Sustainable Agriculture from Perspective of Farmers

The meeting hall of the lawmaking National Assembly is being heated up by many economic and social problems, and one of them is Vietnam’s agricultural competitiveness before integration pressures. From a key export sector, agriculture is lagging behind in value. Farmers seem to have no other way than use banned substances in animal husbandry and crop cultivation to pursue small near-term advantages. But, Mr Nguyen Quang Vinh, Deputy Secretary General of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) and Secretary General of the Vietnam Business Council for Sustainable Development (VBCSD), is still optimistic about agricultural position and farmers. Why?

 

Returning from the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit 2015 in September 2015, Mr Nguyen Quang Vinh immediately took part in a myriad of activities aimed to advance the implementation of 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) in Vietnam from 2015 to 2030. It is noted that this is the first time 193 UN members highly agreed upon 169 SDG targets and strongly called for the business sector to apply creative economic measures to address sustainable development challenges. Vietnam Business Forum interviewed Nguyen Quang Vinh to learn more about Vietnam’s agricultural sustainable development. Luu Huong reports.

 

This programme actually supports farmers and food and agricultural businesses to engage and ensure national and global food security and look to the achievement of the SDG 2. ISAP Vietnam is deployed by VCCI in cooperation with UN member agencies, namely UN Global Compact (UNGC) and the International Trade Centre (ITC) in Vietnam in 2015-2018, aimed to improve the sustainability of agricultural production system and the competitiveness of agricultural products of Vietnam by supporting farmers and agribusinesses, particularly SMEs, to apply information technology to get consultations on changes in farming practices towards sustainability, improve the quality of agricultural products and build product marketing channels to approach domestic and foreign partners. Beside Vietnam, ISAP is also piloted in Myanmar and Malaysia. 20 countries in the world are expected to participate in this programme 2016. The rapid progress has thus required positive operations in pioneering countries like Vietnam.

 

ISAP aims to make the global food supply chain and agricultural system more sustainable, started from helping farmers and agribusinesses to "think" and "do" sustainably. After taking part in ISAP, farmers and businesses, who are inherently unknown to online systems, will be give “blue numbers” like “blue cards” to reach out the world. Instead of being worried about how to sell their products and what price to be imposed, they will channel with globally connected buyers - a growing group of customers with a sense of priority for use of sustainable products. Figuratively speaking, farmers are becoming visible from being invisible in the global value chain. And, farmers are also direct beneficiaries of this programme as I certainly know.

 

With the pilot started in July, we have received very positive responses. Farmers are very excited with this new idea. Some said they feel like having their arms extended to reach out their field. As ISAP participation is voluntary, farmers and businesses can register and establish online profiles, which consist of product and service information, commerciality, and exportability. When they register the "Blue Numbers", unique identifier code and global positioning, they will be identified in any link in the agricultural value chain. The UN finances and grants free Blue Numbers to all users. Up to the present time, VCCI has collected the database of 3,000 farmers and agribusinesses in Vietnam. Expectedly, we will complete the data system and update it with our partners in this fourth quarter to start the Blue Numbers data system from the next first quarter.

 

In this context, food security does not only mean having enough food to eat, but it must be understood that agricultural products must be guaranteed nutrition and safety for users and agricultural production process must comply with environmental and social standards. This inevitable trend will strongly impact on how agricultural products will be consumed and how countries vie for profit. We are the world’s top exporter of some agricultural commodities but we cannot control the market. If we keep looking at our current situation and goals in place, we will notice a big gap and a big challenge in enforcement.

 

I do not think the difficulty comes from farmers because, as mentioned, they are the biggest beneficiaries from ISAP. They are provided technical supports, knowledge, training and assistances wherever to become modern wise producers. For instance, if their crops carry diseases, they will be accessible to disease and crop information and databases, connected directly with scientists, or other farmers across the globe to share experiences. I believe that Vietnamese farmers are not only hard-working but also very intelligent and sensitive.

 

It is true that there are now many different standards applied by various buyers, especially when Vietnam participated more deeply into free trade agreements (FTAs) and this imposed substantial difficulties on businesses in accessing and meeting requirements for farmers and for their own. Therefore, the UNGC will provide an easy-to-apply common standard framework. Especially, UNCG will solicit importers to accept this framework of standards on a global scale. Sustainable agriculture standards, suitable for every sector, will be automatically reviewed of their good points and appropriateness for specific target export markets/importers to update information.

 

Indeed, when I attended the UN Sustainable Development Summit in September 2015, I sometimes felt a bit sad. The world is very excited about global sustainable development topics and many big foreign companies see that joining forums and tracking information from forums is a way to grasp new business opportunities. Meanwhile, Vietnamese enterprises, with up to 98 percent being rated small and medium in scale, still stay out. Insufficient capacity is just a part of the issue; the bigger part is they are unaware that the world is changing and we have to accept changes in order not to miss business opportunities. The Vietnam Business Council for Sustainable Development (VBCSD) is carrying out Action 2020, a programme that consists of a lot of practical initiatives for Vietnamese enterprises, including sustainable reporting, enhanced consistency and transparency in business relations, energy efficiency, climate change response, women’s empowerment in business, improved productivity and competitiveness for businesses.

 

On the national scale, Vietnam has joined in the common playing field and it necessarily checks and balances national strategies to match with 17 sustainable development goals to be an active member in the world’s playground. Why didn’t we see that we are chosen as one of three Asian countries to pilot the Blue Numbers as an opportunity for us to raise national competitiveness? Is this a way to build the national brand? Why have you, the press and media, not excitingly joined this and communicate on this irresistible development trend?