HBO – Agriculture production toward value chain is one of the breakthroughs in restructuring the agriculture sector today.

Lac Thuy district has helped local farmers by connecting them with enterprises, instead of letting them struggle themselves in the market. 

Enterprises are responsible for providing materials, technical assistance and buying agricultural products of local farmers, while farmers only focus on production. The connectivity models help to ensure product quality and origin tracing.

In August 2016, An Lac commune signed a contract with Vietnam Chilli Co. Ltd. on growing hybrid chilli for export on 3.5 hectares of land. The pilot project involved 19 farming households in An Phu and Loc Thanh hamlets. They used chilli variety 7 (a Chinese hybrid chilly), which produces fruits in two months of growth. This was the first time local farmers had grown chilli crop. They followed standardised cultivating procedure, thus resulting in high yield and quality with an average productivity of between 1.2 tonnes and 1.5 tonnes of chilli per Vietnamese acre (360 sq.m). The Vietnam Chilli Company bought all chilli produced by local farmers at prices range from 5,000 VND to 10,000 VND per kg, much lucrative than rice and maize. Farmers could earn between 200 million VND - 250 million VND per hectare of chilli.

Following the successful pilot model, the chilli growing area was expanded to 20 hectares with the involvement of eight out of 15 communes in the Lac Thuy. The district signed contract with the Mien Bac Green Agriculture JSC in Kim Dong, Ha Nam province.

Two other value chain-based projects are implemented in Lac Thuy district, including chicken raising and vegetable cultivation. The project on raising 20,000 local chicken in Dong Tam and Phu Thanh communes, involving 20 households, meanwhile the other on concentrated safe vegetable production is carried out in Dong Tam, Co Nghia and Lac Long communes.

Attention was also paid on luring investment in the district’s rural areas. A number of firms invested in safe vegetable production and herbal plant cultivation in late 2016 and early 2017 under the connectivity model toward chain value, including the Lac Thuy clean agriculture company, Vietnam Chilli Company, and Sinh Loc Vocational training Company.  

Besides, other companies such as the Mien Bac Green Agriculture JSC and Vietnam Chilli Company want to participate in connectivity models on chilli and pumpkin production for export.

Quach Tat Liem, Chairman of the Lac Thuy district People’s Committee, said the district targets to raise local income per capita to over 34.5 million VND at the end of 2017.

Therefore, the district has instructed its communes to actively shift economic and agricultural production structure toward high-economic goods production, while promoting human resources training; building appropriate production models, and developing connectivity models.

Incentives should be offered to encourage the connection among managers, farmers, firms and consumers in tandem with protecting the environment, establish cooperatives and farms, invest in agriculture and rural development, form large-scale fields, and use agricultural machinery to reduce post-harvest loss.

In addition, focus should be also put on providing vocational training for rural labourers, promoting industrialisation in rural areas, creating jobs and shift rural labour structure.