Vietnam: Hanoi wants more high-tech farms
Experts at a conference held on Tuesday said the shortage of land, infrastructure, planning and policies as well as human resources were barriers to investments in this specialised sector.
Nguyễn Thị Thoa, head of the plantation department of the municipal Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said the capital city targeted raising the proportion of high-tech agricultural production from the current 25 per cent to 35 per cent of the sector’s total production value by 2020.
Businesses are still not very keen on investing in this model due to difficulties in accessing land, credit and modern techniques, while incentives were still beyond reach, Thoa said.
Addressing land as the greatest problem affecting investment in such production, Võ Việt Dũng, chairman of Nam Hà Nội Food Processing Joint Stock Company, said the city should have a policy to develop land for this kind of agriculture. “Land is of great importance in encouraging firms to pour investment into agricultural production,” Dũng said.
Experts at the conference said that promoting the link between farmers and firms was critical.
Đàm Quang Thắng, director of Agricare VN, said firms should coordinate with farmers to apply advanced technology to agricultural production. In addition, strong products should be selected to spearhead the project, Thắng said.
“Hà Nội should have policies to encourage the development of the agricultural value chain to produce high value-added and competitive products,” Bùi Lê Phong from Hà Nội Seed Joint Stock Company said, adding that a specialised zone for high-tech agricultural production should be developed to attract investments.
Đỗ Năng Vịnh from the Agricultural Genetics Institute under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development said renovating the production methods of the agricultural sector is now a necessity due to increasing demand for high-quality agricultural products in both the domestic and foreign markets.
Vịnh said Hà Nội should build a high-tech agricultural park and should plan for high-tech agricultural production, focusing on producing strong products.
Agreeing with Vịnh, Nguyễn Trí Ngọc Nguyên, Director of the ministry’s Plantation Department, said developing a zone for this kind of agricultural production was now urgent. However, as public funds remain limited, the capital city should adopt policies to attract private investments, he added.
Hà Nội has more than 157,000ha of agricultural land, accounting for 46.8 per cent of the city’s total area. The value of agricultural production reached VNĐ32.9 trillion (US$1.46 billion) last year.
Source: Agroberichten Buitenland