Khanh Hoa removes bottneck to attract business investment in agriculture

To develop sustainable agriculture, Khanh Hoa province will synchronize all solutions and support to attract business investments in forming value chains.

Cage farming in open-sea. Photo: KS.

Khanh Hoa is located in the south-central coast region with many potentials and advantages to develop agriculture including a long coastline, many lagoons, bays as well as favorable weather conditions and soil for typical and endemic plants.

However, agricultural production value only contributes about 10% to the province’s total GRDP. What is the bottleneck that makes Khanh Hoa's agricultural sector not realize its full potential? What solutions need to be taken in the near future for it to get a breakthrough?

The Vietnam Agriculture Newspaper speaks with Mr. Nguyen Tan Tuan, Chairman of Khanh Hoa Provincial People's Committee about this issue.

A bottleneck that restrains the agricultural development

Do you think Khanh Hoa's agricultural development has been commensurate with its potential?

Khanh Hoa Province is dominated by both tropical monsoon and natural oceanic climate, so the weather is relatively mild. It has a terrain combining low mountains and hills alternated along plains and valleys, sometimes with rock mountains running closely along the sea so the coastal plain is divided into narrow ones.

With such geological and natural characteristics, Khanh Hoa has a small agricultural land area, just over 100,000 ha, of which 60,000 ha for annual crops and 40,000 ha for perennial crops, The forest land is about 239,000 ha. The aquaculture area is 6,767ha and salt production is about 1,021ha. This land fund is more and more narrowing due to the development of technical and social infrastructure.

Regarding cultivation, we have identified durian, green-skinned pomelo, mango, garlic, and purple and natural sugarcanes as the main crops of the province. Therefore, in the past time, localities have developed specialized production areas for these key crops. The province currently has 1,866 ha of durian, mainly in Khanh Son; 8,466ha of mangoes, mainly in Cam Lam and Cam Ranh; 1,451ha of green-skinned pomelo mainly in Khanh Vinh and 10,000ha of sugarcane in Ninh Hoa, garlic in Van Ninh...

Regarding fisheries, the province has a coastline of 38 km and more than 200 large and small coastal islands including the coral islands in the Spratly archipelago. Many deep-sea bays and harbors are associated with large fishing grounds. There are many estuaries, bays, lagoons, intertidal zones and tidal wetlands up to 1,660km2, which are very convenient for fisheries development both in fishing, natural exploitation, as well as aquaculture.

Currently, the province's annual seafood output reaches over 100,000 tons. Seafood export turnover continuously increases from USD538.23 million in 2016 to USD614.5 million in 2019 with an annual average growth rate of 6.85, accounting for 35-44% of the province's export value. Khanh Hoa is one of the five strong seafood exporting provinces in the country. 

So what is the bottleneck that makes the province's agriculture not develop commensurate with its potential, sir?

For the seafood industry, although we have many potentials and advantages, the province's mariculture is facing increasing challenges and difficulties to develop effectively.

Firstly, the needed investment capital for marine farming is large. It is necessary to have modern equipment and the science and technology application in production to create concentrated commodity output. 

Secondly, there is currently no government policy to encourage investment in aquaculture development in the open sea, especially those that prioritize marine aquaculture infrastructure.

In fact, many enterprises have invested in applying high technology in production, preservation and processing to increase the value of crop products to meet domestic and export demands. However, the province's agricultural sector has not yet formed many concentrated, medium and large-scale specialized production areas. The reorganization of production, the implementation of linkages, and the building of value chains for a number of key agricultural and aquatic products is still limited; the application of science and technology, post-harvest processing and ratio of areas associated with production with enterprises are still low...

On one hand, the main cause of this limitation is that agricultural production is small and scattered with sources of raw materials not able to meet inquiries in procession and consumption. Agricultural promotion policy is not strong enough to encourage and transfer new models... On the other hand, investment in agriculture is not effective and has many risks, so businesses are still reluctant.

Meanwhile, the agricultural sector has not actively proposed projects and programs and determined reasonable steps in the process of transforming the structure of crops and livestock to suit the local condition. Production relations are slow to innovate, and the forms of co-operative organization are inefficient.

Businesses attraction, high-tech application

How will the province orient in the coming time to remove such bottlenecks and approach a sustainable and modern agricultural development, sir?

We will focus on promoting industrialization and modernization in rural areas, creating fundamental and comprehensive breakthroughs in agriculture towards commodity production, improving quality, efficiency and competitiveness of agricultural, forestry, and fishery products.

Along with that, we will focus on promoting the high tech application in cultivation, husbandry, and aquaculture at sea, especially in cage farming in open-sea beyond three nautical miles, at the same time, continue to support the restructuring of crops and livestock, develop cooperation in building concentrated agricultural areas to meet market requirements.

We will implement synchronously and effectively the government’s policies, creating favorable conditions for farmers and businesses to access more land, capital, and markets.

In particular, we synchronize the implementation of solutions to support and attract businesses investment, especially in processing and preserving and hi-tech agricultural products. We also concentrate on "promoting linkages in agricultural production with the participation of value-chain enterprises and develop forms of cooperation and association in the production.

What are the supportive policies that the province has implemented to attract business investments in agriculture, sir?

We have implemented policies such as Decree 57/2018/ND-CP of the Government. We have set many specific mechanisms to attract business investment including the credit and budget capital policies, promulgate a list of key agricultural products for investment.

In the coming time, the province will focus on implementing, concretizing, and effectively implementing mechanisms and policies of the Central Government including the Decrees No 52/2018/NĐ-CP and 98/2018/ND-CP.

At the same time, it will continue to advise the Provincial People's Council to promulgate policies to support crop transformation, encourage the cooperation and association in the production and consumption of agricultural products, support the implementation of the One Commune One Product Program, formulate and implement plans to call for and attract enterprises to invest in concentrated production, prioritize the development of large-scale marine aquaculture with advanced technology, and protect the eco-friendly and marine environment.

It will also continue to support investment, urgently build and form concentrated aquaculture zones, and stabilize and develop concentrated and intensive production areas to create commodity output for rice, sugarcane and fruit plants.

Khanh Hoa Provincial People's Committee proposes the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to pay attention to prioritize allocating capital sources for early implementation of programs and projects, and to support investment in infrastructure for mariculture and marine aquaculture. It will soon complete and submit to the Government for approval the marine aquaculture development plan for 2030, with a vision to 2045 at the same time, develop and promulgate policies to support and encourage businesses and farmers to invest in technology and apply HDPE cage farming model to aquaculture in sea areas under local management.

In addition, it appeals for ministries and other sectors to introduce large enterprises and corporations to invest in the local agricultural sector, especially in technology, machinery and equipment for deep processing and preservation of agricultural products in Khanh Hoa to enhance their added value…