Workshop focuses on Vietnam’s agricultural ties with Middle East, Africa

Hanoi (VNA) – The potential for agricultural and aquaculture cooperation between Vietnam and countries in the Middle East and Africa was discussed at a workshop in Hanoi on September 10.

The event was part of a two-day conference gathering Middle Eastern and African ambassadors to Vietnam.

Addressing the workshop, Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Quoc Doanh said with the support of some developed countries and international organisations, Vietnam has successfully carried out many bilateral and multilateral cooperation models in agriculture. It has sent more than 400 experts to help develop agriculture in many African nations like Mozambique, Benin, Guinea and Senegal. 

Thanks to the assistance of the Vietnamese experts, the rice, crop and aquaculture output of the pilot projects there has increased, gradually helping the African countries ensure their food security, he noted.

Doanh also appreciated the considerable technical assistance and preferential loans from the Arab and Kuwait funds for Vietnamese localities to implement irrigation and rural development projects.

Introducing Vietnam’s agriculture and its contributions to agricultural development in other countries, Deputy Director of the Vietnam Academy of Agricultural Sciences Dao The Anh said Vietnam’s agriculture has attained outstanding achievements in cooperation projects on food plant study and development in many nations like Sudan, Nigeria and Mozambique in Africa, Cuba and Venezuela in Central and South America, or Laos and Uzbekistan in Asia.

At the event, Mozambican Ambassador Leonardo Rosario Manuel Pene said thanks to the production methods transferred by Vietnam, agricultural output in his country has reached 7 tonnes per ha, compared to only 2 tonnes per ha in 2010 when the two countries began their cooperation.

Likewise, the annual fish farming output in Mozambique was only 600 tonnes in 2009, but the figure has increased to 3,000 tonnes at present thanks to Vietnam’s technical support since then, he noted.

He expressed his hope that Vietnam will transfer technologies, irrigation systems and processing services to and invest in agricultural infrastructure in Mozambique in the coming time.

On this occasion, the Vietnam Academy of Agricultural Sciences, the Institute of Organic Agricultural Economics, the Lavifood JSC and the Vietnam Green Startup Fund signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in the study and application of agricultural sciences for the sustainable development of agricultural value chains in the Middle East and Africa.-VNA