Tran Xuan Dinh, secretary general of the Vietnam Seed Trade Association (VSTA), said large-scale  farming will offer opportunities to solve problems and promote neo-cooperatives that will join forces to develop the agricultural economy.

He noted that agricultural land has been shrinking in size and the tendency will continue in the future with more and more industrial zones (IZs), urban areas and transportation routes established.

“In agricultural provinces, alluvial soil which only comes into being after thousands of years has been used to build IZs and urban areas. What a pity!” he said

For a long time, Vietnam has been struggling to accumulate land. Developing large-scale farming agriculture will help develop a perfect chain. 

With contribution by young creative farmers, Vietnam’s agriculture will begin a new chapter.

However, to date, Vietnam has only had large-scale farming clubs. If it wants to develop even more strongly, it needs to establish large-scale farming cooperatives.

In Dong Hung district of Thai Binh, about 10 percent of households have fields, but don’t have production demand. As much as 20 percent of households have demand for leasing their fields, while 20 percent of households said they would lease the fields if the rents are reasonable. 

Meanwhile, in many communes, fields have been left abandoned and cultivation has not been organized.

Nguyen Thi Nga, deputy director of Thai Binh Agriculture and Rural Department, said rice production brings profit, but the income from rice cultivation is not high enough to ensure a good life for farmers. In 2014-2016, in the province, many people gave up farming.

At that time, some farmers decided to develop a large-scale farming model. They borrowed fields from other farmers to cultivate. Overcoming initial difficulties, some models have seen initial achievements. The model has been applied in many localities.

The provincial authorities are applying policies to support enterprises and farmers who have demand for land and fields for large-scale production.

Quality and branding

Many economists have said that developing large-scale farming agriculture is necessary but is still meeting many obstacles. 

Farmers want to run large-scale production, but they find it difficult to access bank loans and policies on encouraging mechanization.

One of the biggest obstacles is the regulation of the Land Law, when every household in Red River Delta is allocated 2 hectares of land at maximum to till rice and every household in Mekong Delta 3 hectares. 

They can transfer the land area which is 10 times higher than the land allocation limit.

Tran Thi Tra, deputy director of ThaiBinh Seed, said to satisfy the requirements for large-scale production in agriculture and meet the requirements for restructuring and land accumulation, organizing a large farming agricultural model is inevitable.

However, in great farming models, farmers need to pay attention to the quality of rice varieties to ensure uniform rice quality and brands of production areas.

Nguyen Xuan Hong from Vietnam Northern Food Corporation (Vinafood 1), said every market has specific requirements, but they have common requirements on quality and competitive prices. Therefore, farmers should pay attention to post-harvesting technology. The tardiness in rice drying will change the rice quality.

A representative of Vinafood 1 wants units to cooperate to help farmers in post-harvesting stages; help obtain certificates on food hygiene for cooperatives and households; and help stabilize the quality of seeds.

Le Duc Thinh from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) commented that the large-scale farming model has come in amid ongoing strong agriculture restructuring. 

However, the model will only succeed if the following factors can be implemented: big (in scale), high quality (brand), and with organizational and sustainable development.

Therefore, Thinh has asked enterprises, when cooperating with big farms, to specify all the issues to make it easier to access and apply. Farms need to be firm with the ways they have chosen.

Tam An