Science and Technology as a Lever to Contribute to The Successful Implementation of The New Rural Program

On October 3, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development chaired and coordinated with the Ministry of Science and Technology to organize a Conference to summarize the Science and Technology Program for new rural construction in the 2016-2021 period and tasks. focus for the period 2021-2025.

Promoting the role of science and technology

To promote the implementation of the National Target Program on building new rural areas, the Prime Minister has approved the Science and Technology Program for new rural construction. The program is implemented continuously, inheriting through two phases: Phase I (2011-2015, lasting until 2017); Phase II (2016-2020, lasting until June 2022). Topics and projects of the Science and Technology Program for New Rural Development are references to directly contribute to thematic topics on the theoretical basis of agricultural and rural development...

Accordingly, all topics and projects have results published in specialized science and technology journals, the number of published works is 152, including 6 international articles.

Many practical scientific products, many models of transfer and application of technical and technological advances to agricultural production with high pervasiveness have been built. With 97 newly transferred production processes and technologies, 208 effective demonstration models and thousands of supporting equipment of projects, Science and Technology has contributed to improving productivity and quality of trees. planting and raising livestock, improving production efficiency, forming concentrated commodity production areas... Typically in the field of cultivation, crop productivity has been increased by 30-35% for vegetables, 10-15% % for rice, increase the income of people participating in the project by over 25%; increase the value of land use for agricultural production to 133-500 million VND/ha/year thanks to the restructuring of farming in production linkage models.

However, the program still has some difficulties such as: the integration with science and technology programs is still limited; There are few models with integrated, inter-sectoral and inter-regional provincial models to create synchronous efficiency in rural development.

The presentations also pointed out that the Phase II Program still has limitations in terms of both quantity and quality of topics, projects, and operational mechanisms. That is, there are few models of general, interdisciplinary and inter-regional nature, creating synchronous efficiency in rural development; There are few research projects on the application of new and advanced technologies in economic development and social governance in new rural areas, research on the application of digital technology in agricultural production, connection and community governance. rural fields; Research and propose circular economic development models suitable for specific industries and regions. As planned, the Program ended in 2020 but had to ask the Prime Minister's permission to extend it until June 2022.

Topics must come from practice, have high applicability and spread

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the key task in the 2021-2025 period, the program focuses on closely following the Party's guidelines and orientations on agriculture, farmers and rural areas (Resolution No. 19). With the orientation of "Ecological agriculture, modern agriculture, civilized farmers", the topics of the Science and Technology Program in service of new rural construction are required to come from reality, directly solve the problem. solving urgent problems associated with local characteristics and conditions.

In particular, science and technology topics need to focus on deploying new models and projects with high applicability and pervasiveness in practice; give priority to models and projects applying high technology and environment friendly; prioritize the implementation of topics and projects in areas with special difficulties, remote and border areas, and islands... The program continues to focus on research and application of new and advanced technologies. in economic development and social governance in rural areas.

Mr. Le Minh Hoan - Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development delivered the closing speech of the conference

Speaking at the conclusion of the conference, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Minh Hoan emphasized the special role of science and technology in agricultural production and new rural construction and said that from actual needs, science and technology can lots of room for growth. Regarding the implementation of the program in the period of 2021-2025, Minister Le Minh Hoan said: "Building and implementing scientific research topics can be brought down from "above" but can also come from reality. practices in the fields of farmers and local. We need to ask questions and use science and technology to solve those questions."

Minister Le Minh Hoan also noted, if a topic is small but can be implemented in many similar localities, the spillover effect will be great instead of implementing a very large topic but it is difficult to apply widely. .

Scientific topics also need to be marketed, promoted and transferred to the people. Only when the market accepts the project will the project succeed.

"Not only transferring science and technology through the topic but also transferring professionalism, knowledge, skills, standardization to farmers and cooperatives. Hopefully, each scientist comes to farmers. This is an opportunity to help farmers improve their knowledge, increase labor productivity, and create a new impetus for agriculture and rural areas," said Minister Le Minh Hoan.

Source: Vietnam Business Forum