At the same time, the Coordination Office for Agriculture and Rural Development in the Mekong Delta region was launched for the 2020-2025 period in Can Tho city. The Steering Committee is responsible for studying and proposing to the Minister, mechanisms and policies to meet the requirements of regional development; the Coordination Office helps the Steering Committee coordinate and expedite activities related to regional and sub-regional linkage, promoting the agricultural economy, increasing the value of agricultural products, and increasing incomes for farmers and agricultural cooperatives and enterprises.
The Mekong Delta is a land of great potential and advantages in agriculture, with many strong industries such as rice, seafood and fruit, but in recent times, it has been awkward in development due to sporadic and small-scale production; while provinces and cities develop agriculture in their direction, lacking in linkage, coordination, and mutual support.
Since then, there has often been an overabundance or shortage of local agricultural products. Some localities have also been unable to take initiative in output and selling price; failed to grasp market signals, causing farmers to suffer losses due to poor harvests and slow adaptation to the continuous fluctuations of the domestic and world agricultural markets.
Therefore, the establishment of the Agricultural Coordination Office for the whole region aims to create an open space to connect managers, scientists, investors and people who are passionate about this land to exchange, form ideas, initiatives and action plans for agricultural development.
It is expected that the office will have monthly and weekly events and activities to strengthen the establishment of regional and sub-regional connections with focused contents such as water connection, infrastructure connection, linking products by the value chain from production, processing to consumption, and other linkages of markets, science and technology, and high-tech agricultural human resources...
The goal is for the 13 provinces and cities in the Mekong Delta not to be merely 13 administrative boundaries with fragmentary pieces like today, but to be integrated into a development space of each sector in particular and of the agricultural economy in general based on reorganising production, unifying the circulation mechanism, supporting inter-regional exchange and consumption of agricultural products.
Looking back at the time in mid-2021, at the peak of the COVID-19 epidemic in Ho Chi Minh City and other provinces and cities in the Mekong Delta, when production and consumption of agricultural products were stalled and broken, thanks to the timely establishment and effective operation of the Working Group to direct production, connect the supply and consumption of agricultural products in the southern provinces and cities in the context of the COVID-19 epidemic (Working Group 970 under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development), many difficulties and obstacles have been removed, creating a strong link between state management agencies, farmers and businesses.
The cohesion from the activities of Working Group 970 has continued to be extended and promoted effectively. Regarding the broader organisation, the Steering Committee and the Coordination Office for Agricultural and Rural Development in the Mekong Delta at present, there are certainly many expectations that this will be a “platform” for open thinking, good initiative, and drastic action to bring about real results to agriculture in the whole region in the coming time.
