Policy formulation must be substantive to 'untie' farm economy

Create a Zalo group to solve issues

At the Conference, 20 farm owners were invited to attend to listen to the draft Decree, and at the same time share real stories, difficulties and wishes and expectations for the Decree being drafted. 

Mr Trinh Ngoc Tiep, a farm owner in Hung Yen, told Minister Le Minh Hoan that, his farm grows lychee and orients the development of the farm through tourism and agriculture. However, according to the provisions of the Land Law, he is not allowed to build structures on the land such as lodging houses and ancillary works for guests to experience at his farm to sleep in. This is one of the shortcomings and difficulties that the farm economic model is facing.

Listening to Mr Tiep's story, Minister Le Minh Hoan asked the Director of the Department of Economic Cooperatives and Rural Development to set up a Zalo group. This is to connect with farm owners, and leaders of Departments of MARD present at the Conference to exchange and share information, removing difficulties and shortcomings of the farm economy, thereby building a substantive and effective Decree.

Minister Le Minh Hoan confided: "I want to share with the people, that is, try your best at what you are doing, after you achieved it, you will be more successful in the next steps. This is a process that takes a long time to accomplish. If you have much land, take good care of that land. Consider further expansion when there are conditions to achieve success in that area, with enough courage and time. Do not expand at the same time, it will be very risky.

Second, it is necessary to integrate multi-values, do economic work, and develop the market. Join groups to work together, don't work alone and separately".

Minister Le Minh Hoan requested the Department of Cooperatives and Rural Development to develop a substantive decree. We have to imagine what a farm is like; must have directions, strategies and plans for production and business. Failure to do so will not remove the difficulties for farm owners. Decree formulation must open space for the farm economy to develop.

The land is the most important factor

According to the Director of the Department of Cooperatives and Rural Development Le Duc Thinh, many difficulties, shortcomings and limitations related to the current farm economy need to be removed. This includes spontaneity, lack of coordination and management support from state management agencies...

The production scale, quality of labour, management capacity, financial capacity, market knowledge, science and technology and management of many farm owners are still limited. 

The number of farms applying advanced and high-tech technologies is small, mainly following traditional manual methods. Products are not diversified, of low and unstable quality. They have not been processed, sold mainly in raw or fresh form, and have not yet built brands, trademarks, codes, and barcodes of commodity products...

In addition, the number of joint-venture farms, linking production with product consumption is not much, if there is a link, the link is not sustainable. Most of the farms in combination with tourism develop spontaneously, without planning, without a license for tourism activities, untrained workers. They lack the knowledge and skills to do tourism...

In addition, the regulations, policies and laws on farms are not synchronized; regulations on filling deadlines greatly hinder the expansion of the production scale of farms. Regulations on the construction of works in service of production and business on agricultural land and permits for farms to be converted from agricultural to non-agricultural land for infrastructure are unclear. There is no regulation on the combination of tourism activities and non-agricultural production in agricultural farms...

Ms. Nguyen Thi Mai Hien - Deputy Director of the Legal Department (MARD) assessed, to develop a farm, the most important thing is land. It is the most important factor of production. The farm's land has many origins (land left by ancestors; allocated land; leased land from cooperatives, allocated forestry land...). In general, everyone wants to have a certificate of land use right to invest with peace of mind.

In addition, it is necessary to increase the rental period of farmland from 5 years to 10 years to have strategies and plans for farm economic development; develop a model of farming combined with other purposes.

Ms Mai Hien said that the Draft Decree should classify farms into 2 groups: agricultural farms and combined farms (for tourism…) will be more convenient for farm owners, convenient for managers, and management agencies.

Third, it is whether the farm that wants to do tourism can build constructions for tourism or not, such as accommodations... for guests to experience. The draft revised Land Law has allowed construction on agricultural land, which will be favourable for agricultural development purposes.

“The farm should be identified as a subject of the agricultural economy. With the revised Decree, a certificate will be issued to the farm to enjoy the same incentives as other entities”, said Ms Nguyen Thi Mai Hien - Deputy Director of the Legal Department.