Japan shares experience of farm record keeping

A workshop on efficient record keeping system in agriculture was held by Agribusiness Japan Desk (ABJD) in collaboration with the Department of International Cooperation under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Vietnam on July 15 in the central province of Nghe An.

The event was attended by about 100 delegates from Nghe An Province's agencies and departments, agricultural extension officers and local farmers. It created a platform for the participants to share information and experience on how to manage farm record, an important factor in safe crop cultivation.

The attendees were also introduced to the digital record keeping service developed by Nagase Vietnam and a domestic company.

Digital tools are expected not only to reduce the burden of recording work, but also to directly contribute to increased profits by reducing production costs and improving product quality.

Through digital record keeping, data about the entire production process is expected to become transparent to buyers, giving them peace of mind when purchasing agricultural products.

Demand for food safety is growing in Vietnam, especially for high-end retailers and Japanese exporters. However, Vietnam is facing a challenge that production facilities have not properly been aware of food safety. To solve this problem, it is necessary to change the market-oriented production mindset and the behavior.

According to statistics in 2018, although the gross national product (GNP) of Vietnam's agricultural industry was less than 1/10 of Japan's, Vietnam had 22.31 million laborers working in the agricultural sector while Japan had 1.75 million. At the same time, Vietnam's total land for agriculture is 11.51 million hectares, approximately three times that of Japan.

With abundant resources for agricultural production and appropriate orientations and policies of the Government, Vietnam's agriculture is developing rapidly and has obtained many achievements. Vietnam has a lot of potential for agricultural production and development.

Established with the support of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), ABJD aims to provide technical assistance to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, attract Japanese investment and promote the development of Vietnamese agriculture with support from the Japanese private sector.

By now, ABJD has played the role of connecting Japanese and Vietnamese companies by looking for business partners and customers, contributing to activating agribusiness activities between the two countries to achieve mutually beneficial development.

Currently, JICA is sending experts to work at ABJD department through the form of technical cooperation "Agriculture and rural development consultant and public-private partnership" (term of 9/2021-9/2022).

JICA will continue to contribute to the development of Vietnam's agricultural sector in the future, including supporting food safety enhancement, sales promotion, and expansion of sales channels.

JICA has been cooperating with Vietnam since 1992 with more than JPY 3,000 billion (equivalent to VND600,000 billion) in financial assistance, dispatching some 15,000 Japanese experts and training about 27,000 Vietnamese personnel to realize the sustainable economic growth, response to fragility, and good governance in Vietnam through various projects.

Despite impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, two-way trade between Vietnam and Japan reached 42.7 billion USD in 2021, up 7.8 per cent against the previous year, data from the Vietnamese Trade Office in Japan showed.

Vietnam’s exports to Japan totalled 20.1 billion USD last year, up 4.4 percent year-on-year, while imports were worth 22.6 billion USD, up 11.3 percent. Vietnam exported 1.8 billion USD worth of agricultural and aquatic products to Japan, a year-on-year decrease of 0.5 percent.