Cooperatives, enterprises, and technology are the pillars of low-emission agriculture

The biggest challenge is organizing production, not the technology itself

Under Viet Nam's domestic carbon market development roadmap, the country will enter a preparation and pilot phase through 2028, with the market becoming fully operational after 2029. Beyond the trading exchange itself, regulators are completing a national registry system, carbon credit exchange mechanisms, MRV technical regulations, and a legal framework for both domestic and international carbon transactions.

"The greatest challenge is not emissions reduction technology, it is the capacity to organize production and mobilize financial resources for the transition," said Nguyen Van Minh, Head of the Climate Change Economics and Information Division under the Department of Climate Change at the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment.

Nguyen Thi Hoang Yen, Deputy Director of the Department of Cooperative Economy and Rural Development, reinforced this point, emphasizing that green agriculture requires substantial capital for waste-treatment infrastructure, water-efficient irrigation systems, emissions-reduction technology, digital transformation, traceability, carbon governance, and green-standard certification.

Yet the majority of agricultural enterprises, cooperatives, and farming households continue to struggle with access to credit, due to their small scale, lack of collateral, and limited financial management capacity. The assessment of her department is that the problem is not simply a capital shortage but a capacity shortage to absorb green finance. The gap between the requirements of modern green financial systems and the reality of Viet Nam's fragmented, data-poor, and weakly integrated agricultural sector remains considerable.

This gap is precisely why cooperatives and enterprises are seen as pivotal to the transition. The Low-Emission Crop Production Program 2025–2035 assigns cooperatives a broad range of responsibilities: organizing raw-material zones, managing production data, ensuring traceability, coordinating cultivation protocols, and connecting with off-takers. This model is also seen as a way to bridge the trust gap between banks and farmers, which currently impedes access to green credit.

"Experience from Japan shows that agricultural cooperatives do not merely provide production services; they also participate in credit guarantees, manage cash flows, monitor the use of capital, and organize supply chain linkages," said Deputy Director Yen, noting that this significantly reduces transaction costs and credit risk for all parties involved.

Alongside cooperatives, enterprises are expected to lead value chain development, establish low-emission raw material zones, and connect producers to end markets. As importing markets place increasing weight on the carbon footprint of products, enterprises will need to engage more deeply in emissions data governance, traceability, and ESG standards to maintain their competitive position. This, according to Nguyen Van Minh, will in turn drive substantial demand for digital transformation and emissions management technology.

MRV as the technical infrastructure of low-emission agriculture

The MRV system will function as the core technical infrastructure of low-emission agriculture. Traceability platforms, emissions data management systems, and production process monitoring tools will be built to serve national greenhouse gas inventories and, eventually, participation in the carbon market. These systems, however, require significant investment and high levels of governance capacity.

According to the Department of Climate Change, developing a single carbon credit project requires enterprises to move through multiple stages, selecting a methodology, designing the project, undergoing validation, registering, monitoring, and verifying emissions, before any credits are issued. Documentation and registration costs alone can reach tens of thousands of dollars, not including validation, verification, and ongoing emissions-monitoring systems.

"Participating in the carbon market is nearly beyond the reach of individual farming households," Minh observed. While the agricultural sector is considered to have significant potential for carbon credit generation, particularly through methane reduction in rice production, sustainable cultivation, and irrigation management, the transition to low-emission agriculture cannot succeed as long as production remains fragmented, supply chains lack integration, and data systems remain underdeveloped.

The conclusion shared across technical agencies, local government, and international organizations is consistent: low-emission agriculture is not a technical problem with a technical solution. It is a structural challenge that requires building an entirely new production ecosystem, one in which cooperatives, enterprises, digital infrastructure, and financial systems work in concert, and in which every farmer can see a tangible reason to participate.