Building a brand for Gia Lai province's agriculture

On December 18, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Minh Hoan and the delegation had a meeting with the People's Committee of Gia Lai province on the results and orientation of agriculture and rural development in the province.

According to Mr. Luu Trung Nghia, Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Gia Lai province, the agricultural sector has always maintained a good growth rate after five years of implementing the restructuring plan. As a result, in 2021, the proportion of the agricultural sector accounts for 34.96% of the province's economic structure, the production value reaches VND 31,987 billion, an increase of 5.97% compared to 2020. The value of crop production reached VND 26,144.7 billion, an increase of 4.04% compared to 2020, accounting for 81.7% of the industry structure.

The livestock industry is developing to gradually convert from small-scale and dispersed livestock production to concentrated, industrial-scale husbandry. In 2021, livestock production value will reach VND 5,002.1 billion, accounting for 15.64% of the agriculture, forestry, and fishery industry.

Currently, Gia Lai province has 13 high-tech agricultural projects attracting investment in crop production, while livestock has ten projects.  

In the province, there have also been established 18 concentrated production zones with high technology application and a total area of ​​about 3,490 hectares with main products such as banana, avocado, durian, dragon fruit, chili, pepper, coffee, vegetables.

The province currently has about 231,000 hectares of crops to link production with the consumption of agricultural products.

According to the assessment, Gia Lai province's agricultural industry has gradually moved in the direction of increasing added value, forming linkage chains between production and consumption of agricultural products.

In the 2021-2025 period, Gia Lai province will continue to promote the development of infrastructure for agriculture, especially irrigation infrastructure for agricultural production, to adapt to climate change. Develop high-tech agriculture, and at the same time form production links associated with consumption of agriculture, forestry, and fishery. Linking production and product consumption will be at the heart of the agricultural restructuring process.

Mr. Vo Ngoc Thanh, Chairman of the People's Committee of Gia Lai province, said that Gia Lai has many advantages in agricultural development, from climate to soil. Therefore, the province determines that in the next five years to exploit the potentials to develop agriculture associated with the processing industry. To do this, besides the orientation of the province, it is necessary to have the investment of businesses and people to create a sustainable agricultural development ecosystem.

According to Mr. Thanh, the rubber growing area in Gia Lai is still very large, about 90,000 hectares, but the productivity is very low. Therefore, Gia Lai is recalculating some rubber plantation land funds to convert to animal husbandry or plant other higher-value trees.

Organic agriculture plays a huge role in the health of producers and consumers and contributes to the improvement and protection of the environment and sustainable development of agriculture.

To develop agriculture in the direction of applying high technology, with automatic and intelligent technology, to enhance added value, to form and develop large-scale fruit and livestock growing areas with high economic value. Gia Lai's desire and strategic plan is also high economic, competitive, associated with brand building and product brand.

Another problem is that the logistics sector in Gia Lai in particular and the Central Highlands is almost nonexistent, especially for storage facilities. Therefore, Gia Lai wants the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to support through calling for investment or having mechanisms to promote logistics development.

Assessing the potential for agricultural development, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Minh Hoan said that, with many advantages of having abundant land resources and favorable traffic conditions, Gia Lai province needs to become the agricultural center of the Central Highlands region.

In addition, Gia Lai province should strengthen calling for businesses to invest in cultivation and animal husbandry, but must be careful with the impacts of the environment. For large enterprises, they will invest in technology to treat environmental pollution. Because businesses understand that, when exporting products to foreign countries, the issue that consumers care about is quality and related to environmental impacts. From those problems, Gia Lai province needs to build agriculture on the foundation associated with the brand "Green Gia Lai".

In particular, Gia Lai province should take advantage of the potential and forest area to create a turning point and breakthrough in locally available agricultural products.

"The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development will submit to the Government to formalize economic development under the forest canopy through models of growing medicinal herbs, mushrooms, livestock, creating livelihoods for people," Minister Le Minh Hoan emphasized.

As for logistics infrastructure, Minister Le Minh Hoan said that he had reported to the Prime Minister on prioritizing investment in two critical agricultural regions, the Mekong Delta and the Central Highlands. If these two key areas are disrupted in transportation, it will lead to congestion of agricultural products, causing considerable economic losses.