A farmer harvests tomatoes planted in a greenhouse in Central Highlands Lam Dong Province’s Don Duong District (Photo: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) - Pragmatic policies are needed for the Government to realiseits goal of promoting start-ups in the agriculture sector.
During anonline discussion held by the Government portal on February 24, Dau Anh Tuan,head of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s Legal AffairsDepartment, said that the Government should consider lifting the land limitwhich was hampering successful agricultural business.
“Successfulagricultural businesses require large-scale production,” he said. “Collectingproducts from multiple sources makes it difficult to ensure stable quality,trace origins and to guarantee the food safety”.
The Law onLand introduced in 2013 set the land limit for agriculture by individuals orhouseholds from two to three hectares and from 10 to 30 hectares for industrialplants like rubber, coffee beans or tea trees.
“Such landlimits increase production costs and erode motivation to expand business,” hesaid.
The Ministryof Agriculture and Rural Development (MoARD) was considering looseningagricultural land limits, which was a positive signal, Tuan said, hoping thatit was a step towards complete elimination.
He alsosuggested that the Government discard so-called production quotas. Citingexamples of production quotas the MoARD set for tra fish and lobster in 2020 –which are hoped to reach some 1.9 million and 1,940 tonnes respectively, Tuanbelieved what the Government was doing was market intervention.
“TheGovernment is amending the Law on Planning and I hope that the regulationsregarding production planning will be tossed out. The Government should only domacro-planning and let the market decide product supply”.
A reporttitled “Enabling the Business for Agriculture” from the World Bank last yearranked Vetnam’s agricultural business environment in the lower half ofSoutheast Asia. The country was positioned only above Laos, Cambodia andMyanmar.
Plantbusinesses in Vietnam scored 62.5 points on the scale from a possible 100,lower than Cambodia’s 68.8 and Bangladesh’s 70.8, while the country ranked 37thout of 40 countries in the report for the business environment for agriculturalmachinery with 24.4 points.
Thefinancial market for agriculture, meanwhile, was considered average with 45.3points.
FormerScience and Technology Minister Tran Quoc Thang agreed one of the keychallenges for agricultural start-ups was accessing capital.
“There iscurrently a shortage of investors and venture capital funds to provide financefor start-ups,” he said. “In the long-term, the Government should set upventure capital funds and credit guarantee funds”.
How to dohigh-tech?
What theGovernment was encouraging was start-ups based on creativity and high-techapplication, in which connectivity between those having business ideas andthose having necessary technology played a vital role for successful start-ups,Thang said.
TheGovernment, in this regard, should lay out an even playing field for the threeparties involved.
“They arethe Government with business policies, the start-ups and the science playerslike researchers, institutes and universities. The connectivity between themcreates what we call the start-up eco-system,” he said.
“If thatnational eco-system of creativity is established and develops, high-techagriculture businesses will prosper”.
Start-upcompany Hoa Anh Dao’s Management Board Chair Tran Le agreed, noting that somebusiness ideologies failed to understand the real meaning of high-tech businessand were threatening the environment.
He cited theincrease of plastic film made-greenhouses in Lam Dong Province’s Da Lat Citywhich was dubbed an agricultural high-tech city.
The film isa cheap way to build greenhouses, which led to mass construction of suchgreenhouses in Da Lat. Yet it resulted in a loss of rainwater absorbed insurface soil and to nearby streams and rivers.
“High-techagriculture was not supposed to be like that. It should be innovative and notaffect the environment,” he said.
“By andlarge, the definition of high-tech agriculture in Vietnam is still understoodvery vaguely”.-VNA
During anonline discussion held by the Government portal on February 24, Dau Anh Tuan,head of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s Legal AffairsDepartment, said that the Government should consider lifting the land limitwhich was hampering successful agricultural business.
“Successfulagricultural businesses require large-scale production,” he said. “Collectingproducts from multiple sources makes it difficult to ensure stable quality,trace origins and to guarantee the food safety”.
The Law onLand introduced in 2013 set the land limit for agriculture by individuals orhouseholds from two to three hectares and from 10 to 30 hectares for industrialplants like rubber, coffee beans or tea trees.
“Such landlimits increase production costs and erode motivation to expand business,” hesaid.
The Ministryof Agriculture and Rural Development (MoARD) was considering looseningagricultural land limits, which was a positive signal, Tuan said, hoping thatit was a step towards complete elimination.
He alsosuggested that the Government discard so-called production quotas. Citingexamples of production quotas the MoARD set for tra fish and lobster in 2020 –which are hoped to reach some 1.9 million and 1,940 tonnes respectively, Tuanbelieved what the Government was doing was market intervention.
“TheGovernment is amending the Law on Planning and I hope that the regulationsregarding production planning will be tossed out. The Government should only domacro-planning and let the market decide product supply”.
A reporttitled “Enabling the Business for Agriculture” from the World Bank last yearranked Vetnam’s agricultural business environment in the lower half ofSoutheast Asia. The country was positioned only above Laos, Cambodia andMyanmar.
Plantbusinesses in Vietnam scored 62.5 points on the scale from a possible 100,lower than Cambodia’s 68.8 and Bangladesh’s 70.8, while the country ranked 37thout of 40 countries in the report for the business environment for agriculturalmachinery with 24.4 points.
Thefinancial market for agriculture, meanwhile, was considered average with 45.3points.
FormerScience and Technology Minister Tran Quoc Thang agreed one of the keychallenges for agricultural start-ups was accessing capital.
“There iscurrently a shortage of investors and venture capital funds to provide financefor start-ups,” he said. “In the long-term, the Government should set upventure capital funds and credit guarantee funds”.
How to dohigh-tech?
What theGovernment was encouraging was start-ups based on creativity and high-techapplication, in which connectivity between those having business ideas andthose having necessary technology played a vital role for successful start-ups,Thang said.
TheGovernment, in this regard, should lay out an even playing field for the threeparties involved.
“They arethe Government with business policies, the start-ups and the science playerslike researchers, institutes and universities. The connectivity between themcreates what we call the start-up eco-system,” he said.
“If thatnational eco-system of creativity is established and develops, high-techagriculture businesses will prosper”.
Start-upcompany Hoa Anh Dao’s Management Board Chair Tran Le agreed, noting that somebusiness ideologies failed to understand the real meaning of high-tech businessand were threatening the environment.
He cited theincrease of plastic film made-greenhouses in Lam Dong Province’s Da Lat Citywhich was dubbed an agricultural high-tech city.
The film isa cheap way to build greenhouses, which led to mass construction of suchgreenhouses in Da Lat. Yet it resulted in a loss of rainwater absorbed insurface soil and to nearby streams and rivers.
“High-techagriculture was not supposed to be like that. It should be innovative and notaffect the environment,” he said.
“By andlarge, the definition of high-tech agriculture in Vietnam is still understoodvery vaguely”.-VNA
VNA
