Tin mới
Vietnam WTO membership, both threat and opportunity for farmers
06/08/2010 - 172 Lượt xem
Writing in the Sai Gon Giai Phong newspaper Saturday, Dr. Nguyen Quoc Vong of Australia’s Gosford Horticulture Institute said fierce competition was around the corner once the country “opened its doors”.
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)’s 2004 report said around 1 million tons of agricultural products from the Asian region alone were just waiting for that to happen.
Besides, the flow of overseas horticultural products into Vietnam will be accompanied by diseases. If the country’s quarantine system is not efficient the economy will be severely affected by epidemics.
To cope with the fierce competition and to increase productivity, the abuse of toxic fertilizers and excessive exploitation of natural resources will become unavoidable.
Quality and hygiene are priority criteria that the international market seeks of exporters. However, Vietnam is yet to apply good agricultural practices (GAP) in farming.
As a result, its farmers will struggle to export their produce while also struggling to compete with overseas produce at home.
Many of the farmers, unable to compete, will not survive. They will flock, instead, to large cities to earn their living, creating socio-economic changes in both urban and rural areas.
Agriculture remains unsustainable since Vietnam pumps more and more resources into breeding and farming techniques to increase output but less in mechanization.
To stay competitive both at home and in the global market, the Vietnamese agriculture sector should produce high-quality, hygienic, and reasonably priced products in large quantity.
For that, it must be industrialized by intensive state investment in mechanization and vocational training for farmers.
Use of technology in harvesting, packaging, and checking quality will hasten agricultural development.
Co-operation among farmers, businesses, and scientists must be strengthened so that farmers could learn about using technologies in farming and post-harvest management; GAP; and quantity and quality requirements in the domestic and global markets.
Source: Sai Gon Giai Phong
