Building superior policies for farm economic models

Photo caption — Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha speaks at the meeting. Photo: Diep Truong/VNA

This is the request of Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha at the meeting to listen to the report on the draft Decree on farm economy , which took place on the afternoon of October 24, at the Government Headquarters.

According to the report of the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment , by 2024, the whole country has nearly 28,000 farms with an average production value of 4 billion VND/year, an average area of 3.52 hectares/farm, and an average of 3.8 workers/farm. It is estimated that the farm sector's revenue contributes 9.3% of annual revenue, 10.3% of GDP, and 17.7% of the export turnover of the entire agricultural sector. Many farm models have developed in the direction of land accumulation, commodity specialization, high technology application, production-consumption linkage according to the value chain, combined with non-agricultural activities such as eco-tourism, experiential education, renewable energy, etc.

However, most farms are developing spontaneously, on a small scale, with low labor quality... Many farm owners have limited management capacity, financial ability, market understanding, and have not applied advanced science and technology. Violations of land, construction, and environmental pollution are still common. Farm economic support policies are scattered in many documents or integrated, making implementation and access difficult. Many localities are confused about classification, statistics, management, handling of violations, or policy support.

The issuance of the Decree on farm economy serves as a basis for accessing related preferential and support policies; ensuring the implementation of rights and obligations of farm owners; filling institutional gaps and ensuring consistency in state management, limiting spontaneous development, speculation and misuse of land; encouraging farm development towards large-scale commodity production, applying high technology, combining agricultural and rural tourism and value-added services.

The Draft Decree includes three major policies: Classification and criteria for determining farm economy; granting, updating, managing and exploiting farm codes; policies to support and encourage the development of farm economy.

Commenting on the draft Decree, experts said that it is necessary to clearly define the nature of a farm as a production organization model in agriculture, which can be organized by households, cooperatives or enterprises, and is not an independent economic entity. The completion of the legal framework needs to focus on designing specific, flexible and unified policy mechanisms in management, thereby promoting the role of farms in the development of commodity agriculture.

Some experts suggested clarifying the subjects of application between households, farms, ranches and enterprises, ensuring the policy is feasible and transparent. The Decree is built in the direction of designing substantive policies, linked to the development needs of each agricultural production model, instead of just stopping at the level of framework regulations.

Representatives of the ministries of Finance, Industry and Trade, Science and Technology, Justice, etc. assessed that most of the content of the new draft Decree focuses on classification and management criteria, while policies to support and encourage development are very few and mainly refer to existing legal regulations. Therefore, the Decree should only be issued if it clearly defines policy objectives and specific benefits for farmers (land, credit, infrastructure, tax, science and technology, etc.); adding substantial incentive mechanisms to promote large-scale production and high-tech application.

Some delegates expressed their opinions on the need to study more specific regulations on labor management, security and order, information security and data connection in farm operations...

Concluding the meeting, Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha said that the farm model is developing strongly, demonstrating a more advanced production method than the household one, aiming at commodity production, specialization, and expansion of scale, instead of self-sufficiency. The goal is to shift from agricultural production to agricultural economy, linking production with services, trade and markets.

Therefore, the Decree needs to demonstrate new thinking and reasoning to define, classify, and clearly identify types of farm models, thereby issuing policies and encouraging new, modern models such as: organic agricultural farms, multi-product farms, ecological farms or combining tourism - agriculture..., associated with the application of science - technology, digital transformation, modern management and sustainability criteria.

"This is the right direction to develop a modern agricultural economy, create added value, combine production with services, tourism and environmental protection," the Deputy Prime Minister said.

The Deputy Prime Minister requested the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment to review and absorb comments from ministries, branches, experts, and associations to continue perfecting the draft Decree in the direction of building a superior system of mechanisms and policies for the farm economic model, focusing on irrigation investment, research and application of technology, varieties, fertilizers, governance, digital transformation, etc.; especially determining the origin, identification codes, and standards of agricultural products.

“All farm products must meet national OCOP standards instead of commune, ward or provincial levels,” the Deputy Prime Minister suggested.

The Deputy Prime Minister emphasized that current farm models are very diverse, reflecting the initiative of farmers and businesses. If the State has appropriate support policies, these models will spread into a nationwide movement, contributing to fundamentally changing agricultural production methods, improving competitiveness and bringing Vietnamese agriculture to a new position.

Source: https://baotintuc.vn/thoi-su/xay-dung-chinh-sach-vuot-troi-cho-mo-hinh-kinh-te-trang-trai-20251024173918624.htm