Prime Minister dialogues with farmers: Democracy, practical effectiveness

The conference was held directly at the Government Headquarters and online to 63 locations in provinces and centrally-run cities.

Also attending the conference were Vice President of the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Nguyen Thi Thu Ha; Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Minh Hoan; Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung; President of the Central Committee of the Vietnam Farmers' Union Luong Quoc Doan; leaders of departments, ministries, branches, central agencies; leaders of provinces and cities; leaders of socio-political organizations, associations; especially with the participation of over 4,000 delegates representing farmers nationwide.

Comrade Nguyen Minh Hung, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee; leaders of a number of departments, branches and sectors and a number of typical farmers of the province attended at the Hai Duong province bridge.

Nearly 2,000 questions sent to the Prime Minister

Since 2018, the Prime Minister's Dialogue with Farmers has become an annual activity. Before this Conference, the Central Committee of the Vietnam Farmers' Union received nearly 2,000 questions from farmers to the Prime Minister, focusing on 6 main areas such as: the implementation of Resolution No. 26/NQ-CP of the Government implementing Resolution No. 19-NQ/TW on agriculture, farmers, and rural areas by 2030, with a vision to 2045; the Project "Sustainable development of one million hectares of high-quality and low-emission rice cultivation associated with green growth in the Mekong Delta by 2030"; the role of farmers in implementing the commitment to reduce net emissions to zero by 2050.

In particular, farmers across the country asked many questions related to: promoting digital transformation in agriculture; solutions, mechanisms, and policies to promote production and consumption of agricultural products; solutions to handle waste, waste, and protect the rural environment; caring for the lives, social security, and jobs... for people in rural areas.

With the viewpoint of "thinking honestly, speaking honestly, doing honestly, having real effectiveness, people enjoying real benefits, avoiding formalities"; to develop agriculture, farmers and rural areas better and better, in the spirit of high democracy, at the Conference, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and leaders of ministries and branches directly answered and discussed with farmers many specific and practical issues.

In response to the question of farmer Nguyen Van Huu in Luc Ngan district, Bac Giang province about policies to support the development of community tourism, tourism development in agriculture and rural areas, contributing to improving life, preserving and promoting local cultural identity and developing a green and sustainable economy, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh pointed out that we are very proud of our beautiful and majestic natural landscape; heroic historical and cultural traditions; rich and unique cultural identity; many specialties; hardworking people, open and honest farmers..., these are also very necessary factors for tourism development.

According to the Prime Minister, the Party and the State have policies and strategies for developing agriculture, farmers, rural areas and tourism; all of which mention the issue of tourism development in agriculture, rural areas, and farmers doing tourism. Most recently, on August 22, 2022, the Prime Minister issued Decision No. 922/QD-TTg on the Rural Tourism Development Program in New Rural Area Construction for the 2021-2025 period.

The Prime Minister said that in order to exploit and promote these potentials, first of all, it is necessary to do a good job of planning tourism development associated with nature, heritage, and historical and cultural traditions in the regions; developing tourism in rural areas and agriculture requires the participation of the State, people, and businesses.

In response to the question of Ms. Do Thi My Thom, Director of Hung Thom Cooperative (Gia Lai) about solutions to help farmers fully and promptly grasp domestic and export market information, thereby improving the efficiency of production and consumption of agricultural products", Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said that to have knowledge and awareness, it must go through the teaching and learning process.

The State propagates, educates, and guides in various forms such as press agencies having communication programs with appropriate content and duration, promoting the publication of books to disseminate knowledge and guidance... In return, farmers must also strive to study, research, and constantly improve their knowledge and understanding.

To have a sustainable market, the State must negotiate and sign trade agreements, connect farmers with embassies, trade representative agencies, etc. For their part, farmers must have products that ensure quality, food safety and hygiene, clean production, green production, brands, designs, packaging, traceability, geographical indications, etc.

Responding to the question of Mr. Bui Van Tuan, Director of Cay Trom Agricultural Cooperative (Long An) about policies to support farmers participating in the Project of one million hectares of high-quality rice production, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh emphasized that agricultural development in general, and rice cultivation in particular, requires 5 important elements: Brand; planning; enterprises; banks; application of science and technology. The implementation of this Project is not outside of that requirement.

Project of one million hectares of high-quality, low-emission rice production, green credit, in addition to the support package of the World Bank and policies to support cooperatives, the Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development will have separate credit packages for enterprises and cooperatives participating in the Project. In addition, there are policies to support logistics, storage, close links with enterprises... so that the project can achieve the desired goals; build the Vietnamese rice brand, contribute to green, sustainable development, effectively implement Vietnam's commitments to respond to climate change.

Shift to agricultural economic thinking

Concluding the conference, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh emphasized that the 5th Conference of the Prime Minister's Dialogue with Vietnamese Farmers in 2023 (the 2nd in the term of the 15th Government) is very important to concretize many major, strategic issues on agriculture, rural areas and farmers according to the Party's Resolutions and the direction of General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong at the 8th National Congress of the Vietnam Farmers' Union, term 2023 - 2028.

The Prime Minister affirmed that the Party and State have always had a consistent viewpoint on the development of agriculture, rural areas and farmers; have issued many important and strategic policies and guidelines, affirming the role and position of agriculture, rural areas and farmers in the process of national development; in which the most prominent are Resolution of the 7th Central Conference, Session X, Resolution 19 of the 5th Central Conference, Session XIII on agriculture, farmers and rural areas; Resolution 20 of the 5th Central Conference, Session XIII on collective economy; Resolution No. 26/NQ-CP of the Government on promulgating the Government's Action Program to implement Resolution No. 19-NQ/TW of the Party Central Committee.

Reviewing the outstanding achievements of agriculture, farmers, and rural areas, contributing to the overall socio-economic development of the country and being the pillar, premise, and foundation for the country's rapid and sustainable development, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said that the GDP growth of agriculture in 2023 is estimated to reach 3.83%, the highest in many years. The export turnover of agricultural, forestry, and fishery products has always been maintained at a high level with 10 groups of products having an export turnover of 1 billion USD or more, the trade surplus value in 2023 is estimated at 11 billion USD; 78% of communes have met new rural standards, 20 provinces and centrally run cities have 100% of communes meeting new rural standards, and 05 provinces have been recognized by the Prime Minister for completing the task of building new rural areas.

Besides expressing joy and pride in the achievements in agricultural, rural and farmer development, the Prime Minister also frankly pointed out the limitations that need to be overcome such as: agricultural development still follows the "production mindset", not yet transformed to "economic mindset"; rural development planning is still inadequate, environmental pollution, the issue of preserving rural cultural identity, security and order in rural areas are posing many new challenges...

Recalling President Ho Chi Minh's teachings on the people in general and farmers in particular, as well as the contents of the Resolutions, guidelines and policies of the Party and State on agriculture, farmers and rural areas, in the coming time, the Prime Minister requested to enhance the spirit of patriotism, self-reliance and political position of Vietnamese farmers in innovation and international integration; enhance the determination, not to accept poverty and backwardness, realize the aspiration to get rich, contribute to the development of smart agriculture, modern rural areas, promote the country's rapid and sustainable development and farmers truly have a prosperous and happy life.

In particular, promoting patriotic emulation movements and campaigns among farmers, especially the movement "The whole country joins hands to build new rural areas", the movement "The whole people unite to build a cultural life" associated with the movement "The whole people unite to build new rural areas and civilized urban areas", the movement "Farmers participate in ensuring national defense and security".

The Prime Minister also proposed raising farmers' awareness of developing large-scale agricultural products, smart, clean and safe agriculture, enhancing the application of scientific and technological achievements, actively integrating internationally, adapting to climate change, taking advantage of every opportunity, turning danger into opportunity and leaving no one behind.

The Prime Minister requested the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and localities to urgently direct, guide, and have people actively participate in effectively implementing the Project "Sustainable development of one million hectares of high-quality and low-emission rice cultivation associated with green growth in the Mekong Delta by 2030". Reorganize production, strengthen linkages along the value chain; link production with processing and consumption of agricultural products on the basis of developing diverse forms of cooperation and linkages between households and cooperative organizations and enterprises, taking enterprises as the center and driving force to improve production and business efficiency and ensure harmony of interests of participating entities; thoroughly implement the motto "if you want to go fast, go alone, if you want to go far, go together".

“We must strengthen linkages; diversify production and supply chains; enhance deep processing; expand healthy competitive markets; promote green production, high productivity, low emissions, and sustainable development,” the Prime Minister noted.

The Head of Government requested that sectors and localities fully recognize the role of farmers in agricultural development, rural economy and new rural construction; improve the quality of vocational training and development for farmers and rural workers and service activities, consulting and supporting farmers in developing production and business; consolidate and improve the organizational apparatus, build a team of Union officials at all levels with sufficient qualities and capacity to meet the requirements of the tasks.

At the same time, proactively integrate, expand international cooperation, promote people-to-people diplomacy; focus on deploying resources and human resources to effectively implement projects and development strategies of the agricultural sector, with a focus on programs and projects on emission reduction and climate change response. In particular, it is necessary to focus resources on implementing the National Strategy on Green Growth for the period 2021-2030 and vision to 2050; in which the agricultural sector needs to effectively implement plans to reduce greenhouse gas and methane emissions in agricultural production.

Ministries, sectors, organizations and localities focus on promoting digital transformation in agriculture, identifying it as an objective practical requirement of development, a priority area for digital transformation, strongly changing the agricultural production-processing-business chain, towards the goal of "Every farmer has the ability to access, exploit and effectively use the digital data platform on agriculture, the traceability platform, reducing dependence on intermediaries from production, distribution to consumers".

The Prime Minister believes that with new momentum and new motivation, from the 8th National Congress of the Vietnam Farmers' Union, term 2023 - 2028, our country's agriculture and rural areas will increasingly develop and Vietnamese farmers will continue to affirm their increasingly important role and position, as wished by General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong: "Wishing the Vietnamese peasant class to continuously grow strong, truly be the subject and center of the process of agricultural development, rural economy and new rural construction!".