Sixty years of Vietnamese Agriculture
On November 14,
1945 President Ho Chi Minh signed a degree forming Ministry of
Cultivation Agriculture, the precursor of current Ministry of
Agriculture and Rural Development. Upon foundation , the ministry had to
encounter big difficulites due to 1945 famine, immediate tasks were to
implement ” the programme of production to fight against the famine then
” on one hand and to implement ”preparations for the construction of
agricultural economics and set the basis for the construction”
During the
nine-year -long French resistance war, in the context of being almost
isolated from the outside world, farmers played the most important role
in the revolution. With the willpower “ to turn stones into rice” the
farmer did not only produce food sufficiently for the people nationwide
but also provided enough for army troops. The farmers also took part in
the armed force. Vietnamese Army was the troops of farmers in soldiers’
uniforms.
After 1953
Geneva Accords, peace was established in the North, agriculture
experienced rapid growth after three years of economic recovery
(1955-1957), targets were far higher than those before World War 2
(1939). Food yield increased by 57%, with average food amount per head
of 303 kg/year and the North for the first time had redundant rice for
export in 1956-1957. Agriculture kept developing , reaching its peak
in 1958 with yield of 5.2 million metric tons of paddies. It was the
result of land reform which was first carried on at the later years of
the French resistance war, implementing the motto” farmers to have
farming land”.
Agriculture
continued its development even when the American troops started
launching raids on the North in 1964. Farmers were working and
fighting at the same time and providing supplies in terms of property
and human force for the front line as well, , focussing on the
liberatation of the South and country unification. The hustle was seen
in the way people worked and fought with the slogan ” all for the front
line, all for the beloved South”. In agriculture, movements of
irrigation were formed; using short term rice breeds of high quality
for the successful transformation from fifth-month unstable crop to
short term spring crop which became main crop of stability and high
yield. Popular movements included using green manure ( water hyacinth,
sesbania......), cultivating in straight lines, raising poultry and
hybrid pigs, supplimentary feeding in animal husbandry, vaccinations for
poultry and cattles,.... During this period, considerable investment was
put into technical facilities of agriculture . Up to 1975, the North
had irrigation works of different sizes, ensuring water supply for 1.1
million hectare and drainage for 545 thousand hectares; 7,500 tractors;
3 colleges of agriculture and tens of vocational schools; 8 research
institutes, systems of farms, breeding test stations.
After Vietnam had
been reunified, 500,000 hectares of fallow were cultivated in 1976, more
than 600,000 hectares were reclaimed in 1978, land re-granting was
carried on in the South. However, in a period of 5 years, 1976-1980, the
nation was in an economic crisis with food shortage resulting in the
import of over 1million tons of rice per year. This was due to many
causes of which the most important one was the prolongation of
agriculural collective farm in the old way which was unsuitable for the
new situation and curbed the development of production force. As a
result, State Committe of Party issued direction 100 on ” mechanism of
paying to the job ” in January 1981 and in April 1988, the poliburo had
a resolution No 10 on “ argricultural management reform” which was a
really big political decision, digging the potential force in the rural
area, creating a basic turning-point in rural and agricutural
development. The Central Resolution 5 (June/1993) on “continuance on
reform and rural economic-social development “ oriented social and
economic development in the rural area, speeding up the transformation
of agricultural production structure and promoting comparative
advantages in the most efficient way.
In agricultural
production irrigation is considered as the leading technical method.
Irrigation systems in the Red River Delta, and the Mekong River Delta
are relatively completed, investments have been put into Dong thap
Muoi, West of Hau river , Ca Mau peninsula, Long Xuyen quadrilateral
for agriculture development and aquaculture.
The 20 -year-
process of economic reform (1986-2005) has brought a change to
Vietnamese agriculture. Paddy yield increased from 18.4 million tons/
year in 1986 to 39.3 million tons / year in 2004 and an estimated yield
of 38.9 million tons in 2005. Rice export capacity was 0.13 million tons
in 1986 and 38.9 million tons in 2004 and 4.10 tons is estimated for
2005, making Vietnam the world’s second rice exporter, just behind
Thailand.
Area of industrial
crops and fruit trees have increased considerably, replacing rice field
area of low efficiency. Coffee output has increased quickly. Coffee has
become the second largest exporting agricultural product to over 60
countries in the world.
Tea is an
important income source of most rural settlers in the moutainous areas
in the North and Tay Nguyen. Fresh tea output went up from 135,000 tons
in 1986 to 487,000 tons in 2004 and in 2005 it is exepected to reach
513,000 tons. Vietnam is the producer of green tea, black tea and
scented tea. Vietnamese tea is now enjoyed by a lot of world’s
countries, especially Iraq, Japan and those in the Middle, Eastern
Europe and EU. Export output of dried tea increased from 11,000 tons in
1986 to 99,400 tons in 2004, and an estimate of 205,000 tons in 2005.
Cashew nut is a
one of key exports. Cashew nut output has increased sharply during the
last 10 years, from 20,000 tons in 1995 to 85,000 tons in 2004 and
105,000 tons is estimated for 2005. Export of cashew nut were 19,800
tons in 1995 up to 105,100 tons in 2004 and an estimate of 100,000 tons
in 2005. At present Vietnam exports cashew nut to 23 countries, among
which the US, China and EU are main importers.
Pepper has high
value for export. Pepper output has increased considerably, from 36,000
tons in 1986 to 73,600 tons in 2004 and an estimate of 78,000 ton in
2005. Over the past 20 years, the export of pepper has increased by 30
times, from 3.1 thousand tons to 111.9 thousand tons in 2004, and 90
thousand tons is expected in 2005. Pepper is exported to EU, the USA,
Middle East and Eastern Europe.
Rubber is also the
strength of Vietnamese agriculture .
During the past years, output and export of rubber have increased
continuously. Output was from 50 thousand tons in 1986 to 400 thousand
tons in 2004, and an estimate of 430 thousand tons in 2005; export was
from 36 thousand tons in 1986 to 513 thousand tons in 2004, and 485
thousand tons is expected for 2005. Vietnamese rubber is mainly exported
to China and EU.
There has been
strong development in sugarcane crops with output from 4.97 million
tons in 1986 up to 115.88 million tons in 2004 and an estimate of 16.24
million tons in 2005; sugar output has increased from 345.9 thousand
tons to 1.2 million tons in 2005.
Vegetables are
potential for further development.
Vietnam is a big
exporter of various types of fresh and processed vegetables. Export
turnover of vegetables increased from 46.1 million USD to 178.8 million
USD in 2004, and is expected to get 250 million USD in 2005.
Animal husbandry
is also potential. The ratio of animal husbandry in agriculture was from
17.9% in 1986 to 20% in 2004.
Forestry sector
has gradually moved exploitation from natural forests to woods and the
5 million hectare- forestation programme is being implemented. Forest
coverage was from 27.7% in 1987 to 36.7% in 2004 and 37% is expected for
2005. Export turnover of forestry products was from 62 million USD in
1987 to 1,207 million tons in 2004, and an estimate of 1,500 million USD
for 2005.
Total export
turnover of agricultural and forest products increased from 0.4 billion
USD in 1986 to 4.5 billion USD in 2004, and it is expected to reach 5.0
billion USD in 2005.
In terms of rural
development, 98% of the communes has paved motorways to the centre, over
90% has electricity , 100% has schools and 99% has medical clinics,
95% has telephone lines and 62% of rural poplulation has access to
clean water, poverty rate has reduced to 26.5% ( according to new
standard)
During the past 60
years, Vietnam has become well known to the world for its achievements
in agriculture development and poverty reduction instead of being
famous for its victory against foreign invasion. Thanks to agriculture
development Vietnam has become a world’s big rice exporter from a
country with food shortage.
Five -year- implementation of plant breeding, livestock
and industrial crops programme.
During the past
few years, in continuance with management reform and irrigation
investment, the programme of plant breeding, livestock and industrial
trees has played a crucial role as a contribution to the sustainable
development of Vietnamese agriculture.
The programme’s
objective is to insure good breeding for production,top priorities are
plants for export, import –replacing plants, important industrial trees
and livestock for structure transformation.To develop engineering
technology in breeding combining traditional methods and applications of
modern ones. To build a system of breeding production and services
closed with market, socializing the breeding. To develop and improve
breeding production ability and finally to improve management of
breeding.
Being stick to
that objective, 395 projects have been made so far ( with the number of
projects for cultivation, animal husbandry and forestry are 207, 146 and
42 respectively), with an average of 5.3 projects on each province, of
which 53 projects are of central level ( cultivation 28, animal
husbandry 17 and forestry 8) and 342 projects of provincial level
(animal husbandry 129, forestry 34 and cultivation 179).
The result has
shown that the policy is completely suitable for production and able tp
meet the requirements of agricultural development. The total ratified
investment was 3,500 billion VND: of which 800 billion for central
level, the transfer of funds is 70% of the ratified capital with the
rate of 40%, 35% and 25% for plant breeding, livestock and forestry
crops respectively.
-2700 billion VND
was ratified at provincial level, of which 60% of the capital was
distributed.
After 5 years of
implementation of breeding programme Vietnamese agriculture have had
great achievements:
-Project of export
rice breeding which served the target of 1 million hectaresres of high
quality rice in the Mekong River Delta has expanded the area cultivated
with 10 short –term rice breeds which meet the export quality
requirements
- Project of
developing hybrid maize breeds serving the tagret of 01 million
hectaresres has reached an output of 5 million tons maize, replacing
import of maize breeds maize product. So far the project has created 4
new breeds, helping to increase hybrid maize crop from 30-40% up to
70-80% of the area, reaching the target of 01 million tons and maize
yield was from 1.5 ton/ hectares to 3.5 tons/ hectaresre. An output of
3.5 million tons (5 times) has served for animal feeding and animal
husbandry, reduced import of maize product, be self-sufficient in hybrid
maize breeds and has started export of maize breeds. It can be said that
the hybrid maize programme has promoted research, transfer, industrial
chemicals for maize breeds, contributing to the modernisation of maize
production, a leading cereal plant.
- Project of
hybrid rice breed is the project of high technology, the implementation
is more difficult than the project of maize. However, the project
succeeded in creating 3 new rice breeds of Vietnamese trademark: VN20,
TH3-3 and HYT; the rate of hybrid rice produced domestically was from 0%
to 20% .
- Project of
cashew nut breeds: Thousands of high- yielding cashew nut breeds from
different parts nationwide have been selected and mated to get tens of
best breeds and then multipicated for new cultivation, replacing the old
cashew nut area; helping improve competitiveness of cashew nut turning
it from an extensive crop to be on par with pepper and and coffee crop,
area of cashew nut crops has been doubled, the rate of new cashew nut
breed was from 0% to 40 %, cashew nut capacity has been three times,
and has met industrial processing standards and Vietnamese cashew nut
breeds have had initial export abroad.
- Project of
lean-oriented pigs has contributed to increase the rate of lean meat
among pig herbs nationwide and selected and improved local pig breeds of
good quality such as Mong cai, Muong Khuong, Thuoc Nhieu. The project
has focussed on selection of 2,000 nuclear female pigs, 300 male pigs,
examination on tens of thousand of male pigs’ capacity for supervised
mating to get baby pigs of high lean meat, boosting the rate of hybrid
pigs upto 50% of the total herb. It can be said that the project has
built up the modernisation pattern of animal husbandry and breeding
faciltities to be on par with those in advanced countries.
- Project of
improving cow herb in bio-chemical orientation to develop cow for meat
and milk. Nuclear cow -for- meat herb and local meat cow have been
selected to boost the rate of prolific cow up to 60% and created
Vietnamese milk cow by artificial insemination which accounts for 80% of
the total herb, and the project was completed one year beforehand.
- Projects of
forestry breeding have selected breeds of eucalyptus, pine, casuarina,
some native plants, multi-purposed plants serving forestation programme,
improving forest capacity. It can be said that forestry breeding
programme has basically assured breeding sufficiency for forestation,
forest enrichment and made great progress in producing forestry
breeding.
In terms of
science, the breeding programme has helped to promote and develop
breeding scientific technology: during the last five years the programme
has imported and created with deliberate selection a variety of new
plants and livestock, including 45 rice breeds with the area of 2
million hectaresres, 4 maize breeds, 7 peanut breeds, 7 soya breeds, 4
vegetable breeds, 8 cashew nut breeds, pig breeds, milk cow breeds with
4 tons milk per period, and 67 breeds of industrial crops.... the
programme has completed and developed 15 breeding technologies of which
the most important is the one of original seeds, hybrid rice breeds,
hybrid maize, hybrid vegetables, F1 hybrid cotton; technology of citrus
fruit trees and disease-free potatoes, insemination technology of bees,
goats; transplant technology of fresh and frozen embryo in animal
husbandry; application of informatics technology in breeding management;
complete the tissue transplating technology, grafting of forestry
plants, fruit trees and long-term industrial crops. The programme has
built a system of breeding production sticked to markets, abolised the
subsidiary mechanism, socializied breeding, created Vietnamese trademark
breeds, combined science-production, shortened research time,
transferred, improved competitiveness of domestic breeds.
For the first
time Vietnam been able to create Vietnamese trademark breeds which can
be competitive to foreign ones ( maize, rice), has approached, mastered
and developed breeding production technology, has set up foundation of
technical facilities to improve scientific technology for breeding with
a view to catching up with the regional development.
In terms of
production, the breeding programme has increased Vietnam’s agricultural
export and reduced import of breeds. Rice breed for export has
produced yield of 40,000 tons of rather good quality. Programmes of
hybrid rice and maize have achieved excellent results. The 2005 value of
exported agricultural products can reach 5 billion USD with an annual
increase of 15%.
For the first time
several Vietnamese enterprises have exported breeds of maize, flowers,
tea, pepper, cashew nut, rubber, coffee, industrial crops, bonsais, and
livestock in big amount and earmed hundreds of million dollar a year.
The breeding
programme has also resulted in less import of breeds. Hybrid maize is no
longer imported due to sufficient domestic supplies ( replacing import
value of 30 million USD), 20% of hybrid rice and some other kinds of
breeds are produced domestically ( about 10 million USD) and to make a
total of about 50 million USD per year.
In terms of
society, the breeding programme has been a contribution to poverty
reduction in mountainous and remote areas , areas of ethnic minorities
and less sustainable and unfavorable areas. In these areas the
introduction of new breeds has brought an increase of 10-20 % to the
harvest, improved awareness among farmers and encouraged the use of new
and disease- free breeds. The transformation of production structure and
the universalization of intensive farming are the specific factors
which help reduce poverty rate by 50% and develop sustainable
agriculture, gradually improving capacity, quality and competitiveness
of Vietnamese argricultural products.
In addition, the
two ordinances on breeding plants and livestock ratified by the National
Assembly has created an important legal basis for improvement of
breeding management. Several provinces have issused policies encouraging
and supporting breeding development and set regualtions on local
breeding management . The central and local systems of breeding quality
control, inspection and examination have been reinforced. The protection
of new breeds and copyright has been implemented and the breeders have
been honoured.
In the last five
years, the total transfer of fund for the whole programme is 2,600
billion VND, of which 500 billion came from foreign projects for:
Upgradation of hundreds of research and selection facilities (
Institute, National breeding centre) and local breeding production sites
( stations, farms and breeding centre). Building of facilities for
breeding process, research, selection and breeding nourishment, import,
export and supply of good breeds; breeding inspection. 40% of the
provinces have been equipped mechanically in drying, processing,
conserving, dyeing and packing seeds.
Until 2005, the
rate of technically advanced breeds in cultivation area and total
cattles is as follow: Orginal rice 80%, hybrid rice 20-25%, high quality
rice 30-40%, maize 80%, cashew nut 35%, tea 40%, sugarcane 60%, soya
beans 50-60%, peanuts 40-50%, tobacco 90%, vegetables and beans 60%,
pineapple 30%, forestry breeding 70%, pigs 50%, milk cows 60%, poultry
40%, goats 25%. The expansion of area cultivated with high quality,
hybrid , disease- free breeds has been a contribution to food safety,
increase of forest coverage, promotion of structure transformation and
industrialisation and modernisation of rural agriculture.
The 2000-2005
programme of breeding plants, livestock and industrial crops has reached
its targets. It is a practical programme with the support of most
farmers and state’s management agencies, with the participation of
various economic sectors, domestic and overseas. The programme has
brought about good breeds for production serving the structure
transformation and created favourable conditions for the future
integration.
PROSPECT OF AROMATIC ESSENTIAL OIL – NON TIMBER FOREST
PRODUCTS OF VIET NAM
Essential- oil plant resources in Vietnam are abundant and diversified.
By then, there have been about 660 species belonging to 357 genera and
114 families (representing by 6.3% of the total species, 18.5% of the
total genera and 37.8% of the total higher plant families throughout the
country). The families with a large species of oil plants include
Compositae (Họ Cúc) Zingiberaceae (Gừng), Rutaceae (Cam), Labiatae (Bạc
hà), Lauraceae (Long não), Umbelliferae (Hoa tán), Illi-ciaceae (Hồi),
Graminae (Cỏ), Myrtaceae (Sim), Rosaceae (Hoa hồng), Magnoliaceae (Mộc
lan). Such abundant resources are to be used for processing chemical
cosmetics, foodstuff and pharmaceutical products. Over the last few
years, Vietnam has either naturally exploited such resources or
introduced about more than 20 species for attar, including such valuable
as Cinnamomum cassia, Cinnamomum loureirii, C.burrmanii...(quế),
Illicium veraem (hồi), Melaleuca cajuputi (tràm),
Zingiber officinale (gừng), Litsea cubeba (màng tang),
Aquilaria crassna (trầm) Cinnamomum parthenoxylon (vũ
hương), Mentha arvensis (bạc hà), Vetiveria zizanioides
(hương lau), Abelmoschus moschatus (Vông vang), Ocimum
gratissimum (hương nhu), Ocimum basilicum (húng quế),
Amomum aromaticum (thảo quả), Cananga odorata (hoàng lan),
Cymbopogon winterianus, Cymbopogon martinii,
Cymbopogon citratus (Sả), Fokienia hodginsii (pơ mu),
Cupressus spp. (hoàng đàn).
Between 1970 and 1990, many localities throughout the country
familiarized with the plantation and distillation of Mentha arvensis
and Ocimum gratissimum, Ocimum basilicum, Cymbopogon winterianus...In
some years, Vietnam not only met demands for processing pharmaceutical
products, chemical cosmetics and foodstuff within the country but also
export a relatively large volume to Eastern Europe and Western Europe.
Due to market demands and profit needs, some valuable essential-oil
plants like trầm – Aquilaria crassna, Hoàng đàn –
Cupressus spp., Pơ mu – Fokienia hodginsii, Vù hương –
Cinnamomum parthenoxylon... have been seriously hunted and
destroyed. Only for 10 years (1980 – 1990), more than 320 tons of
agar-wood of Aquilaria crassna (including 20 tons of commercial
agar-wood of Aquilaria crassna ranging from grade 1 to grade 4)
was initially estimated to be exploited and exported in many different
ways. For a certain period, timber and roots of Cupressus spp.
were exploited and sold in kilo. Because of market demands,
Cinnamomum parthenoxylon was also exploited in an improper way.
Over the last few years, the development of oil timber species like Quế
– Cinnamomum cassia, hồi - Illicium verum in forest
gardens and hilly gardens, bringing in socio-economic and environmental
efficiency in many localities in Yen Bai, Lang Son, Quang Ninh, Thanh
Hoa, Nghe An, Quang Nam and Quang Ngai provinces. From 1981 to 1990,
NAFORIMEX annually exported about 1,100 – 1,900 tons of cassia bark and
dozen tons of attar. By the year 1998, the cinnamon area in Vietnam
obtained 61,820ha. Products which made from Cinnamon include “Chinese
cassia bark”, “Vietnamese cassia bark” (or “Saigon cassia bark”, “Saigon
cinnamon”) have become favorite and famous products for a long time over
the world. Star anise fruits (Quả hồi) and star anise essential-oil
(tinh dầu hồi) are products which are mainly produced in Lang Son, Quang
Ninh (Viet Nam) and Quang Đong, Quang Tay (China). The annual
output of star anise fruits in Vietnam reached about 5,500-6,000 tons.
In which, Vietnam exported about 3,000 tons of star anise-fruits and 100
tons of essential oil attar each year. In 1997, the area of Illicium
verum in Lang Son and Quang Ninh provinces has reached more than
14,100 ha.
Amomum aromaticum
that grows under forest canopy in mountainous areas (1,000 – 2,000m) in
Lao Cai, Ha Giang and Lai Chau provinces are also valuable resources,
contributing to reducing poverty and improving socio-economic and
cultural life for ethnic minorities in mountainous, remote and isolated
areas. By the year 2000, the area of Amomum aromaticum in some
mountainous districts in Lao Cai, Ha Giang and Lai Chau provinces
reached more than 1,600ha, producing 14 thousands tonnes each
year.
Vietnam has the 2nd world largest natural area of Melaleuca
cajuputi, following Indonesia. In case of effective harvest, it can
obtain 100 tons of attar each year. Litsea cubeba (mµng tang) is
a pioneer tree grown after a harvest. This type of tree is widely
distributed in mountainous and plain areas over the whole country. It is
also a major citral-containing attar resource for pharmaceutical and
aromatic spices industries.
The plantation of Aquilaria crassna has been interested by local
ethnic minorities. Vetiveria zizanioides (hương lau) and Abelmoschus
moschatus (vông vang) are materials for attar, quantitatively
affecting and increasing fragrance of cosmetics. Other oil plant species
(ginger, galanga, turmeric, pomelo, orange and lemon) can be planted
under forest canopy or introduced via combined agro-forestry mode in
forest gardens, forest farms...
Vietnam with great development capability needs to invest in attar with
a high socio-economic value for its further development
