Sustainable agriculture transformation project reviewed

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) has organised a conference to review the implementation of the project “Sustainable Agriculture Transformation in Vietnam” after two years.

Illustrative image.

The project is being executed over five years, from 2015-2020, in eight Mekong Delta localities – An Giang, Can Tho, Dong Thap, Hau Giang, Kien Giang, Long An, Soc Trang and Tien Giang– and five Central Highlands provinces – Dak Lak, Dak Nong, Gia Lai, Kon Tum and Lam Dong.

Total funding for the project is US$301 million, with US$238 million sourced from the World Bank and the remaining US$63 million funded by counterpart and private capital.

The project aims to actively implement the agricultural restructuring plan, and review and develop a restructuring strategy for ten export sectors worth more than US$ 1 billion including rice, coffee, pepper, rubber, cashew nuts, cassava, fruit, pangasius fish and shrimp.

After two years of implementing the project, the two most valuable sectors are rice and coffee. Accordingly, the total area of rice was 23,000 hectares of the target 50,000 hectares, bringing a 14% increase in profit, from VND33.1 million per hectare to VND 37.1 million per hectare.

Through the project, nearly 166,200 farmers have been trained in applying rice and coffee cultivation techniques, and sustainable re-cultivation. As a result, production costs for rice decreased by 7%-12% and coffee fell by 10%-15%.

In the near future, the project management agencies and localities have been urged to focus on communicating and implementing solutions to increase the percentage of farmers applying new knowledge to farming.