Change practices for sustainable agricultural product chain.

Both businesses and farmers hesitate

In order to restore the sweet potato industry, Vinh Long province has many policies to support production and business entities in this field. This includes implementing Decree 98/2018/ND-CP issued by the Government on July 5, 2018 (Decree 98) stipulating policies to encourage the development of cooperation and association in the production and consumption of agricultural products. Implementing Decree 98, Vinh Long province approved the joint project "Building a model of the sweet potato supply chain for domestic consumption and export of Vinh Long province in the period of 2021 - 2024".

Accordingly, the project is implemented in Binh Tan district with a scale of 100 ha. The link is chaired by Viet Phuc Production and Import-Export Joint Stock Company. In addition, there is also the coordinated participation of departments, branches and governments at all levels. The total cost of project implementation is over VND 16 billion. Of which, the budget support is over VND 5.2 billion.

The project implementation period is expected from June 2021 - June 2024, divided into 2 phases. In period 6/2021 - 6/2022, coordinate consulting and support VietGAP certification for 20 ha of sweet potatoes and investigate, and analyze samples to select production areas to support transfer, apply new science and technology, and manufacturing equipment for packaging facilities. From July 2022, the project will support improving packaging house infrastructure and building consumption links. 

However, according to Mr. Nguyen Van Liet, Vice Chairman of Vinh Long Provincial People's Committee, for many reasons, the project has not been implemented until June 2023.

Surveying difficulties and obstacles when approaching and implementing policies according to Decree No. 98, Vinh Long Provincial People's Committee said that the capacity of enterprises and cooperatives in the area is still limited. They have not proactively approached and participated in responding to policies.

Currently, farmers' awareness of joint ventures and chain link formation in agricultural production is not high. People have not seen the long-term benefits of linking production and consumption of agricultural products. The business side has not focused on investing in raw material areas to implement sustainable production contracts. It is difficult for the participating parties to meet the conditions on the minimum stable association period of the policy (according to regulations, the association period must be 3 - 5 years or more).

In addition, the forms of production organization have not met the requirements of goods production organization and are unsustainable. Linkages in production are still loose. The scale and scope of links are still small. There are not many cooperatives, cooperative groups, or typical large-scale farms; product quality is still low and does not meet market requirements.

In addition, the chairperson of the association (enterprise, cooperative, cooperative group) does not have enough capacity to complete procedures for payment and settlement of state support funds according to regulations on public investment. The budget allocated for policy implementation is still low and does not meet needs. In the same project, the plan uses multiple funding sources, making it difficult for the joint chairperson to make payments and disburse funds. Agricultural production is often at risk due to natural disasters, and market prices fluctuate, so businesses and cooperatives are afraid to sign long-term contracts with farmers...

Changing agricultural production and consumption practices 

In fact, in the chain of agricultural product consumption, safe production according to VietGAP is still difficult to implement because farmers do not have the habit of keeping records of production monitoring, and traceability, especially identification of food safety risks. Therefore, the implementation of the safe production model according to VietGAP still faces many difficulties in product consumption, especially during the Covid-19 epidemic season. During the implementation process, some participating households broke contracts due to farmers' agricultural consumption habits and fluctuating commodity prices. 

To solve the above problems, businesses have linked with local traders. They will act as representatives to purchase potatoes for farmers in linked growing areas and will purchase according to classification.

Proposal to increase support costs

According to Mr. Nguyen Van Liet, to implement Decree 98 more smoothly, the People's Committee of Vinh Long Province proposed to develop and provide specific instructions on procedural documents, expenditure norms, implementation procedures, and approaches. Supervision, acceptance, payment dossiers, and support funding sources are unified and synchronous to serve as a legal basis for localities in the process of implementing policies. Balance the central budget allocated to localities to ensure funding for implementing incentives to develop cooperation and link production with consumption of agricultural products. The Decree needs to stipulate whether to provide pre-investment or post-investment support to preside over linkages as well as the Provincial and District People's Committees to be more proactive and have a legal basis in allocating capital.

In addition to the above-mentioned difficulties, Decree 98 also reveals some shortcomings and limitations on policy contents. Regarding the support for link construction consultancy costs, the project investor is a cooperative or an enterprise that is not yet capable of completing the procedures and documents for payment and settlement of support policies according to the provisions of the Law on Public Investment, the Law on Bidding... Vinh Long province proposed to support the cost of consulting on link construction and suggested adding consulting content to complete documents and policy payment and settlement procedures. 

In addition, the People's Committee of Vinh Long province also proposed to support the construction of agricultural extension models at 50% of the cost of implementing traditional production models, 80% of transfer costs, application of new science and technology, application of technical processes and synchronous quality management in series.