Speeding up implementation progress rate of the project on staple plant and animal development

The implementation progress rate is still low.

This is the project focused on developing areas specializing in growing plants with high productivity, good quality and low sales price to enhance competitive capacity, raise income, contributing to stability and improvement of people in the locality.  

Moreover, it also focused on promoting the mechanism change process for plants, domestic animals, improving productivity, quality and production effectiveness, enhancing competitive capacity of some plants with comparison advantage, controlling the domestic and export market of staple products. The orientation to 2010 is to establish stable production areas specializing in growing industrial plants, fruit trees, produce products with high quality, high equitability to meet the domestic needs, to process and export, and apply technologies and processing methods to suit the real demand.

Durians are considered one of the staple trees in Dongnai.

According to the  report from Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, up to now, the project on developing staple plants in the province has been approved for 10 districts, Long Khanh town (Bien Hoa city doesn’t deploy the project)  

Accordingly, the project management board for district level was established. The project has been deployed in all communes and supported by peasants. The project management board of districts cooperated with units in agriculture sector to check, study gardens, train and instruct techniques for cultivating plants and sign  contract to support peasants. They also organized 73 training classes, 15 seminars, and  visits for participants, and sign a contract, supply source and materials to peasants to build models.     

In particular, coffee trees (newly planted: 11.8%, intensively cultivated: 19.25% of the whole project); pepper trees (newly planted: 2.58%, intensively cultivated: 20.6% of the whole project); pomelo trees (newly planted: 20.7 intensively cultivated: 17.93 of the whole project); mango trees (newly planted: 27.49% intensively cultivated: 66.8% of the whole project); durian trees (newly planted: 5.52% intensively cultivated: 26.69% of the whole project). As for domestic animals: the provincial budget supported enterprises raising and keeping original seeds of trees and breeds of domestic animals. In 2009, Department of Agriculture and Rural Development in cooperation with sectors and departments to deploy procedures of signing contracts to order original seeds and breeds.

The provincial People’s Committee Ao Van Thinh requested the project implementation progress rate be speeded up.

 “The progress rate has been low for the reason that the local people’s committee was behindhand with giving professional guidelines due to the need of studying and drawing ideas from people, checking and considering planning and developing staple plants. The project was not approved until the end of August 2008”  , says the director of Department of Agriculture and Rural Development Pham Minh Dao.

For this issue, the representative of Cam My district also added, the reason why this district was beforehand with objective and demand of the project was that most of the garden areas were being used to grow plants inserted with another, so they hesitated to remove them for newly planting because this could influence their family’s income. Moreover, the task of deploying the project was not specific for hamlets and people, so some households haven’t accessed to the project and therefore they didn’t sign in . 

*Attention to the consuming market

In reality, due to cultivation customs and low awareness about market demands of peasants, agricultural products of Vietnam can’t often keep market. Therefore, a lot of people believe that in order to implement the project successfully right form the start, it is necessary to consider factors to control the market.

The people’s committee of district level have to combine programs and other projects of localities to complete the project, cooperate with agricultural encouragement center, bureaus of botanical protection to build plans and deploy effective implementation for agricultural encouragement programs in accordance to VietGAP standard, apply agricultural models with high technology.. so that the products made can have high quality and meet all market demands, says Dao.     

The Vice chairperson of the provincial People’s Committee Ao Van Thinh emphasized that “Implementing the project needs to consider the district  fundamental; developing staple plants and animals combined with ecotourism ensures having specific on-site products. It also is to continue mobilizing awareness enhancement of peasants about the project objectives via organizations and unions. The problem raised is not to lose markets.

The project objective is to determine that products have to be consumed. This needs attention to the stage of selecting seeds and breeds and stage of starting growing them at the same time and with the same cultivation technique to ensure that products will have equal quality, competitive capacity and stand firm in the market. Implementing this project at present is to pay special attention to find output for products”.

Reported by Lien Huong, translated by Hoai Thu.