Efforts to clear capital sources for the implementation of the 1 million hectare rice project

Implementing the Project on Sustainable Development of 1 million hectares of high-quality and low-emission rice cultivation associated with green growth in the Mekong Delta by 2030 (the 1 million hectare rice project) requires a huge amount of capital for relevant parties to link up, build specialized areas and improve the value chain. In particular, farmers need to borrow capital to invest in machinery, technology and technical advances in production. Therefore, unlocking credit capital and social resources for implementing the 1 million hectare rice project is the key to overcoming difficulties and creating favorable conditions for farmers, businesses and cooperatives.

Cooperatives are in dire need of capital.

In the recent winter-spring and summer-autumn rice crop of 2025, farmers of An Phuoc Cooperative, Dong Thap province, were supported by local authorities and related units to implement a high-quality and low-emission rice cultivation model with an area of ​​50 hectares. Farmers participating in the model were supported by the authorities to connect with technology and mechanical service suppliers to apply seed-saving sowing solutions and take care of rice, fertilize, spray pesticides, harvest rice and collect straw using many types of modern machinery associated with advanced farming processes. Thanks to that, farmers of the Cooperative significantly reduced production costs, while improving productivity, product quality and rice was purchased by enterprises at a higher price than the market, so profits increased by over 3 million VND/ha/crop.

Harvesting rice by machine at the high-quality and low-emission rice production model at Tien Thuan Cooperative, Can Tho City.

Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Nguyen, Director of An Phuoc Cooperative, said: "The Cooperative has 58 members, with a rice cultivation area of ​​200 hectares. From the success of the pilot model of high-quality and low-emission rice cultivation at the Cooperative, the Board of Directors of the Cooperative really wants to quickly replicate the model to the entire Cooperative, but is still facing difficulties in investing in purchasing machinery and technology. The reason is that the Cooperative still lacks capital, does not have collateral to borrow capital, and has not been able to access loans with preferential interest rates and long loan terms."

Farmers in many rice cooperatives in the Mekong Delta are in dire need of financial resources to invest in facilities and modernize equipment to meet production development requirements. In particular, farmers need to borrow capital at preferential interest rates to invest in machinery and technology to apply cultivation processes and techniques according to the 1 million hectare rice project. Specifically, purchasing mechanical equipment for precise sowing to reduce the amount of seeds used, fertilizers and pesticides, applying alternating flooding technology, investing in machinery and technology for straw collection and straw treatment in a circular direction to increase the value chain. According to Mr. Truong Huu Tri, Director of Go Gon Cooperative, Tay Ninh province, the cooperative is in dire need of capital to invest in machinery to serve its members in order to effectively implement technical processes for cultivating high-quality and low-emission rice, as well as developing mechanical services to increase revenue. However, cooperatives have difficulty accessing loans from banks.

There are many reasons leading to this situation such as cooperatives do not have collateral to borrow capital; cooperatives are weak in production and business organization capacity; production scale in many cooperatives is still small, so the cooperative's borrowing plan to invest in machinery is often assessed by banks as unfeasible, ineffective, and slow to recover capital.

Pay attention to removing obstacles

In Can Tho City, the Department of Economic Cooperation and Rural Development under the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment recently coordinated with the School of Public Policy and Rural Development to organize a workshop on "Application of digitalization and support for financial access for the 1 million hectare high-quality rice program". At this workshop, delegates focused on analyzing and clarifying the difficulties and obstacles that cooperatives, farmers, businesses and related parties are facing regarding capital in implementing the 1 million hectare rice project. Delegates proposed policy mechanisms and solutions to promptly resolve them.

Many delegates said that in the near future, the authorities need to have credit guarantee mechanisms, creating conditions for cooperatives and organizations and individuals to access loan sources with preferential interest rates and increase credit limits. Promote training and education activities to improve the operational capacity of cooperatives. Create conditions for cooperatives to increase the scale of operations and link up, establish cooperative unions to promote the efficiency of capital use in investing in machinery and developing agricultural services.

Mr. Tran Minh Hai, Vice Principal of the School of Public Policy and Rural Development, said: "To implement the 1 million hectare rice project, capital and mechanization are indispensable. Local authorities must join banks and mechanical enterprises to connect cooperatives and enterprises to access capital sources without mortgaging land use right certificates but mortgaging by association contracts, by products, by technology applications to make product lines transparent. Only then will the mechanical application part of the project be successful. Currently, some localities are asking the National Assembly for permission to convert agricultural land areas to grow fruit trees and other purposes, so the area participating in the project also fluctuates. People's Committees of provinces and cities need to soon issue decisions to recognize the areas and areas participating in the 1 million hectare rice project."

According to Mr. Dang Anh Tai, Director of Ho Chi Minh City Development Joint Stock Commercial Bank (HDBank) Can Tho branch, many cooperatives and enterprises "complain" about banks requiring collateral when lending. In fact, banks also want to lend without collateral, but require enterprises and cooperatives to create transparency and clarity. To do so, units must have independent audits. This is one of the criteria for evaluating the credit rating of enterprises and cooperatives, and is also the basis for creating trust for credit institutions to be ready to invest capital in the absence of collateral.

After nearly 2 years of implementing the 1 million hectare rice project, the functional sector has identified more than 942,000 hectares of specialized areas, attracting over 1,230 cooperatives, cooperative groups and 210 participating enterprises. The total credit demand is up to nearly 83,000 billion VND for linking production, processing, consumption, launching a shared digital platform to identify raw material areas, connecting MRV data... According to Ms. Nguyen Thi Hoang Yen, Deputy Director of the Department of Economic Cooperation and Rural Development, the unit has coordinated with the State Bank to issue and publish a list of 942,357 hectares of specialized areas eligible for loans, along with specific instructions on linking cooperatives - enterprises - banks. This is a very important step to shift from individual support to a value chain financial mechanism, creating momentum to promote the entire ecosystem of the 1 million hectare rice project.

Article and photos: KHANH TRUNG

Source: https://baocantho.com.vn/no-luc-khoi-thong-nguon-von-cho-thuc-hien-de-an-1-trieu-hec-ta-lua-a192986.html