He made the remarks at a virtual conference reviewing the production results of the winter crop 2020 and looking forward to the winter crop in 2021 in the northern provinces, held by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development on September 8.
Doanh noted that the total production area of winter crop in the northern provinces has not increased in recent years but its production value has rose steadily.
Deputy Director of the Department of Crop Production Tran Thi Hoa said that the 2021 winter crop has a number of favorable factors including the decline in supply across the world market and possible increases in import demand from the Chinese market.
However, the winter crop often encounters weather irregularities in addition to the complicated COVID-19 pandemic, both significantly affecting the production, harvesting, circulation and consumption of agricultural products.
Therefore, the winter crop in 2021 will follow the policy of restructuring the cultivation sector and commodity production to improve the value chain and stabilise the farming area (about 400,000ha) with an estimated output of 4.6 million tonnes of agricultural products.
The country also expects to gain total production value of the winter crop 2021 of VND34 – 35 trillion (US$1.5 billion) with an average production value of about VND85 million per ha.
Deputy Minister Doanh noted that provinces should accelerate the harvest of the summer and autumn rice crops before the stormy season while freeing up land to soon produce the winter crop. Localities also need to increase their area of biomass trees as fodder for grazing cattle.
