Farmers in southern Dong Nai province have contributed over 240 billion VND (roughly 11 million USD) and 185,000 working days to repairing over 2,000 kilometres of rural roads as part of efforts to build new-style rural areas.

The province was chosen to be inspected on the implementation of the Party Central Committee Secretariat’s Conclusion 61 on ‘Improving the role and responsibility of the Vietnam Farmers’ Association in the development of agriculture, building new-style rural areas and the building of Vietnamese farmer class for 2010-2020’ project.

According to the provincial People’s Committee, over the past years, farmers have been assisted to shift the structure of plants and livestock to raise the competitiveness of their products.

They have been encouraged to develop collective economy and establish production and consumption links for locally-grown produce.

Since 2010, nearly 900 clubs and cooperative groups have been set up, operating in such fields as agriculture, service, and handicraft with around 22,000 members.

Over the past five years, 51,000 rural labourers have been offered vocational training, with 180,000 having found jobs.

Vu Van Tam, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, head of the inspection team, spoke highly of the provincial farmers’ association’s active involvement in the implementation of the Secretariat’s Conclusion 61.

Tam asked the province to clarify coordination mechanisms between the association and the all-level people’s committees and departments and sectors in executing tasks of developing agriculture and building new-style rural areas.-VNA