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Farms advised to consolidate
To ensure large-scale sustainable agricultural production, individual farm plots must be consolidated to form high-yield farms, specialists have stated.
A view in Hai Boi Commune in Hanoi’s outlying Dong Anh District. Farmers with small farms have been urged to consolidate to ensure large-scale sustainable agricultural production.
An official from the Land Management Administration under the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, Dang Quang Phan, calculated that each family should have 0.7ha of arable land if the conversion from scattered to consolidated plots is to succeed.
On average, each household presently owns five plots of land in different locations, with each plot covering around 0.14ha.
The country possesses more than 10 million ha of agricultural land divided into 70 million plots and nearly 14 million households.
Phan said that the agricultural land of at least seven households would need to be consolidated to establish a working farm, as the average area of each household plot, at present, is merely 5ha.
Based on the calculation, Phan argued that if the country was interested in expanding the scale of agricultural production, it would have to begin consolidating these plots.
Yet, he said the law needed to ensure minimal losses for farmers during the process of consolidation.
Chairman of Thanh Hoa Province People’s Committee Mai Van Ninh said that the scattered nature of arable land in rural areas had resulted in a series of problems, including increased production costs, investment limitations, difficulty applying relevant advanced technology and obstacles for infrastructure construction.
"Consolidating agricultural land to establish farms for commodity production is an indispensable trend, that will help meet demand in a new era of development," Ninh said.
With the country’s admission to the World Trade Organisation and its increasing integration into world economy, Vietnam needed to shift from self-reliant, self-supplied agriculture into commodity agriculture, he said.
Necessary caution
Large-scale breeding facilities and farms have mushroomed in the past decade, to the degree that most provinces in the fertile Northern Delta no longer have unused land available for lease.
Over the years, the demand for agricultural land has in turn prompted many farmers to band together and join their land.
Yet according to the director of the Institute for Policy and Strategy for Agriculture and Rural Development Dang Kim Son, there are a few obstacles to land consolidation.
One problem is that the existing law does not yet allow land owners to transfer the use of or lease of agricultural land over a long period of time.
However, the issue should be resolved soon as the Party Central Committee has recently approved a relevant project, which legalises agricultural land consolidation, allowing farmers to make long-term investments in such farms.
Son said the project would also link farmers with industries in urban with rural areas. He said, no one would be left behind in the country’s development process.
The project was drafted based on the experience of about 200 other countries, Son said.
Yet many farm owners still doubt the feasibility of the project. They argue that though businesses are willing to invest billions of dong in purchasing agricultural land for factories, very few farmers have been bold enough to do the same for the establishment of farms.
Many also believe land speculation will increase and farmers will be less likely to expand their production scale if the policy on land consolidation isn’t strict enough.
A landowner of a large farm in Co Dong Commune in Ha Tay said, "Very few people dare to invest in mechanising their fields if they own a large area of agricultural land."
Former director of the Viet Nam Agricultural Science Institute Dao The Tuan said the consolidation of agricultural land was necessary for development, but it was still a complicated issue that needed careful scrutiny in terms of policy construction.
Farming fades
Forecasts show that the number of farmers will total only 9.5 million by 2020, a decrease of about half of the current number, at 17.5 million.
Given this, many believe it is essential to provide vocational training for landless farmers. They say that agricultural land consolidation will change production.
Tuan said that at present there were almost no hired labourers working in agriculture in developed countries, as they had been lured to work in big cities for higher wages.
Large farms had been sold to the middle class for the establishment of family farms, Tuan said.
Former Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Cong Tan said that agriculture development should be based on household structure as related to small land holders and family farms.
He said the law should be amended to allow agricultural land holders to transfer or receive land over a long period of time.
VNN
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