Traders buy rice harvested at a paddy field in Hau Giang province. (Source: VNA) The process should ensure farmers’ benefits, hestressed.
The conference in the northern province aimed tofind solutions to promote land accumulation so as to reap economies of scale inagricultural production, boosting industrialisation and modernisation of thesector.
It was attended by representatives of manylocalities and enterprises as well as the ministries of Agriculture and RuralDevelopment and Natural Resources and Environment.
Representatives of the Ministry of NaturalResources and Environment said at the conference that land accumulation wasbeing implemented very slowly.
Scattered, small-sized land lots hindered localsand enterprises from making long-term investments in agriculture, they said.
The average land area owned by agriculturalhouseholds is about 0.46 hectares and each household owns 2.83 lots on average,which is lower than in China and many other Asian countries.
They also said that in many cases, accumulatedland had not been used effectively.
There was a general lack of awareness amongofficials and farmers on the necessity for land accumulation for large scaleproduction, the conference heard.
Speakers also said that land accumulation foragricultural development had not been properly linked with the economy offarming households, co-operatives, enterprises, sci-tech applications and themarket.
Deputy PM Dung said that the household economy,with scattered and small land lots no longer matched the need to developagriculture on a large scale with high-quality, competitive produce.
Promoting land accumulation and applyingadvanced technology on large-scale farms would improve the capacity, qualityand competitiveness of the agricultural sector in particular, and theVietnamese economy in general, he added.
He said the Party and the State are paying dueattention to agriculture, rural areas and farmers, as they are the foundationfor ensuring social stability, eradicating poverty and reducing hunger, therebycontributing to the nation’s development.
He reiterated that the agricultural economy wasa “first priority” for the State with household economy as its driving force.
Over the last several years, there had been manychanges in land policies to tighten land-use management, he said.
The need for efficient agricultural productionshould be analysed to find out where land accumulation was needed and where itshould be dispersed, the Deputy PM said.
“We must carefully study impacts of landaccumulation on society, agriculture and the environment, especially therelaxation of land limits, to ensure benefits of the State and its subjects,farmers in particular,” he said.
He urged those attending the conference to findsolutions to conflicts between land accumulation and local livelihoodstability, and also study effective land accumulation models.
After due analysis, measures must be taken toinitiate “various types of land accumulation and shift to creating jobs andimproving lives of locals while ensuring that accumulated land lots have highproductivity, high competitiveness, and deliver benefits to farmers,” hesaid. -VNA
VNA
