Dong Nai leads in building new rural areas and developing modern agriculture.

The year 2025, the 50th anniversary of the liberation of the South and national reunification, is also an important milestone to look back on the strong development of Dong Nai's agricultural sector. From a land once devastated by war, Dong Nai has now risen to become one of the leading localities in the country in building new rural areas (NTM), developing modern, sustainable agricultural production and international integration.

Many of the province's key agricultural products are exported well to demanding markets. In the photo: The area displaying key agricultural products of Xuan Loc district at the conference to review the project to build Xuan Loc district to meet the standards of a new model rural area by 2024. Photo: B.Nguyen

In 2024, the province's agricultural, forestry and fishery production value will reach 50.55 trillion VND, an increase of 3.53% compared to 2023, exceeding the assigned target by 0.03%. Dong Nai is the province with the largest production value in the Southeast region; ranked second in the country in the number of advanced NTM communes, among the top in the country in the number of advanced NTM districts, as well as in building model NTM districts.

Overcoming difficulties, developing modern agriculture

During the resistance wars against French colonialism and American imperialism, agriculture, rural areas, and farmers in the province made great contributions in terms of human and material resources to the cause of national liberation and defense. This was also an area that suffered many losses and injuries due to the devastation of war. After 1975, Dong Nai agriculture almost started from scratch. The irrigation system and infrastructure were severely damaged; production was fragmented and spontaneous; farming skills were backward, lacking agricultural materials and machinery. People mainly produced on a small scale, self-sufficiently. In the early stages of developing production, agriculture, rural areas, and farmers suffered the consequences of subjectivity and haste in reforming and accelerating agricultural collectivization, which hindered agricultural production and farmers' lives.

The impressive thing about building advanced and model new rural areas is that the income of rural people is constantly increasing. In some communes that meet advanced new rural standards in 2024, the average income of rural people is more than 90 million VND/person, even reaching 110 million VND/person in some communes. To date, no locality has outstanding debts for basic construction under the National Target Program on building new rural areas.

Rural people often face natural disasters, epidemics, and economic risks such as crop failures, unemployment, market price fluctuations, low income, etc. Especially in remote areas, ethnic minority areas, the lives of rural people are even more difficult, creating more disparities in life and income between rural and urban areas.

With the spirit of hard work and determination to build their homeland, Dong Nai farmers have gradually overcome difficulties, restored and developed production towards large-scale commodities, and promoted exports to many countries around the world. Enterprises and farmers in the province are dynamic, creative, and bold in investing in high-tech applications (CNC), shifting agriculture towards organic agriculture, and investing in agricultural processing industry.

To date, the province has 321 concentrated production areas with a scale of nearly 95.7 thousand hectares. Of which, there are 10 CNC agricultural areas with a scale of more than 11.9 thousand hectares and 8 areas eligible for organic agricultural production with a scale of 4.4 thousand hectares. The value ratio of key agricultural products applying CNC reached nearly 46.3%, the estimated value reached over 34.7 thousand billion VND, reaching nearly 92.6% of the target by 2025, higher than the plan.

The province currently has 282 OCOP products (One Commune One Product Program) of 165 entities recognized with 3 stars or more. This result has brought Dong Nai to the top in the number of OCOP products in the Southeast region. The agricultural deep processing industry in the province continues to focus on a number of strong industries such as: animal feed, livestock products, coffee, cashew nuts, vegetables, fruits, forestry products... with nearly 1,800 enterprises and facilities processing agricultural, forestry and aquatic products.

Many good and creative ways in building new rural areas

Throughout the development process, the Party Committee and the Government of Dong Nai have always identified the issue of agriculture, rural areas and farmers as a strategic, important, regular and urgent task. Before the "three agriculture" program, from the beginning of 2007, the Provincial Party Committee decided on the policy of building a "4 have" countryside: having an improved economic life; having a synchronous economic - social infrastructure; having a good cultural life - ensuring security and safety; having a sustainable ecological environment. In which, the ultimate goal is to develop agricultural production and constantly improve the material and spiritual life of farmers. This is the basis for Dong Nai to promote development and become a leading locality in the country in developing three agriculture and building new rural areas.

Up to now, the whole province has 111 communes meeting advanced NTM standards; 33 communes meeting model NTM standards; the whole province has 3 advanced NTM districts, 3 districts are completing dossiers to request recognition as advanced NTM in 2025.

Working with Dong Nai on the results of building a new rural area by the end of 2024, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development (now the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment) Tran Thanh Nam assessed that among the four districts nationwide selected to build a model new rural area, Xuan Loc is the first locality to have basically completed the criteria for a model new rural area. It is very welcome that Xuan Loc is implementing two goals in parallel, focusing on the main goal of developing sustainable specialized commodity production while also being a model for other models. This is very valuable and is a valuable lesson for the Central Government to gain more experience in building a model new rural area in the coming time.

Although it is an industrial province, Dong Nai has a very high determination and has very strong directions in building advanced rural areas and model rural areas, so it has achieved many impressive results. Dong Nai is ranked 2nd in the country in terms of the number of advanced rural communes. The province has many good and creative ways in implementing the construction of advanced rural areas and model rural areas. The above results were achieved thanks to the consistent direction and leadership of the provincial leaders in building new rural areas.

Binh Nguyen

Source: https://baodongnai.com.vn/kinh-te/202504/dong-nai-dan-dau-xay-dung-nong-thon-moi-phat-trien-nong-nghiep-hien-dai-f0d403c/