The agriculture sector provides guidance on shifting paddy-farming land, especially one-crop land with low and unstable yield into land area for aquaculture and other productive crops. Simultaneously, it is planning to apply intensive cultivation methods in order to raise productivity of rice and maize and to expand the farming area of new cassava seeds, especially in material-centered zones adjacent to cassava-processing factories. In 2004 it is striving for a rice yield of 34.5 million tonnes including 4 million tonnes for export; a maize yield of 2.8 million tones and a cassava yield of 5.5 million tonnes.

Coffee: According to the 2003-2004 forecast, the world coffee sector can free itself from the crisis, although the price will still remain low. Therefore, due attention should be paid to tendering and rehabilitating Robusta coffee gardens and speeding up the development and high-tech processing of wet coffee.

Rubber: As forecasted, there will be a continuous increase in global rubber consumption in 2004. Thus, it is important to put a premium on intensive cultivation of rubber; improvement of processing industry in order to raise the quality of rubber latex; mainly new cultivation of rubber on substitute land area and implementation of small-scale rubber projects.

Tea: As forecasted, the world tea market continues to face difficulties since supply exceeds demand. Therefore, the sector is planing to focus on intensive cultivation of existing tea areas, substitute plantation of new high-yield seeds; expansion of Shan Tuyet tea and acclimatized-tea seeds with high quality

Pepper: According to the 2004 forecast, the supply of pepper still exceeds demand in the world market. Thus, an increase in pepper price is impossible. Therefore, the sector is planning to maintain its farming land of 45,000 ha, productivity of 80,000 tonnes and higher quantity of processed pepper for the purpose of higher selling price in 2004.

Cashew: As estimated in 2004, the world market for cashew remains prosperous, especially European and Chinese markets. Thus, it is necessary to replace old cashews with new high-yield and high-quality seeds; newly plant 10 thousand hectares of cashews in land area adjacent to processing establishments in the central area and Southeast central area, with aims to obtain a productivity of 137,000 tonnes.

Sugar cane: The sector is planning to review material-centered zones, while priority is given to the construction of hydraulic works and the introduction of new seeds. This is in order to develop material zones for 44 sugar production factories, and includes 235,000 ha for the intensive cultivation of high-yield and high quality sugar cane.

Factories shall have to enter into investment contracts with farmers and promptly purchase their products at a reasonable price. Each factory shall establish its own propagation centre in order to supply high-quality seeds for sugar planters.

The sector is planning to increase to 45,000 ha of cotton mainly in the Western Highland and coastal central area; 170,000 ha of soya bean in 2004 and 260,000 ha of peanut .

Fruit trees: In 2004 the sector will pay due attention to speeding up the production and processing of pineapple as it is a favourite fruit in the market, and developing material zones for factories and planting an 3,000 ha.

Only high quality mango, longan and litchi are newly planted. The area of planted citrus and other high quality fruits shall be extended.

Vegetables, beans and other food: There are plans to invest in high-tech production areas of clean and high quality vegetables and expand the production area of bamboo shoots and mushrooms for increasingly bigger domestic consumption and export.

Pig raising: As estimated, the domestic demand for meat, especially pork continues to increase thanks to high economic growth. Thus, pig raising shall be further encouraged in almost all localities. These localities shall develop projects to support farmer households to establish a pig-farm model (including from some dozens to hundreds of stock sows). They are planning to use high quality breeds and pig-raising industrial processes, ensuring veterinary hygiene, in order to improve the effectiveness of animal husbandry and produce good quality products thus serving domestic consumption and export.

Buffalo-and-cow raising: It is necessary to promote progress to sind-crossed the herd of cows in order to increase the herd of cows for high-quality meat.

Cattle raising: There are plans to raise commercial cattle by means of grazing or semi-grazing fowls mainly on farms. To do this, it is necessary to use new high yield breeds for the purpose of producing high quality meat and eggs and ensuring veterinary hygiene.

There are plans to continue implementing the 5 million-ha Reforestation Programme and effectively allocating forest area for the protection, regeneration and to increase afforestation. In 2004 there are plans to afforest 265,000 ha of centered forest, including 115,000 ha of special-use and protection forest and 150,000 ha of production forest; to allocate 2.6 million ha for forest protection and 620,000 ha for forest regeneration; There are also plans to establish material zones adjacent to paper-making factories and artificial board-manufacturing factories, to supply pitwood, wood for construction and wood for furniture.

To attain this goal, the investment and development vision 2004 includes: The upgrading of 17 salt fields that are now under construction with an estimated to tall investment capital of 144 billion dong in 2004; the development new projects for 300 ha of industrial salt fields in Nhon Hai (Ninh Thuan province); 1000ha in Hoa Minh, Tuy Phong (Binh Thuan province), Long Dien Tay, Dong Hai (Bac Lieu province) and 2500 ha in Quan The (Ninh Thuan province).

Food processing: It is hope that the food processing industry will review their planning process in order to invest and improve their rice-processing establishments (husking & rubbing polishing and classifying); and develop material zones for 41 cassava-processing factories.

Perennial industrial-tree processing: Ther are plans to invest in developing material zones; upgrade industrial establishments to process tea, coffee, rubber, cashew etc; to consider new development of material zones and markets; and to apply advanced technology to increase quality of exports

In 2004 there are plans to develop material zones for existing factories and to transfer small scale processing equipment and facilities to farmers (for drying longan, litchi, tea, maize )

There are plans to invest in upgrading and establishing slaughterhouses and meat-processing units in order to ensure food security to develop milk collection network and to use milking machine...

Wood and forest product processing: This industry will apply methods to increase the efficiency of the 2 MDF particle board-manufacturing factories in Thai Nguyen and Gia Lai provinces. It also plans to create processing zones to produce refined wood and high quality wood for export; consolidate traditional villages and to produce high quality handicrafts for export.

Development of rural occupations: Localities shall provide guidance on implementing incentive policies on industrial and rural occupation development, especially under the Decision 132 by the Prime Minister dated 24 November 2000. They are also planning to begin infrastructure construction and establish of industrial zones and rural services.

The Rural Development Programme plans to fulfil the objectives of the Poverty Reduction Programme, the employment programme and Program 135; It also hopes to integrate Poverty Reduction Program into socio-economic development Programs and target national Programmes to promote socialization of poverty reduction, to reduce the number of poor households to 11%; to encourage the establishment small and medium-sized industrial zones, traditionally occupational villages in consistent with the land-use planning based on capital sources from localities and enterprises. The programme also aims to encourage economic sectors to invest in industrial development with different scales, to pay attention on developing small and medium-scale industries involved in all economic sectors (that are without State prohibition), especially production of consumption goods and exports. Alongside this efforts to develop the industry for processing agricultural products are planned, particularly for exports as well as plans to dramatically reduce production costs in order to increase productivity. Rural occupations and new job opportunities are required, as is a shift in the agricultural labour force into non-agricultural production labour force; job opportunities for around 1 million people will be the target of this programme, as well as to make the best use of 77-78% of the free time of labour force in rural areas.

Key tasks of the sector between 2004 and 2005 are to make planning for agro-forestry in provinces, districts and communes, serving as a tool to adjust agricultural economic and rural structure and to ensure national food security.There are plans to develop and produce advantageous agricultural exports and import substitutes; to develop processing industry, occupations, services and rural industries. Also the application of advanced science and technology to agricultural production is a key task ,as is the development of the processing industry in combination with material zones and mechanised production activities. The sector hope to link agricultural production and the processing industry with consumption market for the purpose of raising competitiveness of products and to put a premium on education and training, especially occupational training for farmers. The sector aims to encourage and facilitate household to develop their farm economy; to re-arrange, renovate and develop agro-forest farms and SOEs; to equitize SOEs; to call on cooperatives to change their operational orientations as regulated by laws; to popularize and encourage to establish new cooperatives.There are plans to guide farmers and enterprises to effectively execute the Decision 80/2002/QD-TTg on commodity consumption under economic contracts; to facilitate to establish an alliance among 4 target objects: farmer, enterprise, scientist, the. State. This will help the sector promote efficiency of production, processing and consumption of agricultural products; to absorb capital and technological outsource; to promote the international economic integration; to enter into bilateral and multilateral agreements. Finally, a task of the sector is to carry out poverty reduction programs, especially in rural, mountainous and coastal areas while reviewing the practical situation of some localities in order to launch emulation movements of good agricultural output of 50 million tonnes/ha/year and family income of 50 million dong/households/ year.