Minister Le Minh Hoan: Scientists should meet farmers, there are countless ideas

Enterprises and Institutes signed cooperation agreements in technology transfer between units under the witness of Minister Le Minh Hoan - Photo: TUNG DINH

On the afternoon of July 10, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development held a forum connecting agricultural science and technology products with businesses, cooperatives, and people. Minister Le Minh Hoan chaired the forum.

The market is the 'midwife' for scientific research topics.

Responding to the question of how to bring businesses and scientists together right from the beginning, Prof. Dr. Nguyen Hong Son - Director of the Vietnam Academy of Agricultural Sciences - said that the market is the "midwife" for scientific research topics.

According to Mr. Son, without a market, it is impossible to apply these studies to production. Each business has its own goals and orientations, so they are the practical customers.

"Enterprises are the ones that really need resources. In recent years, businesses have been willing to allocate their development funds for research. Therefore, placing private orders from businesses for researchers and scientists is very important," said Mr. Son.

Chairman of the Board of Directors of Vietnam Seed Group (Vinaseed) Tran Kim Lien believes that enterprises are the market of science and technology, because the goal of enterprises is to seek profit from the market, so they understand better than anyone what the market needs.

"As Minister Le Minh Hoan said, we need a mechanism to predict changes in consumption trends in order to orient scientific research work.

"We are willing to pay to order from domestic researchers and scientists. Short-term cooperation is transfer, long-term cooperation is ordering" - Ms. Lien said.

Director of Global Food Import-Export Company Limited Nguyen Duc Hung proposed to build a space and forum for farmers and businesses to present ideas. Scientists can base on that to conduct research. On the other hand, when research is deployed and published on that database, farmers can find information and proactively approach it.

"In reality, people and businesses are not interested in research results in general because the benefits of people and businesses are not high. There needs to be transparency in the assessment of the standard system, so that when products are put on the market, it can help businesses increase the value of their products and people can enjoy the right quality," said Mr. Hung.

Research on useful solutions to help farmers reduce hardship

Sharing at the forum, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Minh Hoan said that cooperation is needed to connect and correctly understand the concept of the Science and Technology market.

"Why is it called a market? The market is where supply and demand meet. The market will have competition, creating motivation for better work. Bad products will be eliminated. People who cannot sell their products will question themselves, to improve and do better" - Mr. Hoan shared.

According to Mr. Hoan, businesses have the right to choose many research institutes, and vice versa, research institutes also have the right to choose many businesses. That is supply and demand. If we just stop at association, it will be difficult to go far.

"We should not think that we are scientists and do not meet small or micro businesses. We sit here to do national affairs, to help farmers and the agricultural sector develop. Businesses are the factors that help the institute and scientists understand what the market needs and what to research..." - Mr. Hoan said.

The commander of the agricultural sector hopes that research institutes will research "useful solutions" and think about farmers, how to make their work less difficult. That is also a suggestion for scientists, go out and meet farmers, just listening to them will give you countless ideas.

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/bo-truong-le-minh-hoan-nha-khoa-hoc-hay-gap-nong-dan-co-vo-so-y-tuong-20240710193524519.htm