Community agricultural extension teams must become customers

Based on the guiding documents of ministries, central branches and localities, by the end of 2022, The Quang Tri Agricultural Extension Center has advised the Quang Tri Department of Agriculture and Rural Development to issue policies on establishing and operating regulations for commune-level community agricultural extension groups. Quang Tri Agricultural Extension Center coordinated with the People's Committees of districts to deploy to communes, disseminate and guide the establishment of commune-level community agricultural extension groups throughout the province.

After establishing the Community Agricultural Extension Groups of Vinh Linh - Gio Linh - Cam Lo and Hai Lang - Trieu Phong clusters, Quang Tri has established 8 more community agricultural extension groups; 107 commune-level community agricultural extension groups. The activities of community agricultural extension groups have begun to be regulated but are still at a primitive level, with many confused by objective difficulties.

To maintain operations and generate revenue, community agricultural extension groups must become customers of businesses. Enterprises are the ones who pay compensation to community agricultural extension groups.

Established and put into operation at the end of 2022, but according to Mr Vo Thanh Tu, Vice Chairman of the Commune People's Committee - Head of the Community Agricultural Extension Team of Cam Thuy commune (Cam Lo district), up to now, the business has not considered this unit as a customer for many reasons.

According to Mr. Tu, the Cam Thuy Commune Community Extension Team was established including the Vice Chairman of the Commune People's Committee and members of the cooperative. The activities of the community agricultural extension group comply with the principle of not adding additional staff. This is in theory consistent with the spirit of not increasing budget salary payrolls.

However, the workload of members of the community agricultural extension team increased. At the beginning of the operation, members of the community agricultural extension team had almost no additional income commensurate with the amount of work they were undertaking. That more or less affects the ideology and motivation of the members' work.

Besides, to become a customer of the business, of course, the community agricultural extension team must create products commensurate with the trust of the businesses. This is not a story that can be done in a day or two. Theory and practice show that businesses need to find reliable partners, suitable for their development goals. Therefore, community agricultural extension groups need to equip themselves with knowledge of trade, production organization, knowledge of establishing businesses and linking product consumption...

“Members of the community agricultural extension team are also members of the cooperative. If they do not establish a community agricultural extension group, they still do normal work like other cooperative members. Therefore, separating what is the work of the community agricultural extension team and what is the work of the cooperative is very difficult. As a member of the community agricultural extension team, you must have the elements of consulting knowledge, establishing cooperatives, businesses... When necessary and sufficient conditions are present, new potential customers will appear to create a source of income to support them. Community agricultural extension groups also need to be given priority in implementing models when conditions permit," Mr. Tu stated.

Cam Thuy commune currently has over 700 ha of forest. Including 26.5 ha of large timber forest, FSC is affiliated with the business. This is considered room for production activities of cooperatives as well as community agricultural extension groups. However, with the newly established business, there are still many difficulties ahead, the Cam Thuy Commune Community Extension Team has hardly established a position worthy of expectations.

This is probably also the current situation with most commune-level community agricultural extension groups and inter-district community agricultural extension groups in Quang Tri province.

At a workshop on implementing community agricultural extension group activities in wood raw material areas with FSC, PESC and VFSC certification in the Central Coast region recently held in Quang Tri, Mr Le Quoc Thanh, Director of the National Agricultural Extension Center said: “Businesses need to see community agricultural extension groups as customers. Businesses that want to buy standard wood can order through the community agricultural extension group..."