How agriculture helps in economic development

A corner of Hanoi (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi (VNA) – Hanoi continues to affirm its place as one of Vietnam’s economic growth drivers.

According to the municipal People’s Committee, its GDP growth is estimated at 5.17 percent for the first quarter of 2021, compared to 4.13 percent in the same period last year and higher than the country’s average.

In the context of the global economy facing a range of difficulties, Hanoi remains determined to step up business and production and has carried out measures towards this end.

Its agro-forestry-fishery sector grew 2.51 percent year-on-year in the first quarter. Weather conditions were favourable for agricultural production in the opening months of the year. Cattle and poultry husbandry developed stably, with the African swine fever brought under control.

The industrial and construction sector grew 7.99 percent, compared to 5.59 percent in the first quarter of 2020.

The service sector saw year-on-year growth of 4.54 percent, driven by the finance-banking-insurance sector (7.43 percent), real estate (7.6 percent), and wholesale and retail (6.77 percent). Several sectors posted contractions, however, including artistic and entertainment activities (15.94 percent), administrative and support services (7.3 percent), and accommodation and catering (6.36 percent).

The city’s total State budget collections were estimated at 72.8 trillion VND (3.15 million USD), equal to 28.9 percent of the target set for 2021 and up 1 percent year-on-year.

The municipal People’s Committee attributed the positive results to the joint efforts and high consensus of the entire political system, the business community, and local people.

It also acknowledged that growth was lower than expectations, and that the transportation, tourism, services, and education and training sectors are still facing challenges from COVID-19.

To achieve the socio-economic development targets set for 2021, the committee asked departments and sectors to continue strengthening pandemic prevention and control measures, doing their best to prevent the pandemic from spreading in the community, keeping a close watch on developments, and making full preparations for all possible scenarios.

The capital will maintain efforts to improve its business and investment environment, administrative reform, and competitiveness, while firmly carrying out activities in support of production and business, encouraging the application of advanced technologies and developing supporting industries and digital transformation.

It will focus on stepping up public investment disbursement and implementation, mobilising private investment in development, helping investors deal with difficulties, and speeding up the process of licensing and implementing projects.

The agricultural sector was advised to keep a close watch on weather developments, step up measures in African swine fever and avian flu A/H5N6 prevention and control, speed up crop restructuring, and expand the application of high technologies.

Hanoi will pay attention to developing production infrastructure and calling on businesses and investors to pour capital into industrial zones, industrial clusters, and hi-tech parks, and at the same time develop the domestic market in line with the “Vietnamese people prioritise using Vietnamese products” campaign and implement consumer stimulus plans and promotional programmes.

Attention will also be paid to building and implementing tourism recovery scenarios, stimulating and developing domestic tourism, introducing creative and attractive new tourism products, and intensifying communications to attract more visitors.

At the same time, departments and sectors are requested to increase the material and spiritual lives of local people, ensure social welfare, care for contributors to the revolution, address unemployment, and boost sustainable poverty reduction.

Along with the implementation of the “all people are united to build new-style rural areas and civilised urban areas” campaign, the capital will also make efforts to ensure social safety and order and prevent fires and explosions./.

Located in the northern key economic zone and adjacent to major centres such as Hanoi, Hai Phong city, and Quang Ninh province, Bac Giang boasts favourable conditions for economic development.

A particular focus of biotechnology and new material technologies is the fields of breeding, preserving, and processing agricultural and forestry products, especially key products such as lychee, Yen The chicken, Yen Dung fragrant rice, Lang Giang mushrooms, Tan Yen peanuts, Hiep Hoa grapefruit, and Son Dong honey; the treatment of waste and wastewater in industrial zones and clusters and trade villages; and health and medical surveillance technology.

The province is also stepping up the application of advanced materials and fuel-saving and environmentally-friendly technologies in production and daily life.

It prioritises developing science and technology, especially biotechnology and new material technologies, supporting the establishment of and improvements to the operational efficiency of science and technology enterprises, innovative enterprises, and start-ups in the fields of information technology, biotechnology, and new material technologies.

Meanwhile, the provincial centre for science and technology application will form an experimental area and conduct research and application and transfer biotechnology and new material technologies.

Over recent years, the strong application of biotechnology has had a positive impact on the province. Its Department of Science and Technology has deployed 91 national and provincial level projects to date in the field of biotechnology, which has been applied to develop high-yield, good-quality crops and animals and contributed to economic restructuring, improving the quality, commercial value, and competitive edge of local agricultural products. By way of example, the breeding and development of new fruit trees such as V2 orange, ODL guava, MC17 and Choquete avocado, late ripe longan, and early thieu litchi have yielded hundreds of billions of VND a year.

Bac Giang has also applied VietGAP and GlobalGAP standards in cultivation at 39 percent of orchards and used QR Codes for tracing product origin, together with the iMetos smart weather station, the VietGAP app, and drip irrigation technology.

The province has recently expanded its VietGAP-standard lychee coverage to 14,300 ha and its GlobalGAP-standard coverage to 258 ha. It also has 218 ha of lychee with cultivation codes granted for export to the US, Australia, and the EU.

Using drip irrigation technology, biological fertilisers, and pesticides, and following VietGAP standards, a tea production model in Yen The district has posted a 20-30 percent increase annually in productivity and revenue. The success of the model helped expand the district’s tea growing area to 530 ha, with a combined output of over 4,300 tonnes a year.

Many local enterprises have applied biotechnology in pollution treatment and environmental pollution recovery. The application of biotechnology in socio-economic development contributed to economic growth in the province averaging 14% per year in the 2015-2020 period. It currently has more than 160 enterprises and household businesses operating in the production of building materials applying new material technologies, including the production of unfired bricks.

The province has received and transferred technology from many projects to produce plywood using new technology.

In the field of medicine, new material technologies have also made a positive contribution to local medical examinations and treatment, such as the application of nanopolymer in medicine and nanomaterials in biomedicine. Their application has also contributed to medical examinations and treatment of local people.

Bac Giang implemented 74 national and provincial science and technology projects in various fields during the 2015-2020 period, with total funding of over 222 billion VND.

Source: VNA

Five years ago, Dr. Nguyen Thanh My, Chairman of My Lan Group in Tra Vinh Province, introduced many impressive production models applying high technologies to adapt to climate change. The most prominent was the model of rice production using smart fertilizers. This model was first implemented in Tra Vinh Province, then being adopted by farmers in Dong Thap and Hau Giang provinces. The evaluation from the production of hundreds of hectares of rice shows that the production cost of one kilogram of rice under this model is lower than that of the reference model from VND165-VND224 per kilogram; the rice yield is equal and higher; the profit is higher than that of the reference field by about VND1.9 million-VND2.1 million per hectare. The beauty of this model is that the water management following the applications of agriculture 4.0, such as installing solar-powered water level monitoring systems and automatic irrigation devices, creates convenience.

In Binh Thanh Commune, Phung Hiep District of Hau Giang Province, Mr. Vo Van Trung was the first person to grow melons in a net house. With 3,000 square meters, for nearly five years, by adopting high technology in melon farming, he has had an annual income of over VND500 million. From the efficiency of the melon production model of Mr. Trung, 12 local farmers have participated in the establishment of the Thuan Phat melon cooperative, with a total growing area of 9,000 square meters and an annual income of nearly VND2 billion for four crops per year.

Hau Giang Province is also replicating the model of growing Japanese and Israeli melon varieties in net houses. Accordingly, farmers have installed smart automated irrigation systems, which irrigate melons following the water consumption demand of the plant by smartphones, and fertilizer management systems for melons by smartphones, such as sensors, temperature, pH, and soil moisture. At the same time, they control the microclimate temperature and humidity of the environment by smartphones via the indoor air sensor, following the ambient temperature and humidity, as well as the temperature and moisture needs of melon.

Currently, agricultural production has been facing increasing labor scarcity, and labor prices have also climbed sharply. In some places, there is a shortage of workers in agricultural production, especially in the stage of pesticide spraying. Amid the above situation, the agricultural sector of Hau Giang Province has set up a team providing pesticide spraying service by drones following the needs of farmers. Currently, the provincial agricultural sector has put into use 10 pesticide spraying drones with about 10 remote pilots, proficient in flying spraying drones. Up to now, the team has demonstrated and provided services on 1,000 hectares. Mr. Tran Chi Hung, Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Hau Giang Province, said that spraying plant protection drugs on rice plants by drones is a solution that saves time, effort, and cost, as well as protects the health of farmers and brings high efficiency. According to the forecast of experts, in the coming time, agricultural production will inevitably use the same devices to increase agricultural productivity and output. According to Mr. Tran Chi Hung, the agricultural sector has put into operation the trading floor and traceability of Hau Giang agricultural products for over the past two years, thereby, helping nearly 2,000 organizations and farmers to have favorable conditions to apply blockchain technology in the traceability of agricultural products. Farmers have mastered recording electronic diaries in operations and production, creating traceability codes of their agricultural products through QR Codes, and putting products on the trading floor for advertising.

Sufficient investment to create a breakthrough

In fact, many hi-tech agricultural production models have brought efficiency to farmers. However, it raises the question that why these models have not been replicated in the Mekong Delta? Mr. Nguyen Phuong Lam, Director of VCCI Can Tho, commented that digital transformation is an inevitable trend in the modernization of the agricultural sector because technology helps to enhance productivity and value through effective scaling farming and management systems. The Government has shaped the policy for modernization of the agricultural sector, but the implementation process is still asynchronous.

According to Mr. Nguyen Phuong Lam, thinking and synchronization are necessary to digitize effectively. It is difficult when a part of the agricultural sector applies digitalization whereas the others do not. At that time, the agriculture sector could not be synchronously connected. To digitize, farmers must have qualifications and agricultural certificates. For a broader view, first of all, there must be an appropriate and standardized agricultural planning, then synchronous application. Currently, the stage of state management has step by step digitized, located the farming areas, measured and stores data, and monitored developments. However, what they recorded is only in some fields and has not been applied on a large scale. Some enterprises boldly invest in monitoring water quality, seeds, diseases, and traceability but digital transformation still merely focuses on large-scale enterprises. For farming households, the digitalization picture remains vague, or in other words, it is not accessible due to resources and qualifications, said Mr. Lam.

For a long time, smart devices for agriculture have become the “national development strategy” in Japan, the Netherlands, and especially Israel. According to scientists, to achieve such results, investment in agricultural science research must have a stronger breakthrough, especially in the context of climate change, agriculture in the Mekong Delta is one of the most sensitive and vulnerable sectors. Prof.-Dr. Bui Chi Buu, former Director of the Institute of Agricultural Science for Southern Vietnam, said that connecting technology 4.0 with agriculture with a high level of mechanization, synchronization, and the large-scale land area will promote rapidly in quantity in the initial stage, instead of combining with high-tech agriculture because the investment capital is too large compared to the current economic capacity of Vietnam. The specialized farming area must be attached to the agricultural product processing factory. Vietnam can carry out high-tech agriculture and mass agriculture 2.0 and 3.0 at the same time to bring into play the most positive results. After all, the market will be the factor that decides the consumption of agricultural products and meets the goal of enriching farmers.

“We need a synchronous digitalization program. And before digital transformation, the necessary condition is large-scale agricultural production, i.e. large production is required for digitalization to be effective. To do this, enterprises must go first, and the cooperative model must reach a certain scale in terms of area and resources,” Mr. Nguyen Phuong Lam proposed.

The Mekong Delta, which has 13 administrative units, including a centrally-run city (Can Tho) and 12 provinces, covers 40,547.2km² and has a total population of over 17.2 million people, accounting for 13 percent of Vietnam’s area and nearly 18 percent of the country’s population, the General Statistics Office of Vietnam reported in 2019.

According to the Planning Department under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the delta accounts for about 40 percent of Vietnam’s total value of agricultural production. The corresponding proportions of rice, fisheries, and fruit output are 50, 65 and 70 percent.

The region also makes up 90 percent of the country’s total rice exports.