Vietnam, Germany cooperate in vocational training for farmers

Hanoi (VNA) – The outcomes of a cooperation project on vocational training between the Vietnam Farmers’ Union (VFU) and the German Farmers’ Union (DBV) were reviewed at a seminar in Hanoi on October 5.

Vice Chairman of the VFU Central Committee Leu Vu Dieu said the project for 2012-2017 aims to boost the VFU-DBV cooperation in providing Vietnamese farmers with agricultural knowledge and improving professionalism of the VFU’s staff and vocational teachers.

Under this project, the VFU sent 146 cadres and farmers to training courses in Germany, and compiled the curriculum for vocational training after those trips. It organised six national workshops with nearly 600 participants and 65 seminars in provinces and cities nationwide.

After the training courses, 22 farm owners of Vietnam have successfully expanded production and enjoyed better business outcomes.

Dieu said the project has helped enhance the mutual understanding, friendship and cooperation between the VFU and the DBV, as well as between the two countries.

He asked the German Ministry of Food and Agriculture and the DBV to continue assisting the VFU to promote its staff’s capacity, build agro-forestry development models combined with environmental protection and climate change response, and develop agritourism.

The VFU official also called for support to help Vietnamese farmers access the German and European markets while increasing experience sharing between farmers of the two countries.

Helmut Born, former Secretary General of the DBV, highly evaluated the cooperation in and outcomes of the project, noting that the awareness of agricultural development, farmers and rural areas among the VFU’s leaders and vocational teachers has improved considerably.

Meanwhile, theoretical and practical training was organised in a systematic manner, which is a prerequisite for farmers to organise agricultural production effectively, he added.-VNA