Communist Review - In the 2016-2020 five-year period, Vietnam's agriculture and rural areas have recorded many important achievements and results. The agricultural sector develops comprehensively, continues to affirm its role as the backbone of the economy, through firmly ensuring national food security in all situations, creating stable livelihoods, jobs and incomes for rural people, making an important contribution to socio-political stability and national development. In the coming period, besides opportunities and advantages for rapid and sustainable development, Vietnam's agriculture and rural areas will face many new difficulties and challenges. To promote the development and restructuring of Vietnam's agricultural industry, it is necessary to remove entanglements and bottlenecks.

Bright spots in the development results of Vietnam's agricultural sector in the period 2016 - 2020

In the 2016-2020 period, the overall goal of Vietnam's agricultural sector is continuously developing on three pillars of economy - society - environment; comprehensively developing agriculture, farmers and rural areas in a sustainable way, increasing added value, efficiency and competitiveness; improving farmers' lives faster, contributing to hunger eradication and poverty alleviation, protecting the ecological environment and contributing to security and national defense. However, besides opportunities and advantages for rapid and sustainable development, agriculture and rural areas in Vietnam still face many difficulties and challenges: 1- Product quality and food safety assurance are not high enough, leading to limited industry's competitiveness; 2- The consumption market is unstable, competition is getting fiercer; 3- Climate change, extreme weather, drought, saltwater intrusion, riverside and coastal erosion and diseases on crops and livestock are becoming more and more complicated and unpredictable, especially African swine fever and the COVID-19 pandemic; 4- Resources for agricultural growth must compete fiercely with other fields; 5- Environmental pollution in rural areas is increasing, containing unsustainable development elements.

Against this background and situation, the guiding motto of the Ministry and the agriculture and rural development sector focuses on removing bottlenecks and entanglements to promote the industry’s development and restructuring: 1- Reorganizing chain production and restructuring agricultural, forestry and fishery production along three main product axes; 2- Focusing on developing the processing industry and the consumption market; 3- Improving the capacity and effectiveness of cross-border epidemic prevention and control, and limiting impacts caused by natural disasters; 4- Continuing to improve and organize the effective implementation of mechanisms and policies on land, attracting investment in the agricultural sector... Thanks to that, in the past 5 years, Vietnam's agriculture and rural areas have recorded many achievements and important results.

By the end of 2020 and the whole five years of 2016 - 2020, it is expected to reach 15/15 key indicators of the industry and exceed the set targets; outstandingly such as 5 indicators: 1- The GDP growth rate of the whole industry in 5 years is estimated at 2.71%/year, exceeding the target; 2- The total export turnover of agriculture, forestry and fishery in 5 years is about 190.32 billion USD, in 2020 is estimated at 41 billion USD, exceeding the target (39 billion - 40 billion USD); 3- Forest coverage rate in 2020 is estimated at 42%; 4- By the end of 2020, over 63% of communes are estimated to meet new rural standards; 5- The income of rural residents in 2020 is estimated at 43 million VND/person.

Agriculture, farmers and rural areas in Vietnam are comprehensively developed towards sustainability, namely:

First, about agriculture

Firstly, restructuring and developing the industry are based on promoting the advantages of each region and area; commodity production has shifted towards modernity, enhancing added value and sustainability; operating the economy should be complied with the market mechanism, firmly ensuring national food and nutrition security as well as reducing sustainable poverty. Agriculture continues to affirm its role as the backbone of the economy, especially in the wake of the world economic crisis and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, through firmly ensuring food security⁽¹⁾ in all situations, creating livelihoods, jobs and stable incomes for rural people, making an important contribution to economic, political, social stability and national development.

Secondly, the agro-forestry-fishery processing industry develops rapidly along with the application of high technology to reduce costs and increase added value. Up to now, the whole country has over 43,000 agro-forestry-fishery processing and trading enterprises, an increase of over 13,000 enterprises compared to 2015. There are over 7,500 industrial-scale agro-forestry-fishery processing establishments associated with export, an increase of 1,500 establishments compared to 2015. In the 2016-2020 five-year period, there are 67 new large-scale agro-forestry-fishery processing factories/facilities put into operation, with a total investment of about 2.58 billion USD.

Thirdly, in the past 5 years, the agricultural, forestry and fishery consumption market has expanded both domestically and internationally, strongly shifted to official trade; with a total export turnover of 190.32 billion USD, or 38.06 billion USD/year on average. The proportion of high-quality, advantageous products, such as aquatic products (especially brackish water shrimp), vegetables, flowers, fruits, high-value industrial plants, wooden furniture and forest products rapidly increases. Export of agricultural, forestry and fishery products of Vietnam ranks 2nd in Southeast Asia, 15th in the world and is present in over 196 countries and territories.

Second, about farmers

Farmers have promoted their role as actors and actively carried out the transformation of production structure, applied science and technology, joined the value chain, especially in building new countryside. The farmers and rural people’s income is increasing and simultaneously their material and spiritual life is constantly improving. The rate of poor households in rural areas decreased rapidly, from 9.2% to 4.2%; in the National Target Program on building new rural areas, 74.4% of communes met the criteria of “reducing the rate of poor households”, an increase of 21% in the number of communes compared to 2015.

Third, about rural areas

The National Target Program on building new rural areas finished 1.5 years earlier than expected. Compared to the previous period, the five years of 2016 - 2020 mark a fundamental shift in quality; for example, agricultural production has been restructured towards more sustainable direction, focusing on application of high technology, developing modern cooperatives associated with the value chain; protecting environment and community culture. Agricultural and rural infrastructure has developed strongly, changing the face of rural areas. In the 2010-2020 period, Vietnam has built and upgraded over 206,743 km of roads, with an average of 20,5 thousand kilometers per year; in which, in the 2016-2020 period, attention should be paid to improving quality synchronously, actively contributing to the formation of large production areas and creating favorable conditions to attract investment in agriculture and rural areas. Total mobilized resources in the five years 2016 - 2020 is about 2,115,677 billion VND, 2.5 times higher than the five years 2011 - 2015. Although the program “One Commune One Product” (OCOP) has just been implemented in the period 2018 - 2020, it has achieved many positive results. With a strong growth, it is expected to have 2,400 OCOP products recognized by the end of 2020.

Main orientations, goals, tasks and solutions for the development of Vietnam's agricultural sector in the period of 2021 - 2025

New context and requirements

Besides advantages and opportunities, agriculture, farmers and rural areas in Vietnam at present and in the future will face many difficulties and challenges, which are: 1- Intrinsic limitations and weaknesses of small production have been overcome slowly; 2- Climate change is becoming more and more complicated, diseases on crops, livestock and people, especially trans-border diseases, infect and cause great damage; 3- Resources for growth will become increasingly scarce and expensive; 4- Environmental pollution and the dangers of environmental and resource pollution (land, forest, water, sea) are getting bigger and more complicated; 5- Competitive pressure from international integration, trade tensions between major economies…

Oriented development

Vietnam should continue to restructure agriculture in association with innovating growth models and building new rural areas; as well as organize production associated with the value chain with 3 key product groups (national, provincial and local key product groups under the OCOP Program). We should not only exploit and make good use of tropical agriculture's advantages, but build and develop high-quality and large-scale commodity-cultivation zones up to popular standards on food safety and also connect agriculture with processing and preservation industry, markets and exports, and global value chains. We should organize close linkages between localities in the region, create breakthroughs in fast and sustainable development and enhance added value, efficiency and competitiveness, along with improving the quality and efficiency of new rural construction as well as farmers' lives faster and contributing to hunger eradication, poverty reduction, and environmental protection.

The common goal of the whole industry is “To develop smart agriculture, international integration, to adapt to climate change, to increase added value and to develop sustainably; towards achieving the goal of prosperous and civilized new rural areas, rich farmers; modern and synchronous infrastructure, efficient use and sustainable protection of natural resources”.

This general objective is concretized into the following key targets by 2025: 1- To strive for the industry's GDP growth rate of 2.5% - 3%/year; 2- To have total export turnover of agricultural, forestry and fishery products estimated at 48 billion - 50 billion USD/year; 3- At least 80%of communes is expected to meet new rural standards; 50% of district-level units are expected to meet the standards/complete the task of building new rural areas; at least 15 provinces have been recognized to complete the task of building new rural areas; 4- Per capita income of rural residents in 2025 is expected to be 1.5 times higher than in 2020; 5- Forest coverage rate is expected to be maintained at 42%.

Main tasks and solutions

To achieve the aforementioned goals, in response to the requirements of the new period, it is necessary to continue restructuring the agricultural sector towards modernity, promoting comparative advantages, improving quality, enhancing added and sustainable value, in line with the economic restructuring plan, which focuses on implementing a number of key tasks and solutions as follows:

Firstly, continue to effectively restructure the industry, develop large-scale concentrated commodity agriculture in the direction of modernity, increase added value and develop sustainably.

Secondly, strongly develop industry, especially agro-forestry-fishery processing industries, trades and services in rural areas.

Thirdly, continue to implement the National Target Program on building new rural areas with increasing quality and scale.

Fourthly, promote hunger eradication and poverty reduction, ensure rural social security, improve the material and spiritual life of the rural population, especially in remote and ethnic minority areas.

Fifthly, innovate and develop forms of production organization, perfect appropriate production relations. Prioritize the formation of enterprises and cooperatives that apply advanced management technology, which are able to organize production linkages and product consumption for farmers in concentrated production areas.

Sixthly, promote research and transfer of science and technology; improve the quality of human resources for agriculture and rural areas.

Seventhly, protect natural resources and environment, improve adaptability to climate change, prevent and combat natural disasters.

Eighthly, renovate mechanisms and policies, mobilize diverse resources for agricultural and rural development. Organize the effective implementation of current policies, and promptly review, amend and supplement regulations, especially those on land law.

Ninthly, improve the effectiveness of state management over agriculture and building new rural areas; improve capacity and efficiency of international integration.

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(1) In the period 2016 - 2020, Vietnam's rice production increased from 43.16 million tons to 43.45 million tons; Vietnam's production of live meat of all kinds increased by 1.13 times; Vietnam's production of milk of all kinds increased 1.16 times; Vietnam's eggs production increased 1.57 times; Vietnam's seafood production increased by 1.24 times

This article was published in the Communist Review, No. 956 (December 2020)