​In addition, the plan aims to promote the development of a number of important commodities and products that need to be encouraged and prioritized in helping with the production and consumption of such provincial products as rice, corn, beans, noodles, sugarcanes, mangoes, grapefruits, durians, rambutans, dragon fruits, cashew, cocoa, coffee, pepper, and so on. In addition, the plan focuses on inviting and calling for domestic and foreign enterprises to participate in construction 52 projects connecting both production and consumption of agricultural products of 15 types of trees on an area of ​​nearly 3,400 hectares, including 4 breeding chains, 1 slaughter chain and 1 seafood chain.

A farmer’s economic development model with green-skin grapefruit trees in the province.

The task set out for the province’s functional agencies and local authorities is to focus on implementing policies to encourage cooperation development and production links with consumption of agricultural products; build a large field with 16 projects, which was okayed by the Provincial People’s Committee; simultaneously disseminate propaganda information in various forms to invite businesses to participate in projects linking the production and consumption of agricultural products; and attempt to continue restructuring the field of cultivation. It is expected to mobilize and build about 52 associated projects including 46 projects in the field of cultivation and 5 projects in the field of livestock.

Accordingly, a lot of solutions will be implemented in a synchronous manner to promote the dissemination of encouraging policies for cooperation and connection in the production and consumption of agricultural products as well as the impacts of the integration into the world’s economy to the province’s agricultural production. In addition, the province will hold many meetings to invite competent businesses and economic sectors to participate in production links associated with consumption of agricultural product, thereby selecting businesses with a sufficient financial capacity and stable consumption markets to ensure the linkage for mutual benefits and sustainability. Regarding policies on solutions, the plan also proposes that the sectors continue to review and ask the provincial People’s Committee to adjust policies in accordance with the practices and regulations of the central government to apply and focus on the projects that link production and consumption of agricultural products, special farming areas, and the regions that make good products for the market, especially for exports to enhance the competitiveness of commodity agricultural products, and effectively integrate policies to assist the State and localities that have investment in agriculture and rural areas.

In addition, the plan sets out vocational training solutions for rural workers in the implementation of linking production and consumption of agricultural products and special farming areas to create a premise to build the commodity production areas that are concentrated and on a large-scale, and have a high efficiency to save production costs towards a modern and sustainable agriculture. In particular, it is essential to focus on a large-scale production, mechanize all the stages to lower product costs; forecast and connect the market effectively to gradually participate in exports and create a close linkage between the participants in the product chain in a harmony of interests among the participants in the link. For producers, it is necessary to encourage and show them how to apply agricultural production techniques towards GAP closely and strictly, thereby reducing production costs, create quality products, and so on. The total estimated costs of implementing the plan to 2020 is about more than VND,289,741 million, including the costs of implementing 16 large field projects of VND731,544,276 million and constructing 52 newly-connected projects of VND558,197.02 million.

Over the past time, after implementing the policy of connecting production and consumption of agricultural products, the province has built 16 chains of production and consumption with 12 enterprises and 16 cooperatives. For cultivation, the total area of ​​the chain is over 3,400 hectares, reaching 61.73% of the original target (over 5,500 hectares). Through these projects, there have been over 52,700 tons of products of all kinds to be helped with consumption. Some products participating in the large field project bring out higher economic efficiency than traditional production are the cocoa model of Trong Duc Limited Company (a 1.3 - 1.5 fold compared with mass production), VietGAP durian production project (Xuan Loc district) produced a yield of 17-20 tons/ha, up by more than 5 tons/ha compared to conventional durians. Districts and the city of Long Khanh have established many special crop-growing areas with high economic value for exports like mangoes in Vinh Cuu, Dinh Quan, and Xuan Loc districts; coffee in Dinh Quan, Tan Phu, and Cam My; pepper in Xuan Loc and Cam My districts; durians in Cam My, Long Khanh and Tan Phu; cocoa in Thong Nhat and so on. Up to now, a lot of agricultural products have had geographical indication like Tan Trieu grapefruits and Long Khanh rambutans.

Building connection links is to reduce the agricultural sector’s traditional production methods and poor efficiency

In terms of livestock activities, a lot of livestock areas have focused on quickly applying science and technology and automation in livestock, thereby forming 13 chains connecting pigs and chicken. At present, pig herds have reached 2.2 million and chicken have reached nearly 24 million, increasing 5 times as many as 5 years ago. In addition, other fields like seafood and mushroom cultivation have started to establish some original links.

According to the evaluation of the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, policies and models have been widely disseminated to various economic sectors by all levels, sectors and localities through means of mass media communications, especially in-depth training courses on policies to assist the development of agricultural production. After the project is approved of, participants have implemented a lot of important contents such as producing according to a process, and participating in training courses to apply scientific and technological advances to production; implementing a food safety production; taking an initiative of reciprocal capital sources in the investment in infrastructure, agricultural production areas, and so on.

However, according to the assessment of the agriculture sector and rural development, the implementation of connection policies associated with the consumption of agricultural products has still faced a lot of difficulties. In particular, farmers have not really cared about integration policies. Therefore, the participation is still fragmented. For businesses, they have not been bold enough to invest in the agricultural sector because this field still poses a high risk and brings out a low profit. Besides, most enterprises have operated in a small scale and lacked capital for their production expansion. The system of purchasing raw materials in enterprises is still inadequate and depends on a small and fragmented scale.

In addition, the production linkage chain associated with the consumption of agricultural products and the model of high-tech and clean agriculture have not developed strongly enough. Also, brand building and development and seeking for the output for competitive agricultural products are still not commensurate with the available potential.

Duy Minh (Phuong Vy)