Farmers and enterprises need more support in rice industry restructuring

A workshop on the restructuring of the rice production, and benefits of small businesses and farmers was held in Hanoi on October 21 with recommendations to increase the competitiveness of the agricultural sector topping the agenda.

At the workshop
At the workshop

Despite many different support policies from the Government, Vietnam’s rice products are mainly medium- and low-quality rice varieties, resulting in an export price lower than other countries in the region.

Participants to the workshop proposed that farmers be encouraged to plant high-quality rice variety and fragrant rice which can be exported for high prices; apply new technologies to cut costs; as well as use machinery and equipment for harvesting in order to ensure high quality for their products.

Dr. Nguyen Duc Thanh, Director of the Vietnam Centre for Economic and Policy Research (VEPR) recommended that the Government design more appropriate support policies to help improve the competitiveness of Vietnam’s rice products and to boost production in a sustainable manner.

Rice production has been selected by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development as Vietnam’s advantageous and strategic crop until 2020 under an agricultural restructuring project. Vietnam will improve the cultivation of rice crops on approximately 7 million hectares by 2020 with the application of advanced production models.