Vietnam aims for strong agricultural growth (VOV) - The decline in agriculture, mirrored by the rural exodus, as the nation moves to a more industrialised society is undermining the nation’s economy as a whole, as many parts of the country are left behind.  Although agriculture continues to play an important part in the national economy, official statistics reflect the sector’s growth has slowed in 2014, a little bit lower than the figure of 2.67% in 2013 and 2.68% in 2012 and 4% in 2011. In context, the demand and prices for farm produce and commodities began to taper off sharply in 2013 compared to prior years and the trend is continuing in 2014. As prime examples, in 2013 the price of rice, coffee and rubber commodities decreased by 18.7%, 26.6% and 11.7% respectively. Overcoming difficulties and shortcomings Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung attributes the slow growth of the agricultural sector to an overabundance of  small-scale family farms combined with an insufficient number of large scale production farms, lack of coordination within the sector to work for the common good, and low productivity and poor quality. Given the backdrop of low demand, low prices and the context of fierce international competition, industry experts predict the growth of the agricultural sector to remain stagnant in line with a slow pace in the development of production methods and competitive edge of farm produce. Nguyen Do Anh Tuan from the Institute of Policy and Strategy for Agriculture and Rural Development, said that shortcomings in infrastructure, service, and technical standards have significantly weakened the competitive capacity of the agricultural sector, leading to a trade shortfall in the sector dragging down the overall national trade surplus. These shortcomings have directly led to the hesitancy of domestic and foreign businesses to invest in the agricultural sector, he said. The World Bank (WB) in turn points to the lackluster labour productivity growth in the  agricultural sector, which is significantly lower than comparable figures from China and Cambodia, as a cause for alarm. The productivity growth in the agricultural sector only increased from US$200 per capita per year to nearly US$400 per capita per year from 1985 to 2011, the World Bank reports, the lowest level in the ASEAN region. Implementing synchronized solutions Factually, Vietnam has devised a scheme of synchronized solutions aimed at improving the added value of farm produce by selecting produce for production based on added value and maximising profits by marketing  products made from unsellable and left over produce. However, without huge investments from the business community, these solutions lack practicality and cannot help the agricultural sector develop effectively. Richard F. Doner, from the Political Department of the Emory University emphasises  that upgrading the value chain is extremely  difficult as implementing new technology is much easier said than done, requiring not only huge investment of money but significant training and development of human resources. Therefore, the government needs to concentrate on devising a more practical and proper mechanism to solve these difficulties, he said adding that the formulation of policies should be initiated in a highly coordinated manner by government agencies, research units, business associations, and public-private consulting companies. Meanwhile, Tuan said that restructuring the agricultural sector should focus on renovating management by clearly delineating those fields and services which will be administered by the state, leaving the remainder to the private sector. Additionally, there should be carefully thought out and crafted policies to facilitate the privatisation of the agriculture sector and the establishment of associations to coordinate activities of the sector, he concluded. Last but not least, Ms Jayati Ghosh, an Economics Professor from Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, India underscores that a fundamental perquisite for the future development and prosperity of the Vietnamese agricultural sector is the establishment of a legal corridor and support policies for the private sector to get actively involved in production. Private sector production is the key to agricultural success, and capitalizing on that, a stable farm produce value chain can be constructed, bringing a practical sustainable and stable production model  to agriculture, she concluded.  VOV