Farmers who switched to floriculture in Lam Dong have earned nine times more than they did harvesting coffee. However, many farmers have been unable to build greenhouses and other necessary facilities for flower cultivation, as they lack the necessary funds, he noted.
Based on the case of Lam Dong, JICA suggested a comprehensive assistance programme to tackle bottlenecks in local agrifinance, ultimately looking to increase agricultural products’ value chain. Mori Mutsuya said JICA’s proposed assistance would help agricultural businesses increase competitiveness. It aims to help large-scale farmers, while others working on a smaller scale will participate in cooperation contracts.
Specifically, the programme will help enhance farmers’ and agriculture companies’ ability of designing financially feasible business plans, thus accessing concessional bank loans more easily. A similar programme has been carried out successfully in the Philippines, the JICA official said, adding that he hopes the programme will be successful in Lam Dong so it can be expanded to other localities.
In addition to the perferential ODA provision, JICA will also offer technical support to help augment banks’ abilities to verify loan-seeking dossiers and monitor enterprises’ use of the loans, Mori Mutsuya said. The project’s objectives are to help promote agricultural restructuring through increasing the sector’s institutional capacity, renewing sustainable cultivation methods and raising the value chain for rice production in the Mekong Delta and coffee crops in the Central Highlands.
