Science and technology create new vitality for rural areas

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development on October 3 organised a conference summarizing the Science and Technology Programme for New Rural Development for the 2016-2021 period and the key tasks for the 2021-2025 period.

Speaking at the conference, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Minh Hoan retold the story about Unshu tangerines from Japan to affirm the scientific and technological factors that have created new vitality for rural areas. 

“In the next five years, agricultural land will be narrowed to reserve land and resources for industry and infrastructure of other economic and service sectors. The productivity of agricultural products will eventually reach its limit. If it is not possible to increase productivity and output, there is no other way but to improve the value of agricultural products," Hoan affirmed.

He suggested that scientific research that serves the formation of new rural areas in the coming period must be in line with Resolution No. 19-NQ/TW, dated June 16, 2022, the first Conference Fifth Party Central Committee term XIII on agriculture, farmers, and rural areas to 2030, vision to 2045 to transform agricultural production thinking into agricultural economic thinking.

“Each scientific research project not only focuses on technical factors but also needs to increase the content of knowledge, agricultural economic factors, and market factors to optimise the value of agricultural products, reduce production costs as well as input material costs,” Hoan said.

Sharing about the achievements of the Science and Technology Programme in developing new urban areas during the period 201-6-2021, Prof. Dr. Nguyen Tuan Anh, the programme manager said that, over the past time, the program contributed to promoting the development of commodity agriculture, connected and modern agriculture, ecological and sustainable agriculture; develop supporting industries for agriculture; economic restructuring, and rural labour.

The programme also created many practical scientific products and many models of transfer and application of technical and technological advances to agricultural production. 

“With 97 newly transferred production processes and technologies, 208 effective demonstration models and thousands of supporting equipment of the projects, the programme has contributed to improving the productivity and quality of crops, livestock, improve production efficiency, form concentrated commodity production areas,” he said.

“Typically in cultivation, it has helped increase crop productivity by 30-35 per cent for vegetables, 10-15 per cent for rice, increasing the income of people participating in the project by over 25 per cent; raising the value of agricultural land VND133-500 million per ha per year thanks to the restructuring of farming in production linkage models”, Prof. Dr. Nguyen Tuan Anh said.

In husbandry, some breeds with good yield and quality are put into use. Hybrid pig breeds have good adaptability, high productivity, and high quality. Some breeds of beef cattle with half or three-fourths foreign blood help increase productivity and efficiency. Chickens with super eggs, super meat ducks, and French geese are raised widely.

In addition, typical factors that increase economic efficiency at different levels have contributed to increasing productivity such as changing crop structure, integrated disease management (IPM), irrigation, new plant varieties, new livestock breeds, fertilizers and other technical measures, VietGAP application, organic production, waste treatment technology and probiotics use.

At the conference, Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Nguyen Hoang Giang affirmed that in the past period, the agricultural sector has achieved many great achievements, including the significant contribution of science and technology factors.

However, Giang also pointed out the limitations of the programme such as the scattered content of some topics and projects, modest studies on key topics, for example, land accumulation or the application of new and advanced technologies in economic development and social administration in rural areas.