30 years of Vietnam Agricultural Extension: A proud journey

Implementing the national renovation initiated and led by our Party since the 6th National Congress, especially since the 6th Politburo issued the Resolution on Innovation in Agricultural Economic Management (Resolution 10), farming households are given materials and have autonomy in production. Many localities have had new initiatives and ways to increase production, develop agriculture, and improve people's lives.

In Bac Thai province (now Bac Kan and Thai Nguyen provinces), with the support of the CIDSE Organization, in 1991, the province established the Bac Thai Provincial Agricultural Extension Center to serve the province's agricultural development programs. This is the first agricultural extension organization officially based in our country.

Many other localities, such as An Giang, Kien Giang, Ha Tay, Thai Binh, Hai Hung, Son La, and Lang Son... have visited Bac Thai to study agricultural extension models to deploy in their localities.

In 1992, based on evaluating the effectiveness of the agricultural extension organization model and methods of agricultural extension activities in Bac Thai province, Minister of Agriculture Nguyen Cong Tan directed the establishment of the Ministry's Agricultural Extension Coordination Committee and submitted to the Government and Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet to promulgate Decree No. 13-CP dated March 2, 1993, regulating agricultural extension work. From here, the Vietnam Agricultural Extension system was officially established nationwide.

Implementing Decree No. 13-CP dated March 2, 1993, the Government, the agricultural, forestry, and fishery extension system has been organized synchronously and unified nationwide. The agricultural extension system has focused on supporting household economic development and poverty reduction, Guide farmers to apply plant and animal varieties with good hybrid vigor and short growth periods to transform production structure, increase crops, and increase productivity and output.

The application of technical and technological advances combined with the transformation of plant varieties, livestock, and crop structure has promoted strong production development, increased income, and improved farmers' lives. From the models that have promoted the movement to build income fields of VND 50 million/hectare, even hundreds of millions of VND/hectare/year to develop nationwide...

For agricultural extension work to continue to develop, closely follow production practices, and accompany farmers, the Government issued Decree No. 56/2005/ND-CP dated April 26, 2005, and Decree No. 02/2010/ND-CP dated January 8, 2010, to develop the agricultural extension system from central to grassroots level.

In 2003, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development established the Vietnam Agricultural Extension Center at the Central level. The Ministry of Fisheries established the National Fisheries Extension Center as a public service unit serving state agricultural extension management and fishery extension.

By 2008, when the National Assembly and the Government decided to merge the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Ministry of Fisheries, the National Agricultural Extension Center and the National Fisheries Extension Center were also merged into the National Agricultural and Fisheries Extension Center (in 2010, the name was changed to the Vietnam Agricultural Extension). This public service unit serves the Ministry's state management of agricultural extension and is the focal point for implementing central agricultural extension programs, projects, and tasks nationwide. The agricultural extension system is completed in localities from the provincial to the commune, village, and hamlet levels. By 2015, the total number of agricultural extension officers at all levels nationwide was more than 36,800 people, and about 3,000 agricultural extension clubs with hundreds of thousands of farmers in regions and regions throughout the country.

Implementing Resolution No. 19-NQ/TW dated October 25, 2017, of the 12th Central Executive Committee on continuing to innovate the organization and management system, improving the quality and operational efficiency of units' public career, from 2018 up to now, localities have reviewed and rearranged the organizational system of the agriculture and rural development sector at all levels, including the agricultural extension system.

Agricultural extension work in this period focuses on implementation in association with key programs of the industry in the direction of converting from agricultural production to agricultural economy with tasks such as the transfer of technical advances, and technology into production to serve the agricultural sector restructuring project; Develop production and increase income for farmers to implement the National Target Program for building new rural areas. Develop national products, and the industry's key products, and develop specialty products and strengths of each locality according to the One Commune One Product (OCOP) program. Training and fostering to improve farmers' capacity and production level, contributing to building a professional farmer force...

Currently, the Party, State and Government have issued many important guidelines and policies on agriculture, farmers and rural areas. In particular, there are policies and orientations on consolidating and developing the Vietnam Agricultural Extension organization system in the direction of strongly innovating the form of agricultural extension organization and activities, ensuring a streamlined and effective apparatus, suitable for each type of production and locality. Strengthen coordination between state agricultural extension and enterprise agricultural extension; Develop electronic agricultural extension and community agricultural extension...