Long-term vision needed for agricultural production and consumption: Agriculture minister

Farming products vs commodities

Participating in Q&A session at the meeting of National Assembly Standing Committee on March 16, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Minh Hoan said that in the past few days, he received many concerns from the National Assembly deputies and farmers about the congestion of farming products at bordergates.

He said that the issue of agricultural products’ consumption required a long-term vision and solutions to address.

As congestions of agricultural products at the northern border gates appeared,  he went to Lang Son, Quang Ninh and raw material areas in the Mekong Delta and Central Highlands to collect information and data to understand the issue throughoutly.

Hoan said that he withdrew some lessoons. Firstly, in terms of supply – demand, production and market, if there was no congestion of agricultural products at the border gates,  the congestions would  also appear in the raw material areas of the Mekong Delta, thee Central Highlands or somewhere.

“Agricultural product is not like an industrial product so it would be difficult to put agricultural products in the warehouse and wait for the opportunity to sell. From the beginning of the crop, people have planted and raised, then 3-4 months later, depending on the crop cycle, they have to harvest, regardless of the status of the border gate or the market. That's the problem with our agricultural consumption.

Another issue was that Vietnam had nearly 10 million farming households producing on tens of millions of plots of land.

“It is a fragmented, small, spontaneous agriculture. To control and reorganise the agriculture sector and meet market needs is not able to do overnight,” he said.

"I was advised by an expert that we must distinguish between 'farming product' and 'commercial commodity," said Hoan.

“A product is something that we can make or create. But that product has not created a price, not even created value, if not turned into a commercial commodity to bring to the domestic or foreign markets. Commercial commodities requires the standardisation of markets in terms of price, value and timing as well as competition from other countries at the same time or with a third market,” he said.

The role of local authorties in proper agriculture

The agricultural issues related to the whole system from localities to the Government, not just the responsibility of the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

He explained, the success stories of agriculture in Son La, Bac Giang, Hai Duong and Hung Yen in the recent years were because of the close attention of local leaders towards agricultural products and farmers.

As we still do not have transparency in the supply data and product quality, it will be very difficult to tacke the congestion of farming products during the harvest time. This problem requires the patience and perseverance of the whole political system and especially local authorities, Hoan said.”

“The Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development have done their best in coordinating agricultural products in the Mekong Delta and would soon deploy it in the Central Highlands,” he said.

Hoan also said that it was necessary to develop the collective economy to gather the hubs. Ten million production households will join into hubs. All information, all orientations, all policy dissemination programs will be deployed more directly. That is the responsibility of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, as well as the responsibility of the localities.

Farmers and commercial mindset

According to Minister Le Minh Hoan, we also need to reorganise the value chain of industries, because mango trees are grown in Son La, the Central Highlands and many other provinces and cities in the country, not limited to administrative boundaries. We must reorganize the categories to put it on a unified trajectory through industry associations and business associations, orienting a strategy.

“Our farmers, once produce , just think about crop season. Enterprises think about deals. It’s time now we have to think long-term. We have to accept to sit back and redo it to have a more transparent and complete system,” suggested Minister Le Minh Hoan.

 “Recently, many farmers in Gia Lai, Central Highlands, Mekong Delta or Vinh Phuc ... have switched to using organic fertilizers and bio-protective drugs instead of using imported fertilizers. I think that is both the short-term solution and also the long-term orientation for us to be less dependent on foreign markets, moving from an intensive agriculture with fertilizers and chemical drugs to organic agriculture and organic farming and ecological agriculture,” Hoan said.

As the congestion of agricultural products at the border gates occurred, many questions were raised as to why we depend on a market, why we do not process, why we do not develop domestic market.

But when the border gate was opened, everyone went home and continued to work. Farmers still produce according to spontaneous thinking, businesses still think about business, and we struggle, in a few years we will return to the story of congestion.

Therefore, the minister said that now, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development together with the Ministry of Industry and Trade will will take synchronous measures with a clear division of responsibility to solve this problem.