Share information and cooperate in order to adapt to difficulties

Information must maintain clearance

On August 17th, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Minh Hoan has chaired the online meeting with 13 Mekong Delta provinces regarding the production and consumption of agro-products.

Upon making the opening speech, the head of the agriculture sector requested units under the Ministry and the provincial Departments of Agriculture and Rural Development to focus on discussing difficulties and solutions to ensure food supply during the isolation period.

Moreover, Minister Le Minh Hoan also instructed units to clarify issues related to harvesting, transportation, the situation of traders, the operation of drying kilns and factories in the context that the Mekong Delta is finally harvesting the summer-autumn crop and sowing the autumn-winter crop.

In view of the non-stop market movement, Minister Le Minh Hoan commented that price regulation is a complicated issue. He also demanded that agencies and units should not take a story of one product or one separate locality to generalize an entire agricultural production area because it "may have the opposite effect", and “unable to see the whole picture”.

"The epidemic poses many challenges, but also suggests new directions and methods. Things must be done so that businesses, without going to the field, still can connect with localities and cooperatives. We don't have to wait for the epidemic to come up with solutions like "3 on the spot", but we need three things on the spot right now: Information on the spot, activities on the spot, and thinking on the spot. More than ever, we need clearance in information", Minister Le Minh Hoan added.

Dare to think and act

As claimed by the Minister, it is difficult to find a regulation that covers all provinces in the Mekong Delta. Therefore, each locality itself needs to "tell its own story", and "self-advertise" for local agro-products.

"At the current state, provincial Departments of Agriculture and Rural Development need to be bold, dare to think and act. The sector’s report has shown that our agricultural products are enough to meet domestic demand. Therefore, the requirement this time is no longer to increase total export turnover, but to ensure income for farmers, making them the center of the production industry. Agricultural economics is very demanding, requiring us to calculate in detail, one by one”, the Minister shared.

One of the most concerning issues of the agricultural industry in recent times is the price of fertilizers. Mr. Hoang Trung, Director of the Plant Protection Department, said that the main reason is due to high input costs. Regarding the production and import situation, Mr. Trung affirmed that fertilizer factories are transparent about prices, report fully to the Department.

Deputy Director of the Department of Crop Production Le Thanh Tung informed that the prices of many types of agricultural, forestry and fishery products have the tendency to increase. According to Mr. Tung, the most worrisome problem now is that dragon fruit and bananas are difficult to consume and export.

As a member of Working Group 970, Mr. Tung suggested that localities develop long-term plans to adapt to the Covid-19 epidemic, similar to how to adapt to climate change. Among them are solutions to reduce the cost of rice production, reduce the number of seeds sown, reduce fertilizers, pesticides, and reduce the amount of water for irrigation.

Inter-regional unification

As shared by Mr. Nguyen Si Lam, Director of An Giang Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, the province has harvested about 80% of the summer-autumn rice area, and the remains will soon be harvested completely. The output is estimated at 250,000 tons of rice which requires consumption. The autumn-winter crop has sown 160,000 ha, which estimated output of about 1 million tons.

Mr. Lam suggested that the removal of agricultural product consumption difficulties in the Mekong Delta needs to be done inter-provincially, inter-regionally and must all agree on a common circulation plan, to avoid the situation of entanglement between one province and another.

In order to create favorable conditions for farmers and local businesses to harvest rice and organize the rice purchase and circulation, Can Tho Department of Agriculture and Rural Development has proposed opening waterways "green lanes", allowing traders to go to localities if met the conditions, ensuring 5K procedures, having attained Covid-19 test certification. Localities should also set up "hotlines" to promptly remove traffic jams for means of transport to pass through quarantine checkpoints.

Accelerate the pilot of the agricultural product connection platform

The MARD’s Working Group 970, led by Deputy Minister Tran Thanh Nam, has been in the South for a month now. During this time, the group has connected 1,166 focal points providing agricultural products and foodstuff. To be specific, 317 focal points are for vegetables and fruits; fruit 302 focal points; seafood - livestock 423 focal points; food 72 focal points; other items 52 focal points.

The website connecting product supply and demand (htx.cooplink.com.vn) has helped speed up the connection and purchase of agricultural products when buyers and sellers can find contact numbers and product information that requires buying or selling themselves. 

Additionally, Working Group 970 has applied zalo and email networks to send information of suppliers to small traders at Thu Duc, Binh Dien and Hoc Mon wholesale markets of Ho Chi Minh City, as well as supermarkets purchasing staff system.

According to Deputy Minister Tran Thanh Nam, green lanes in the South will be further expanded at the start of September 2021. He suggested that the People's Committees of provinces, cities, along with Departments of Agriculture and Rural Development and related departments should maintain contact to achieve clearance of information during the transportation process. He hoped that the locality would create a mechanism for businesses and traders to completely purchase summer-autumn rice.

“In the immediate future, Working Group 970 will pilot a model of agro-product connection platforms in the southern provinces, ensuring both production and consumption in September. We hope that the Departments of Agriculture and Rural Development of the southern provinces and cities will pay attention and send members to participate, proceed to reduce production costs for farmers", said the Deputy Minister.