Farmers need new technology, skills to cope with industrialisation
06/08/2010 - 156 Lượt xem
What should we do and where should we start to help farmers match the prosperity of those working in industry, trade and services?
I have two solutions.
Firstly, we need to shift farm labourers to other occupations such as handicrafts and the service industries so as to make more arable land available for people who know how to farm.
The Viet Nam Communist Party and the State have for sometime given industrial development priority. But industrial development needs to go even faster if it is to provide more jobs for agricultural labourers.
Small handicraft industries and traditional handicraft villages need to diversify their products so as to quickly access and increase the scale of their production so they too can hire more agricultural labourers.
Such a shift would enable labourers to quit the land but stay in the countryside.
Previously, the rush of rural labourers into the cities created management difficulties.
Then we need to boost the export of labour by providing workers with real skills.
We also have to attract labour to large-scale services such as the preliminary treatment of agricultural produce. This would not only provide work but boost exports.
But policies, plans and support from the State and its agencies will be required to ensure the effort is sustainable.
Secondly, the changes have to be complemented by new workforce of well trained farmers who can apply their scientific knowledge and techniques to agriculture.
Each would be a director with their fields as factories to provide produce that can compete in both the domestic and international markets because of their price and quality.
But we would have to find an outlet for the produce before we think about production.
Farmers would invest in production and support each other with technology and marketing if they win high-quantity contracts.
But their co-operation with each other will need the support of the State and its agencies or an investor.
Source: Vietnam news, 3/3/2006
