New Rural Areas: Small Fields, Big Business (15/4)
15/04/2011 - 17 Lượt xem
Could you provide us with a summary of the results of the NRA program over the past two years?
The biggest result is that all the policies that were applied in those 11 communes have proved effective and have been listed in Prime Ministerial Decision 800 on the implementation of the national program on NRA development to 2020.
NRAs in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta differ from those in the Northwestern region, suburban areas or provinces in the central region, but a common thing is that NRAs must be developed in ways that can benefit Vietnamese farmers so that they can make a comfortable living. NRAs can create such a life for farmers. Aware of this, farmers are willing to join efforts to build and develop NRAs. They know what NRAs are and how different they are in comparison with traditional, old-styled rural areas. More than that, they know what farmers must do to build and develop NRAs and what they can benefit from them. This matter has been discussed in detail at the congresses of the Communist Party Committees from a communal to a central level, strengthening farmers' trust in the Party.
To develop NRAs, it is necessary to restructure the rural economy in the direction of effective commodity production. This is a difficult task as production in rural Vietnam remains backward. What must be done in such circumstances?
Firstly, it is necessary to attract investment into rural areas. Secondly, reorganizing production is a must. I think land consolidation is an important policy but this alone cannot help farmers because they do not have much arable land. In the Red River Delta for example, the per-capita area of arable land is 0.36ha, and the country's average is 1.26ha. Importantly, we must reorganize production in order to do big things on small fields. We must find out the advantages of each commune to help them create incomes. Farmers in Hai Duong (Nam Dinh) have successfully developed the VAC model (in Vietnamese, VAC means vuon-ao-chuong (garden-pond-pigsty); farmers in Thuy Huong (Chuong My, Hanoi) concentrate on growing safe vegetables and flowers to serve urban consumers. I think farmers in those places are pursuing the correct path.
Thirdly, farmers must be assisted to buy insurance for their products. The Government has applied a pilot policy that provides insurance for some kinds of agricultural products. Regarding this, the Government recently promulgated Decision 315 which I think is a timely decision to benefit farmers in the long term. Further, farmers must also be provided with technical assistance. They must be trained to become masters of new farming techniques.
Many localities consider vocational training the main driving force for NRA development but in fact this activity remains ineffective. So what must be done to improve vocational training, in your opinion?
I agree with the opinion that vocational training is necessary to make rural workers capable to meet the requirements of hi-tech production so that they can be employed. The Government has spent VND26 trillion from the State budget to fund vocational training for the next 10 years. The most important thing is to ensure that people will be employed after being trained.
Currently, farmers are provided with vocational training according to three models: 1) farmers are trained to do non-agricultural jobs; 2) farmers are trained to agricultural jobs with support from high technology; 3) farmers are trained on-site by businesses. In my opinion, the third model of vocational training is highly effective and must be developed in the long term./.
Source: VEN.
