Policies to support the application of good agricultural practice in agriculture, forestry and fishery production

Policies to support the application of good agricultural practice in agriculture, forestry and fishery production

Published: 2014.12.18
Accepted: 2014.12.18
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Institute of Policy and Strategy for Agriculture and Rural Development,Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Vietnam

Tran Cong Thang

Vice Director General

Institute of Policy and Strategy for Agriculture and Rural Development
No.16- Thuy Khue Street- Hanoi- Vietnam  
Tel: 84-4-37282590
 

(Article 4. Decision No. 01/2012/QD-TTg)

After joining the WTO, Vietnam's agricultural product for export are facing strict regulations on commodity standards of the importing countries. Many aquaculture-agriculture-food export markets in the world are controlled by the very high standards of product quality and food safety. To improve the quality and safety of agricultural products, on 28 January 2008, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development issued Vietnam’s own standards with abbreviated name as VietGAP.

On 9 January 2012, the Prime Minister issued Decision No. 01/2012/QD-TTg on some policies to support the application of good agricultural practices in agriculture, forestry and fishery production. Under this decision, the state funds 100% cost of baseline surveys, topographical surveys, analysis of soil samples, water samples, air samples to determine the concentrated production areas to implement the projects on agriculture, forestry and fishery production applying VietGAP which approved by the competent authorities. And the State supports: (a) Not more than 50% of the total capital investment in the construction and renovation of roads, irrigation systems, pumping stations, low voltage electricity network, waste treatment systems, water drainage system in concentrated production areas to match the technical requirements of VietGAP; (b) training for managers, technical staff, extension staff at all levels; vocational training for rural workers applying VietGAP in production, primarily processing of safety products; compilation and printing of documents for training courses; (c) support once funding for hiring organizations to assess and certify the certificate for safety products; (d) application of new technical advances in the use of pest-resistant varieties, biology plant protection pesticides, application of integrated pest management (IPM), management integrated crop management (ICM); (e) support the trade promotion activities in accordance with Decision No. 72/2010/QD-TTg dated 15 November 2010 of the Prime Minister issuing regulations on development, management and implementation of national trade promotion program.

Thanks to the above policies, agricultural production has many good and safety products, opening a tendency of clean production, serving the needs of the market and protecting consumers. There are Vietnam's farm products having high quality and safety, which are eligible to export to the markets with strict quality requirements. Some agricultural products such as mango, dragon fruit, rice, seafood are exporting to the "difficult" markets like the US, Japan, New Zealand ... We are developing dragon fruit production under the standards of VietGAP, which ensures the safety of food hygiene to consumers.

Decision No. 01/2012/QD-TTg have been widely implemented across the country but is still experiencing difficulties. So far, all provinces in the whole country have implemented agricultural production under VietGap standards. The provinces have implemented VietGap to local levels through propaganda, advocacy, technical training and building production models under VietGap and supporting for people following the Decision No. 01/2012/QD-TTg. However, the implementation process also has some limitations and certain difficulties, so it has not been applied in accordance with standards but only at the selection of appropriate techniques for each type of product to produce better quality products, with higher production efficiency.

Due to small-scale farming, it is difficult to invest in technical infrastructure system to meet the requirements of VietGAP such as storage of fertilizers and plant protection products, toilets, etc. Economic efficiency in VietGAP vegetable production is not high because the trader network for selling VietGAP product is limited in many places. The prices are unstable in the market for VietGAP farming products. Consumers could not differentiate between the quality of normal agricultural products and VietGAP agricultural products so they are not willing to pay higher prices for VietGAP products.

 

Date submitted: Dec. 17, 2014

Reviewed, edited and uploaded: Dec. 18, 2014

 

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