At the event. (Photo: VNA)HCM City (VNA) –The Department of Economic Cooperation and Rural Development under the Ministryof Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) has signed a cooperation agreementwith 14 agencies, enterprises and banks to develop raw material areasacross the country and restructure the agricultural sector.
The signing of the deal took place within the framework of a meeting held on March 29 by the MARD to deploy a pilot project on setting up standard raw agricultural and forestry materialareas for domestic consumption and export and a project on communityagricultural extension for 2022-2025.
The project aims toform five concentrated raw material zones with a total area of more than 166,000hectares, including orchards in thenorthern mountainous region; certified sustainable timber growing in the central coastalregion; coffee cultivation in the Central Highlands; rice planting in the Long Xuyen Quadrangle andfruits in Dong Thap Muoi.
According to the MARD, due tothe shortage of raw material areas associated with processing andconsumption enterprises, the implementation of State policies has not been carriedout synchronously, especially those relating to agricultural credit andinsurance policies. These shortcomings have affected the competitiveness of agricultural products,production efficiency as well as farmers' incomes.
The project will helpcreate linkages between raw material areas with processing and consumingenterprises, manage the quality of the areas in line with value chain and solvethe problem of having bumper crops, farmers gain small benefits due to plummetingprices which occurs almost every year, the ministry said./.
