New farm fund to help reforms
HA NOI (March 4, 2003)— Agriculture and Rural Development Minister Le Huy Ngo has announced that a new agricultural restructuring fund has been established to maintain the momentum of the rural reforms of the past three years.
"We will try to build up the fund this year," Ngo told the mass media in Ha Noi last week.
He said that it would focus primarily on improving the irrigation network, plant and animal breeds and processing technology.
The minister said the Government would also issue new incentives to assist restructuring efforts such as land-use policies, marketing and the application of biotechnology.
He said changes to cropping patterns and animal husbandry had been one of the major focuses of the Government.
These incentives had already paid off economically, he said, referring to bumper crops of rice and cash crops.
Ngo said the most noticeable achievements had been the higher harvests of tea, cashew nuts, vegetables, cotton and the larger herds of dairy cows and lean pigs destined for export.
The minister said farmers had enjoyed more positive interaction with agronomists, researchers, traders and the banks as they embarked on their farming expansion schemes.
In the three years since the ministry began its restructuring process, rice and coffee-growing areas had declined by 198,000ha and 48,000ha respectively, but many other major hard-currency earning crops had maintained stable growth.
The highest growth rate of 40 per cent went to tea plantations, which were followed by pepper at 20 per cent, cashews at 15 per cent, peanuts at 13.8 per cent and rubber at 5.4 per cent.
Minister Ngo warned of these crops would be unable to maintain their growth without adequate policies that would to stabilise the production, processing and marketing of these products.
He also said that the creation of the restructuring support fund would help target provinces and lower jurisdictions to overhaul their farming practices.
Minister Ngo said that the five-year programme for improved plant and animal breeds had so far made some gains but would need greater contributions from biotechnology to make it a complete success.
He said that researchers have developed eight varieties of high-quality rice and restored eight other Vietnamese rice strains. They had also come up with schemes for the farming of hybrid rice and maize.
Biotech for variety
He said Vietnamese horticulturists had also grafted nearly 3 million pest-resistant citrus trees.
He pointed to animal husbandry successes, such as the completion of procedures for hybrid pig breeding and the improvement of diary and beef cattle.
The minister also admitted that the Government investment in agricultural science remained very modest, which was one of the reasons Viet Nam lagged behind other countries in crop improvements.
He said it was not until three years ago that Viet Nam had began to pay due attention to breeding research, and that only VND325 billion had been spent on the national breeds study programme.
Ngo said more funding for the plant breed programme was needed, and that greater application of biotechnology in the near future would boost the national programme. — VNS
