World Bank is ready to support new projects for Vietnam's agriculture industry

"Right after the 13th National Party Congress, Vietnam has positioned its agricultural development goal as towards ecological agriculture, responsible sustainable agriculture. We are shifting from thinking from agricultural production to agricultural economic thinking, creating a multi-valued combination.

All that I read in the book Vietnam's Agricultural Transformation in 2016 compiled by Wolrd Bank, supporting the Government of Vietnam", Minister Le Minh Hoan informed Ms. Vietnam.

According to him, this document on Vietnam's Agricultural Transformation has pointed out the achievements and bottlenecks of Vietnamese agriculture. There are many models in the world that Vietnam can learn from.

The Minister hoped that Vietnam would receive a lot of help and advice from the World Bank and experts in the process of building an agricultural ecosystem. From there, Vietnam will expand to different regions to improve the lives of farmers.

"I capture the core values ​​of the World Bank and many other funding. At the same time, I also use it to create an ecosystem of public and private sectors to create balance, as well as create a balance. with the harmonious relationship between these two regions. To make it more pervasive and develop sustainably," the Minister said.

The Minister also asked the World Bank to support policy advice, strategy, and institutional innovation. How to evoke the full power of the public as well as the private sector, of agricultural enterprises as well as of farmers, cooperatives. Thereby building a sustainable agricultural development.

"The Government of Vietnam has issued a resolution on sustainable development of the Mekong Delta in response to climate change. However, there are still many problems related to the transformation of agricultural models to adapt to the decline of water resources and weather. There is a need for a change in agricultural development in this area, not only for rice monoculture but also for more multi-value integrated models. , models adapted to each ecological zone, freshwater, brackish, and saline areas".

The Commander of the Agriculture sector also gave priority directions for the World Bank to support such as disaster prevention, safety of dams and irrigation infrastructure for production, especially clean water, rural environment. .

Minister Le Minh Hoan also asked the World Bank to closely coordinate in the implementation of contents and proposals for supporting provinces in building new projects and coordinate with the Ministries of Planning and Investment. Investment, Finance in the browser.

In addition, the World Bank should continue to support and coordinate with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in developing and completing the proposed loan projects discussed. Priority orientations in the field of fisheries, food safety, adaptation to climate change.

Ms. Carolyn Turk said that World Bank has been a close partner with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development for the past 25 years and hopes that this relationship will be even closer in the future.

Sharing about Dong Thap, World Bank Country Director in Vietnam said that compared to what she saw in the 1990s, this locality has had a lot of changes in agriculture, landscape, and crop diversity. .

She believes that this is the success of Vietnamese agriculture in diversifying products, increasing farmers' incomes, and increasing agricultural productivity. However, from the perspective of World Bank, the challenges in the next 10 years will be different and more difficult than in the past 25 years.

"Currently, factors affecting climate change are increasingly interested in agricultural trade. Vietnam is a country with a large rice production, exporting to the world's leading group, but this is a product. We hope that we can work with Vietnam to have low-carbon agriculture in the future," emphasized Ms. Carolyn Turk.

Regarding seafood, Ms. Carolyn Turk also expressed concern about the sustainability of this sector, despite its very good growth.

"We want to support to maintain sustainable seafood stocks for Vietnam, helping you have a strong fishery industry in the future," added World Bank Country Director in Vietnam.

Appreciating the role of sustainable agriculture, Ms. Carolyn Turk said that in the future, besides food safety, consumers are also very fond of and willing to pay high prices for agricultural products with high quality. low carbon emissions.

A representative of World Bank also said that Vietnam is not managing water effectively compared to many countries in the world, this is an issue that needs attention.

"We have to think about cleaning up the water as soon as possible, because it's cheaper to do it early," added Carolyn Turk.

In disaster prevention and response to climate change, the representative of Wolrd Bank in Vietnam emphasized the need to handle it to bring benefits to farmers and rural areas.

"All of the above issues are very important and the World Bank is ready to continue working with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, providing financial support to have more projects in the future. However, we need to hurry up. progress because if design projects are slow, by the time they are approved, they will become obsolete and no longer suitable," said Ms. Carolyn Turk.

Responding to Ms. Carolyn's comments, Minister Le Minh Hoan said: "My approach over the years has also taken from the values ​​of the World Bank's approach. Since taking the position of Minister Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, I have positioned my work to continue to reshape an agriculture with the mindset of transforming models and ways of growth, not changing what crops to grow and what children to raise.

According to Minister Le Minh Hoan, Vietnam's agriculture is facing three huge "variables" including: climate change, market fluctuations, and trends in world consumption. Nowadays, consumers do not have to buy agricultural products at the price they buy them for their value. The value of agricultural products includes many issues such as quality, food hygiene and safety, the problem of using pesticides...

"I was born and raised in the Mekong Delta, every day I smell pesticides so I understand it's a big problem. People often talk about sustainable development, that saying is easy to say. But to think about it. What is sustainability is a matter between the reality of the agricultural industry in transition and the direction of development.

In my opinion, sustainability in agriculture is that we leave an ecosystem for our children and grandchildren. Rather than taking it all away in this generation, leaving behind a deformed ecosystem, loss of biodiversity and affecting hundreds of millions of consumers and tens of millions of farming households," the Minister shared.

Source: Newspaper Vietnam Agricultue <nongnghiep.vn>