At a national teleconference in Hanoi to review the 10years of the implementation of the project on national food security through 2020,the leader also affirmed the Government’s determination to focus on not only preventingthe spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, but also maintaining stability of otherfields.
He stressed the need to ensure the storage of food in all conditions, addingthat food security is always and forever an extremely important issue for allcountries, especially in the cases of political instability, non-traditionalsecurity, and epidemic.
Vietnam has basically met the need for food of the people, the demand forexport and for coping with natural disasters, the PM said, adding a series of sci-techsolutions have been applied to agriculture production, irrigationinfrastructure development, human resources training, and in natural disasteradaptation.
However, the leader also pointed out limitations in the linkage of chainproductions associated with production areas, processing and marketcoordination, saying that Vietnam still faces difficulties in processingagricultural products and forming concentrated production areas.
He asked for attention to strengthening storage, and promoting agricultural developmentin parallel with restructuring the economy and the agricultural sector, towardsimproving production capacity and realising export growth goal of between 9 -10percent.
The PM also proposed increasing investment for the agricultural sector with theinvolvement of the State, businesses and farmers.
The Prime Minister assigned the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Developmentand the Government Office to build a new Government resolution on promoting agriculturaldevelopment and ensuring food security in the new context.
According to reports presented at the event, 12 targets set in the project havebeen realized or even overfulfilled. The area of paddy fields nationwide in2018 reached over 4,159 million ha, 3.76 ha higher than the set target; the riceproduction in 2019 reached 43.4 million tonnes, up 41-43 million tonnes overthe set plan; and rice exports amounted to 6.34 million tonnes in 2029, exceedingthe set target of 4 million tonnes.
The agricultural sector’s yearly growth expanded 2.61 percent in the reviewedperiod. Vietnam's rice productivity is the highest in Southeast Asia, reaching 5.6tonnes per hectare, nearly double that of Thailand and 1.5 times higher thanIndia’s.
Export of agricultural products continues to be promoted, with seven items reachinga turnover of over 1 billion USD per year each.
Meanwhile, many models of clean and hi-tech agricultural production and organicagriculture have been developed, contributing to stabilising macro-economy, controllinginflation, creating jobs and promoting poverty reduction./.