Illustrative photo (Source:Internet)
Hanoi (VNA) – The Vietnam Farmers Union’s Supporting Fund for Farmers has made active and effective contributions to fostering farmers’ movements and improving their lives over the past 20 years.
Head of the fund’s management board Nguyen Xuan Thang made the remark at a ceremony in Hanoi on March 1 to mark the 20 th anniversary of the fund’s establishment (March 2, 1996-2016).
He said that from its initial capital of 40 billion VND (1.79 million USD) sourced from the Government, the fund can now provide 2 trillion VND (89.7 million USD) in preferential loans for rural farmers.
The fund has helped tens of thousands of farmers to develop their business, making significant contributions to the State and Government’s poverty reduction policy, Thang said, adding that cooperative model has bettered farming production which will gradually meet international integration requirements.
In the past few years, the fund has made fundamental changes in the way it provides loans for farmers. Instead of lending a household or a group of households, it now offers credits to farmers’ projects.
Since 2011, each household has been supported 30.5 million VND (1,367 USD) to develop their production.
Standing Vice Chairman of the Vietnam Farmers Union Lai Xuan Mon said that the fund needs to enhance dissemination of its role while paying attention to ensuring credit quality and efficient use of capital through fine-tuning its apparatus, increasing capacity for staff at all levels and pushing forward information and technology application.
The fund should guide farmers to do business projects, diversify capital resources and seek path to build efficient support models to bring benefits to rural farmers, he added.-VNA
