Farmers deserve new land deal

Viet Nam Farmers Association vice chairman Nguyen Duy Luong spoke with the newspaper Nong thon Ngay nay (Countryside Today) about challenges facing farm development.

What do you think about the opinion that the farming economy has not reached its potential despite dramatic growth and contribution to the country’s agricultural and rural development?

The opinion is right. At present, Viet Nam has over 130,000 farms with a yearly increase of 6 per cent.

Land used for farming reaches over 900,000ha and every year, farming offers over 30,000 regular jobs and 6 million seasonable jobs.

The farming economy contributes more than VND12 trillion (US$585 million) to the national economy every year.

However, as of now, farms develop spontaneously on a small scale, resulting in lower uses of technology, lower productivity and a lower income.

Few farm owners register under the Enterprises Law even though a licence can help them access support and incentive more easily. In fact, the farming economy is facing pull-back.

What kind of pull-back?

The biggest hindrance to the development of the farming economy now relates to land policy.

According to the Land Law, each farming household in the north is given a maximum 2ha for yearly cultivation and 3ha in the south.

With this limit of land, it’s difficult for farmers to improve production. Moreover, there is a paradox that enterprises can use agriculture land for 50, or even 70 years, but if the land is used for agricultural production, farmers have only 20 years.

This does not convince farm owners or bank owners to invest. With the slow progress in land-use certificate issuance, farmers without certificates have little access to bank loans and decrease production as a result.

Besides solving land-relating problems, what else is needed to facilitate the development of the farming economy?

In my opinion, the main things to do are to map out development plans and closely control planning in regions with a high density of farms.

For example, Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta region, Central Highlands and Song Hong (Red River) Delta.

A reasonable plan would pave the way to a better selection of crops and animals that take advantage of the regions’ strengths as well as meet market demands.

For areas that are already included in development plans, the State should have more policies to support investment in infrastructure and research on technological transfers in processing agricultural, aquatic and forestry products.

The State needs to offer training for farm owners, as about 95 per cent have not undergone any business organisation and management courses.

The State should encourage expert institutions to open training classes for farm owners.

They need training to access and take advantage of more information, especially as Viet Nam’s agriculture gets more and more integrated into the world’s. — VNS

http://vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn/Opinion/213248/Farmers-deserve-new-land-deal.html