Hanoi (VNA) - The Government will focus on technology-based agricultureto resolve problems like the lack of value-added products for export, the lowcompetitiveness of Vietnamese farm produce in world marketsand inconsistency in quality.

Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Dang Huy Dong speaks to Vietnam NewsAgency about all these issues.

Q: Applying science and technology to achieve large-scale productionis common in many countries in the region and world. Vietnam also wants to dothat. What do you think about it?

A: Developing high-tech agriculture is the right policy and should be donesoon. This dovetails with current global trends and will also help Vietnam’s agriculturesector resolve its problems like lack of value-added products for export, lowglobal competitiveness of produce and inconsistency in quality.

Recently I had the opportunity to visit many high-tech agricultural enterprisesand cooperatives in Da Lat, Lam Dong province. I saw flower and vegetablefarms that are equipped with modern equipment and have automatic operation likein Europe. This modern production model has also developed strongly in manycities and provinces in the north and south.

However, what direction high-tech agriculture should take needs to be discussedcarefully to ensure sustainable development of local agriculture.

This is a big responsibility for government management offices and localauthorities.

The issues requiring attention include how to create partnerships between linksin the high-tech agricultural production chain, who should be given licences todevelop large-scale production and the stipulations for enterprises toenjoy the Government’s support policies.

Q: You mentioned building partnerships between links in the high-techagriculture chain. To be specific, did you refer to partnerships betweenenterprises and farmers?

A: That is right. In this relationship, farmers are satellite producers andtheir representative is the cooperative. The cooperative is a legal entity anda partner of enterprises. Building a healthy partnership between enterprisesand farmers will accelerate high-tech agriculture.

Many countries in the world have developed agriculture based on this principle.They have focused on building partnerships between enterprises and farmers,creating a consensus to pool land for large-scale production, have samecultivation models and apply scientific and technologicaladvances for agricultural production. This cooperation will increaseproductivity and ensure quality, improving value addition.

I fully support this development method and cooperation betweenenterprises and farmers is very important.

Q: The Government plans to give more land to individuals and organisations todevelop agriculture and pool lands for large-scale production. However, thereare many hurdles to implementing this plan. What is your opinion aboutthis?

A: The Government’s policies will benefit agricultural development, especiallythe widespread application of technology in agriculture. The Government willcreate favourable conditions with respect to land and preferential credit foreligible enterprises and encourage them to invest in technology.

However, if land is accumulated by private enterprises or a group of people,many farmers could lose their lands, leading to instability in society andaffect the sustainable development of the agriculture.

In many developed countries, they do not accumulate land by changing ownership;instead, they pool lands land for large-scale production to enable applicationof technology in agriculture.

It should be noted that in many cases private enterprises will not use land foragriculture and will use it for other purposes. So, the Government mustcarefully consider land policies to harmonise the interests of parties takingpart in high-tech agricultural production.

Q: What does the Ministry of Planning and Investment do to promote high-techagriculture?
A: To implement the Government’s policy on developing high-tech agriculture,the ministry will collaborate with the Ministries of Finance and Science andTechnology to efficiently implement programmes and projects under a plan forthe development of high-tech agriculture by 2020 under the Government’sDecision 176/QĐ-TTg.

Besides, the ministry will develop co-operatives under the new model to supportlarge-scale agricultural production and also enterprise development, especiallyby applying technology in agriculture production.
The ministry has linked up with localities to apply high technology inagriculture. The localities know about the need to using high technology inagriculture to increase value addition.

Many provinces and cities such as Binh Thuan, Can Tho and HCM City have cooperatedwith the ministry to study their unique farm produce and develop investmentpromotion programmes to seek funding for those items.

These localities have preferential policies to attract agricultural enterpriseswith capability and technology.

High-tech agriculture is expected to develop strongly in the future.-VNA