Speaking at discussion group No. 2 within the framework of the IX National Congress of the Vietnam Farmers' Union, on June 7, Mr. Huynh Van Thon - Chairman of the Board of Directors cum General Director of Loc Troi Group Joint Stock Company shared his concerns from many years of practical experience accompanying farmers and directly implementing rice production models at the grassroots level.
According to him, bringing science and technology into agriculture, especially in rural areas today, is a very necessary but not easy requirement.
Farmers always want to improve productivity, reduce costs, and facilitate production, while the market sets increasingly high requirements for quality, food safety, environmental protection and sustainable development.
Consumers want clean food but it must be cheap, that is, both delicious, nutritious, and cheap. That is a very difficult problem for agricultural workers," Mr. Thon said.
From the practical implementation in An Giang, Ca Mau provinces and some other localities, he said that Loc Troi Group is starting from the story of food safety to build a new rice production model.
Quoting the direction of General Secretary and President To Lam on ensuring food safety, Mr. Thon said that this is not only a major direction but also a very specific requirement for the way production is organized in the current period.
If rice grains enter the meals of nearly 100 million people every day, but consumers still do not know where rice grains are produced, how they are cultivated, what seeds are used, what materials, and what stages they go through, then food safety is still not complete," Mr. Thon emphasized.
Mr. Thon believes that traceability should not be simply understood as a tool for selling goods or attaching QR codes to products.
If food safety is determined to be managed according to the entire chain, then traceability must become the management infrastructure of the entire production chain, from rice varieties, input materials, cultivation processes, harvesting, purchasing, processing, circulation to consumers.
When each stage is transparentized, people have a basis to feel secure, and legitimate businesses are also protected.
From that perspective, Mr. Thon assessed that the two-level local government model is a very suitable condition to reorganize the rice industry. The provincial level plays the role of orienting, coordinating and supervising; the commune level is the place to closely grasp the reality of production, crop season and field situation.
Many things, if only looking from above, will be very difficult to see everything, but at the grassroots level, it is very clear. Where the process is done correctly, where there are signs of abnormality, which materials have problems, and which areas are facing difficulties can be recognized," he analyzed.
Also according to Mr. Thon, in that management structure, the commune police force needs to be properly recognized for its role. This is not a separate support force for businesses but an important link to maintain discipline in the production area, prevent fake and poor quality agricultural materials, and limit price manipulation and unreasonable intermediary forms that distort the value chain.
Mr. Thon also mentioned building a traceability stamp system. If the stamp is just a symbol for buyers to see on the packaging, the value is very limited.
Conversely, if the stamp is attached to a data authentication mechanism and interconnected with the national database, it will become an effective tool to help post-inspection management agencies, anti-counterfeiting, detect fraud and trace origin clearly.
Besides the issue of data and chain management, Mr. Thon said that another important bottleneck is credit capital. Each crop season, if there is a lack of capital, farmers are prone to dependence on unofficial credit sources with high costs, thereby affecting production quality. Businesses are also under great pressure when they have to prepare financial resources to purchase in a short time to ensure consumption commitments.
Therefore, Mr. Thon proposed that there should be a mechanism for banks to lend directly to farmers at appropriate interest rates based on transparent production data and established linkage models.
When credit goes to the right people, at the right time and for the right purpose, farmers will become less dependent on complex sources of capital from outside. Businesses also reduce the pressure to manage all short-term capital sources to maintain product consumption," he analyzed.
If the capital problem is solved, businesses will focus better on core tasks such as organizing raw material areas, controlling inputs, transferring science and technology, purchasing, processing and finding markets.
Mr. Thon said that according to businesses' calculations, if the value chain is reorganized in a transparent direction, with traceability and synchronous quality control, the additional cost for each kilogram of rice is only about 1,000 VND.
From practical implementation, he believes that what is needed now is not to issue a new policy but to choose a model that is clear enough and feasible enough to do it properly, do it thoroughly, and then draw experience and improve the mechanism.
He also especially emphasized the role of the Farmers' Association organization and cooperative groups, production groups at the grassroots level in deploying new production linkage models.
We are very eager to coordinate and work with the Farmers' Association. The role of the Association is extremely important, from organizing production, inspection, technology application to deploying traceability," he said...
The discussion opinions will be received, summarized, and reported to the Congress by the Presidium to continue researching, completing and supplementing appropriately in documents as well as orienting the activities of the Vietnam Farmers' Union in the coming time.
