Agricultural products call for help: What solutions are given by MARD and MOIT?

	Collecting US$ 36 billion from exports of agricultural, forestry and fishery products
	Problems in reduction of dependency on imported corn

Rescue of agricultural products is an unsolved story for many years, which has not been answered satisfactorily. Photo: Internet

At the session, Chair of the National Assembly Committee for Justicesaid that recently, a big problem in agricultural production is the rescue of agricultural products. Previously, watermelon, sugar, onions and garlic were rescued and kohlrabi and radish.

"This situation has been going on for many years. The Ministry of Science and Technology, Ministry of Industry and Trade and Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development are required to give solutions under the science and technology review to overcome the above situation,“Mrs. Nga said.

Responding to this question, Minister of Science and Technology Chu Ngoc Anh said that in the past, only one national program mentioned the task of research on agricultural product rescue. Realizing the importance of agricultural processing stage, over the past time, not only in the national program, the Ministry of Science and Technology has ordered some enterprises, supported the National Technology Innovation Fund. In addition, some tasks have been stipulated in the Protocols with countries for processing technology transfer. Solutions set out are very unified.

“How is the processing stage set? We identified the key task which is promoting technology research and transfer,”the Minister Chu Ngoc Anh noted.

Regarding the rescue of agricultural products, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Xuan Cuong said that currently, the productivity of all agricultural products were very high. The two weaker areas were defined as processing and market structure. Currently, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) is focusing on restructuring the agricultural sector, in which promoting the two weak areas mentioned above.

Minister Cuong gave an example for vegetable and fruit sector, 8 vegetable and fruit processing plants shall be launched this year. By 4 April 2018, the first processing plant shall be launched in Long An with the scale of 20-25 products. The next ones are processing plants in Tay Ninh, Dong Thap and Gia Lai ...

"Each sector must identify the weakest point to be handled. With a production of 8.6 million households as at the current time, all the sectors cannot be handled within one year. However, the roadmap is in the right direction and the production is in line with the value chain” said Minister Nguyen Xuan Cuong.

Adding to the rescue of agricultural products, Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh emphasized that agricultural restructuring must meet the requirements in the period of integration. Agriculture needs to restructure on the basis of development of global supply chain rather than individual supply chain.

Vietnam's agriculture has great production capacity and great opportunity for market access with the signing of 12 Free Trade Agreements (FTAs). However, this does not mean that Vietnam’s agricultural products are able to access to the market,because of issues such as technical barriers. Accordingly, technology plays a key role in solving problems.

"The coordination among the three Ministries: Science and Technology, Agriculture and Rural Development and Industry and Trade must begin from the development of chain model, from the production to the market, open the market in order for products to satisfy the requirements on plant and animal quarantine and food safety. In this story, enterprises play a key role. The three ministries must set out the policy framework to help enterprises use technology and apply science and technology in production and to help farmers toparticipate in the value chain," Tran Tuan Anh stressed.

During his recent visit to Australia and New Zealand, Minister Tran Tuan Anh has seen many production models. He is discussing how to combine the three Ministries to develop the production chain into a clean organic production model with participation of enterprises.

Exporting agricultural products: vegetable and cashew reached a peak while rice and rubber slid down VCN – The major agricultural groups for exporting are changing strongly, especially the strong growth of vegetables.

With regard to this issue, delegate Nguyen Sy Cuong under the delegation of National Assembly of Ninh Thuan province stated that the rescue of agricultural products has made it difficult for farmers for many years. "I have asked many farmers in the communes and districts around Hanoi and received the answer that there have never been any commune’s, district’s or province’s officials visiting farmers and advising them what should to be planted or what should not to be planted. I look forward to the Government's determination in helping farmers solve this problem," Mr. Cuong shared.