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Hanoi has advantages in developing agriculture: official
The new Hanoi, which includes the former Ha Tay province, will have a big rural area, 88.3% of total area of Hanoi, and big proportion of residents earning their living from agriculture, 63.5%. The rate of agricultural production in Hanoi’s GDP was modest in 2007, approximately 2%. The figure is expected to reach 5.3% in 2008.
Tran Xuan Viet, Director of the Hanoi Agriculture and Rural Development, talks about agricultural production in the future of the new Hanoi.
How will Hanoi’s agriculture develop in the new historic period, when Hanoi is three times larger than previously?
It is a necessity that the proportion of agriculture will gradually decrease in the capital’s economic structure. The capital will focus on developing in trade, services, while the agricultural area will be step by step narrowed.
Therefore, Hanoi’s agriculture will focus on the development of quality and efficiency, while quantity will not be the priority.
How much land will be reserved for agricultural production and where will it be?
Except the districts in the inner city, districts in the suburbs of the city, including Hoai Duc, Dan Phuong, Quoc Oai and Thuong Tin, which have seen rapid urbanisation in the last few years, will still have areas for agriculture production. The area is considered the ‘green belt’ of the city which provides food and vegetables to the city’s residents.
What are the advantages of Hanoi in developing agriculture and how will Hanoi’s agriculture develop?
Hanoi has great land potentials; especially it has diversified biological areas favourable to develop different kinds of plantations.
Former Ha Tay province, before becoming part of Hanoi, once had a developed breeding industry. It had 13mil fowl, 1.5mil pigs, 330,000 buffalos and cows, the biggest number in the country.
Hanoi will be both a production and consumption place. Hanoi is a location where many agriculture research institutes are located; therefore, it has more advantages than other localities in utilising science and technology in production.
Hanoi’s agriculture will prioritise high quality and safe food production. Breeding buffalos will not be the focus of Hanoi, but poultry, pigs and milk cows.
Experts say that Vietnam needs to expand its agricultural production scale in order to raise productivity and improve product quality. Do you agree with this?
This is absolutely right. It is clear that the production scale of every household in the Red River Delta is very small. The problem is that the labour force in agriculture is very big, while the agriculture area is small, which has led to low income per capita. Therefore, I think that it is necessary to develop trade villages and develop the areas where farmers cooperate with each other to make certain kinds of products.
Could you please tell us about the relationship between agricultural and urban areas?
Some people say there is no need to pay attention to developing agricultural production as agriculture does not contribute much to the economy. However, if the tam nong policy (agriculture, farmer and rural areas) has uncertainties, urban areas will not develop.
In other countries, governments maintain subsidisation schemes to support farmers and agriculture. I think that we need to consider investment in agriculture, farmers and rural areas as investment for development in the long term.
VNN
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