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The agriculture sector is striving to reach an annual GDP growth rate of 3.5-3.8 percent during the 2010-2015 period.
At the sector’s patriotic emulation conference in Hanoi Tuesday, the Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Diep Kinh Tan said that the sector should focus on building a modern and sustainable agricultural sector which is capable of producing high quality and competitive commodities in large volumes, while ensuring the nation’s food security.
The sector plans to achieve an annual production growth of 4-4.5 percent and an increase in export turnover of 6.5-7 percent to US$21 billion per year. It will attempt to increase forest coverage to 43 percent, realise a seed crop output of 47 million tons, including 40 million tons of rice, and an annual seafood output of 4 million tons. Farmers per-capita incomes are also expected to reach VND20 million per annum.
According to the deputy minister, agriculture is the economic sector to suffer the most from climate change, disasters, epidemics and international competition, while the amount of useable land and number of workers are diminishing.
To reach this target, Tan said that the sector has put forward a number of solutions on science and technology, marketing, human resources development and investments in technical infrastructure and production.
During the 2006-2010 period, the agriculture and rural development sector made many important achievements in rice, other industrial crops, animal husbandry and seafood production, earning between VND50-200 million, VND7 billion, per hectare per year. Its added value rose by 3.4 percent per year compared with the Government’s target of 3-3.2 percent.
Also in the reviewed period, Vietnam exported almost 25 million tonnes of rice worth more than VND10 billion and ensured its food security. The nation exported more than $20.6 billion of seafood and its forest coverage has risen from 38 percent in 2006 to 39.8 percent in 2009.
From 2006-2009, the sector approved 160 ODA projects totalling almost $1.42 billion, of which non-refundable aid made up 45 percent.
A number of Vietnam’s agro-forestry and fisheries trademarks are now firmly established in domestic and foreign markets such as Mekong Delta tra fish, Vinh Long province’s Nanh Chon rice, Dien Bien rice, Nam Roi grapefruit and Buon Ma Thuot coffee.
