Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - Vietnam’sagriculture sector is aiming for annual growth of a minimum 3 percent, withlabour productivity improving 3.5 percent a year by 2020, said Deputy Ministerof Agriculture and Rural Development Ha Cong Tuan.

The ministry has also set a goal of having15,000 effective agriculture cooperatives, increasing the rural population’sincome by 1.8 times compared to 2015 and half of communes meeting ‘new rural’criteria, Tuan said during a conference reviewing the agriculture restructuringplan held in Hanoi late last week.

To achieve these results, the agriculture sectorwould need to review and build three product lines: the national key productgroup, the provincial key product and products under the model "onecommune, one product,” said Tuan.

Speaking at the conference, Deputy PrimeMinister Trinh Dinh Dung called for efforts to restructure and build a modern,smart agriculture sector that is globally competitive.

The sector must also enhance its climateresilience and take into account sustainable development, Dung said.

“Economic restructuring, especially in theagriculture sector, is a constant struggle and a long-term duty. We mustconduct further assessment to make plans based on each locality’s advantages,with consideration towards market demands, in order to produce large andhigh-quality output,” the Deputy PM said.

At the conference, he also stressed the centralrole of the people – as both the recipients and the conductors – ofrestructuring.

Businesses should be the driving force of theprocess, as they have the budget, science and technology, breeds and thecapacity to organise production and look for consumption markets, he said.

After five years, Dung said the agriculturerestructuring plan has brought a marked shift in awareness of both the peopleand the leadership of all levels on the need to reform and correct inherentweaknesses of the agriculture sector, raising incomes and improving quality oflife for farmers.

In the past five years, the sector’s growth ratereached an average of 2.55 percent a year, with the figure for 2018 being 3.4 percent.Labour productivity in the sector has also improved, having increased by 6.67 percenta year, nearly double the target of 3.5 percent.

Average annual rural income has reached 130million VND (5,570 USD), up 1.71 times compared to 2012 and surpassing thetarget, he said.

Despite these achievements, Tuan said therestructuring of agriculture has encountered obstacles that must be addressed.

Increasing added value in animal farming andboosting the area of plantations using water-conserving irrigation technologiesand the number of livestock establishments with high-grade wastewater treatmentfacilities would require large investment and proper instructions.

Lack of planning and haphazard production,without input from market demands, is common in various localities, leading toproduction excesses that can’t be sold, burdening already struggling farmers,heard the conference.

Vietnamese agriculture products are not ascompetitive as they could be, despite improvements lately, experts said,attributing the issue to predominantly small-scale production, sluggishindustrialisation and modernisation, and insufficient investment in the sector.

According to Deputy PM Dung, the agriculturesector needs to secure traditional markets while being able to expand to newmarkets.

At the same time, the domestic market with a 90million population must not be abandoned, he said.

“The Vietnamese people have to have the best,highest quality products,” the Deputy PM said.-VNS/VNA