According to the report of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, in 2022, the export turnover of the agricultural sector will reach over 53,22 billion USD, of which there is a significant increase from the fields of forestry, animal husbandry and fisheries. Agricultural production activities contribute to ensuring national food security, stabilizing life and social security.
Agricultural production, especially farming and animal husbandry, is emitting a huge amount of plastic waste that pollutes the environment.
However, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development also acknowledged that agricultural production activities are creating great pressure on the environment, including the problem of plastic waste. Statistics in 2022 show that the total amount of solid waste, including plastic waste arising from cultivation, is about 661.500 tons, including 550.000 tons of plastic, 77.490 thousand tons of fertilizer packaging and 33.980 thousand tons of pesticide packaging. The livestock industry emits 77.000 thousand tons of plastic waste for animal feed packaging…
Also according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, through the support of UNDP Vietnam and international organizations, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development is implementing many solutions to reduce solid waste and plastic waste such as: a model of collecting plastic waste on fishing boats, connecting with a material recovery facility in Quy Nhon (Binh Dinh), calling on fishermen to join the garbage collection team at sea, both helping to reduce the amount of plastic waste and increase the value of floating fish waste.
In Quang Ninh, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development is piloting the conversion of styrofoam buoys in aquaculture to floating materials according to QCDP 08:2020/QN, which will gradually replace disposable plastic materials that are difficult to collect and reuse with environmentally friendly recycled materials.
Ms. Ramla Khalidi, UNDP Resident Representative in Vietnam recommended: Vietnam and international partners need to act to accelerate effective solutions towards developing a national plan on reducing solid waste and plastic waste in agriculture.
In particular, Vietnam needs to develop a database on plastic pollution and plastic waste, as well as a feasible monitoring system from national to provincial levels to assess the process of reducing plastic waste in agriculture.
In addition, Ms. Ramla Khalidi said that effective models of collection and recycling, using packaging materials to replace single-use plastics in the field should be replicated in many localities, in parallel with communication activities, training farmers to be aware of the harmful effects of plastic waste on the environment and ready to use alternatives.
