The triumph of crop production

On January 12, MARD Deputy Minister Le Quoc Doanh chaired the conference “2021 Summary and Evaluation Result - Implementation of the 2022 plan.”

Despite a series of difficulties and challenges causing the cultivated area to decrease by 40,000 ha, Vietnam's rice production in 2021 still increased by 1.1 million tons. Photo: LHV.

Agro-product export value increased by 13.5%

According to Mr. Le Van Duc, Deputy Director of the Department of Crop Production, statistics show that the growth rate of crop production value in 2021 reaches 2.7%. Agro-products export value is estimated at USD 21.49 billion, up 13.5% compared to 2020.

There have been several changes in the production structure.

The production value of annual plants in 2021 is 64.62% (down 0.85% compared to 2020) and the production value of perennial plants is 35.38% (up 1.6% compared to 2020). Cultivation occupies a proportion of 44.6% of the total agro - forestry - fishery production value. Export value reached USD 21.49 billion, accounting for 44.2% of the whole industry.

Although commodity production and circulation suffered extremely difficult conditions in 2021, farmers still sustained and promoted production proactively. As a result, vegetable output increased by more than 300,000 tons compared to 2020. Thanks to the enthusiastic restructuring of rice varieties towards high quality, rice export value reached USD 3.28 billion.

Many kinds of fruit trees sharply increased in area

The area of industrial and fruit trees maintained its increase in 2021. The fruit tree group, mostly durian, jackfruit, grapefruit, mango, banana and pineapple, added nearly 40,000 ha to the total planting area compared to 2020.

The majority of industrial crops also had their cultivated area expanded. Cashew and coffee trees in particular both increased by more than 10,000 ha compared to 2020.

There are three crops having their area reduced under the guidelines and recommendations of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development: rubber down 7,000 ha, pepper down approximately 5,000 ha, and orange down nearly 8,000 ha. Industrial trees and fruit trees in 2021 all showed signs of increase in export value compared to 2020, notably rubber with a value growth rate of over 150%.

In order to promote the achievements in 2021 and 2022, the Department of Crop Production has developed a plan to promote the development of these advantageous crop groups according to the orientation of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

The triumph of crop production

Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Quoc Doanh assessed, "This is a year when the agricultural sector triumph in all fields especially forestry and cultivation." This fact became more convincing as the agricultural sector reached a 2.7% increase in value while the agroproduction land fund is increasingly lessened to make room for non-agricultural sectors.

“This year, the export value of agricultural products will grow by 13.5% compared to 2020 and there will be a surplus. This is the result of our persistent implementation of the agricultural restructuring project,” said the MARD Deputy Minister.

Deputy Minister Le Quoc Doanh further commented and analyzed that although the rice production area decreased by 40,000 ha in 2021, the rice output still increased by 1.1 million tons.

The high-quality rice variety use rate reached 77%, and high-quality rice exports reached 87%. Thanks to good prevention and control measures for plant diseases, the overall damage was vastly diminished.

In the coming time, Deputy Minister Le Quoc Doanh suggested that the Department of Crop Production should tighten fruit tree and industrial tree variety management. It’s because these crops have a very long life cycle, which means many years to harvest.

It is also necessary to continue the close coordination with agencies and units to improve the yield of cashew trees in the country. "We still have to import more than 50% of cashew materials to serve processing and export," Deputy Minister Le Quoc Doanh said.

In order to develop comprehensively and sustainably, the MARD Deputy Minister suggested the Department of Crop Production quickly develop and submit to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development a “Strategy for Crop Development by 2030” to serve as a guideline so that localities and units can deploy and implement together.