2 - 2 million tons of corn for animal feed. In previous years, the price of imported corn at Cua Lo port (from the US, Canada, Mexico...) was only 5,000 VND/kg, while the price in the province was over 6,000 VND/kg. “Their prices are lower and they compete well because they use machinery in production from A to Z. One of their workers can work 100 hectares. The current shortcomings in agricultural production pose the problem of accumulation, attracting investment, and using machinery in production... is an inevitable trend,” emphasized engineer Doan Tri Tue.
