Dutch Ambassador to Vietnam Elsbeth Akkerman addresses the conference (Photo: VNA)Can Tho (VNA) – The Netherlands is keen on cooperating with the Mekong Delta region andVietnam in general in boosting commercial agriculture growth in a manner beneficialto both humans and the environment, stated Dutch Ambassador to Vietnam ElsbethAkkerman on November 9.
The diplomat notedthat the Netherlands and Vietnam share many similarities in geography, such as acoastal delta where the majority of the population live on agriculture. As such,the two countries face similar challenges with flooding, water pollution,saltwater intrusion, and the protection of coastal ecosystems and wetlands, sheadded.
Dutch experts,including Martijn van de Groep, Arjo Rothuis, and Tanya Huizer, cited the jointresearch by scientists from the Netherlands and Can Tho University as sayingthat the Mekong Delta region is depressing with increasingly rapid speed.
The major reasonbehind the situation is the overexploitation of underground water resources,the pumping of water, the construction of tall buildings, the deforestation, andthe building of hydropower dams, they noted.
The expertsunderscored the need to strengthen the development of high-technology agriculturewhich can make more effective use of water resources and combine agriculturalproduction with services, ecotourism, and support industries.
Sustainable agriculturalproduction must be friendly to the environment and farmers, they said,stressing the significance of ceasing the use of environmentally-harmfulchemicals in farming and developing value chains to minimise losses during the harvestand processing procedures, producing safe food from the fields to the diningtable.
Meanwhile, Vietnameseexperts gave solutions to applying science and technology in agriculture andorientations in developing agriculture to adapt to climate change.
They underlined theneed to build systems to treat industrial and household wastewater and develop build-operation-transferprojects to attract investment from the private sector in building treatmentplants. –VNA
VNA
