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| Application of ploughing machine, part of mechanization in Hanoi. (Photo: Thang Van- www.ktdt.vn) |
(VOVworld) – In recent years, despite achievements in food security and farmers’ incomes and living condition improvement, rural areas are still facing many challenges. These include a shortage of labor, low income, and a small production scale. Mechanizing agricultural production is considered a key to improving the situation. VOV’s reporter To Tuan reports.
Machines are essential to the industrialization and modernization of Vietnam’s agricultural sector and new rural development. Mechanization will help increase the value, productivity, and quality of agricultural products. The 19 criteria on new rural development include restructuring farm land to create larger fields enabling advanced technology to achieve higher productivity. In the new rural development process, Government policies help farmers obtain loans and encourage farmers to invest in mechanical farm equipment. Bui Ba Bong, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, says ‘I think it’s important to mobilize people and enterprises to speed up mechanization. Hanoi’s outlying district of Ba Vi is an example. In the past three years, 70% of the district’s growing areas have been mechanized thanks to a great effort by local farmers’.
Many companies are now cooperating with scientific research centers to supply production materials and high tech equipment to farmers. The Viet – My Industry and Agriculture Company in the central province of Thanh Hoa has been successful in this kind of cooperation. Over the past five years, the company has focused on mechanizing rice cultivation, providing equipment for ploughing the soil, sowing and transplanting rice seedlings, and spraying insecticide, as well as combine harvesters. The company has worked with the National Seed Joint Stock Company to provide farmers with high-yield rice seedlings and has transferred technology that has helped the farmers reduce input costs. The model has been successfully duplicated in five pilot communes in Thanh Hoa province. Le Doan Hung of Hanh Phuc Commune, Tho Xuan District, says ‘In the past, we harvested manually. Now we use a machine provided by the Viet- My Industry and Agriculture Company to sow rice seedlings. The method has helped us save human and material resources, and paydays. Using the machine to sow and transplant has created straight lines of rice, enabling the rice fields to ripen evenly. We are very happy to work with the Viet-My Company as it has raised our productivity’.
Le Van Minh is Director of the Viet - My Industry and Agriculture Company stating ‘We have successfully piloted industrialized agricultural production in combination with the supply of high-yield seedlings in 5 communes of Thanh Hoa province. We plan to spread the model throughout the province to boost new rural development. In the future, we will continue to invest in agricultural equipment and teach farmers how to operate and repair the machines’.