Hanoi (VNA) – Ensuring food security is an urgent issue at present withfood supply sources and access to safe food supplies being seriously affected,especially by climate change, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and RuralDevelopment Le Quoc Doanh said at a forum in Hanoi on November 5.

He pointed out the challenges that Vietnam isfacing in the field such as fierce competition from major exporters of farmproduce, unstable export markets, and the poor performance of small-scaleproducers.

Furthermore, outbreaks of diseases, particularlyAfrican swine fever, as well as extreme weather patterns and natural disasters,are putting much pressure on food security in Vietnam, he said.

Awareof the importance of ensuring food security, the Party and Government havepromulgated a number of policies to develop agriculture combined with improvingthe quality of food security and increasing incomes for farmers, according to DeputyMinister Le Quoc Doanh.

The Ministry of Agriculture and RuralDevelopment has built a project on national food security through 2020 andimplemented the Government’s resolution on policies for agricultural productionplanning, infrastructure development, increasing the application ofscience-technology, and human resources training.

Tran Cong Thang, head of the Institute of Policyand Strategy for Agriculture and Rural Development, said Vietnam is now thethird biggest rice exporter in the world, after India and Thailand.

He reported that the country has ensuredself-sufficiency in food with average food output per capita at a high level(ranking sixth in the world). Hunger has been basically eradicated, andpeople’s access to food and balanced nutrition has improved remarkably.

Theagricultural sector is contributing 15 percent to the country’s gross domesticproduct (GDP) and employing 38 percent of the nation’s labour force, he added.

The scholar pointed out shortcomings to nationalfood security, such as the high rate of malnourished children and obesity, restrictedaccess to diverse food in poor and mountainous regions, and unhealthy dietsthat lead to cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and cancer.

He recommended changing the approach to foodsecurity, shifting the focus on ensuring nutrition balance and food safety. Healso stressed the need for support to people to diverse their sources ofincome, thus improving their ability to pay for food.

Accordingto the scholar, based on consumption forecast, part of the rice cultivationland could be switched to other purposes. He suggested maintaining between3.3-3.5 million ha of land for rice farming and around 35 million tonnes ofpaddy as the core of national food security./.