Actions needed for sustainable agricultural development

Latest reports from the General Statistics Office (GSO) showed that the agriculture industry made up 0.23 percentage points to the GDP during the first nine months this year, which is seen as a good sign for this industry that has been struggling with many difficulties over the past three years, even witnessing negative growth for many months.
However, experts said, this growth rate is only the first step -- it is not high, the added value is not significant and there are many potential risks that need more drastic and appropriate measures to gain sustainable development.

Vietnam’s agriculture sector targets growth of 2.5 to 2.8 per cent in 2017.

Economist Lưu Bích Hồ said that the nine-month growth of the agricultural sector was only a preliminary achievement, requiring more systematic solutions to add value to the sector in the future.
He said that the sector is improving and restructuring. It’s being transformed from rice to shrimp and fish -- a parallel that means it is applying advanced technology for production and to enhance processing.
Although the economic value in money terms is not much higher than that of many other industries and services, once the agriculture sector reached sustainable development it would lead to stability of life and social security because 70 per cent of the population was working in agriculture and dependent on agriculture, he said.
With the same viewpoint on agricultural development orientation, economist Phạm Tất Thắng said although domestic and foreign enterprises had paid attention to the agricultural sector and production chain, investment in agriculture is still very limited, not yet utilising foreign direct investment in agriculture.
Therefore, it needs better policies, in which land policy is an example to develop agricultural production on a large scale, Thắng said.
He said it was necessary to combine production with the market, improve the quality of products associated with diversification of markets and not be dependent on a market.
Agriculture is considered the pillar of the economy, so it cannot be fluctuating, since that will make the country’s economy backward, pushing it behind other countries, especially in the context of the wide economic integration witnessed today.
Lack of connection was the weak point that caused all fields to be underdeveloped. The consequences will be unpredictable, Thang said.
Vietnam’s agriculture sector targets growth of 2.5 to 2.8 per cent this year, production value growth of 3 to 3.2 per cent, and total export turnover of $32.5 billion.