The government decision, known as Decision 80/TTg released in 2002, requests local authorities, scientists, businesses and farmers to work together on the manufacture and distribution of agricultural products.
However, no satisfactory outcome has emerged as the four groups named in the decision don’t seem to realize the benefits of working together.
And of the four groups, farmers have suffered the most.
At a National Assembly meeting early this month, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development admitted their inaccurate forecasting was the main reason rice exports were suspended in April – when global demand for rice as well as rice prices were high.
The export halt resulted in rice prices in the Mekong Delta falling to only half of what they were early this year. Farmers are also drowning in some 40,000 tons of grain stockpiled from the last harvest.
Scientists are not doing their part in recommending high-quality rice varieties and teaching farmers how to breed them.
Currently, the IR 50404 rice variety is planted on 500,000 hectares, or 30 percent of the Mekong Delta’s cultivable area. The variety is easy to plant and high-yielding but it produces low quality, which makes it even harder for farmers to clear their unsold stocks.
In a move to get the problem under control, some agricultural authorities have recommended rice farmers plant other high-quality strains in the upcoming winter-spring crop in December and January.
Apart from authorities and scientists, businesses are sometimes another burden to farmers.
This year, some 30 to 40 percent of Mekong Delta’s pangasius (tra and basa fish) farmers are facing huge losses after several seafood processors stopped buying the fish.
Some processors claimed they were having difficulty finding buyers because of the slowing world economy. But one Can Tho City official earlier this month said processors were simply “putting pressure on farmers to push prices down.”
Unlike Vietnamese farmers, their counterparts in nations like Japan, Malaysia and the Republic of Korea are well off partly because the four forces – governments, scientists, businesses and farmers – cooperate well.
It’s time for local administrations, scientists, businesses and farmers to join hands for development, especially now when the global economic crisis is hitting every nation hard.
By Nguyen Minh Nhi |
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