Vietnam will mechanize more than 50 per cent of the agriculture industry by 2010, according to a recent Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) report.
The report showed that by that time around 90 per cent of agricultural product preservation and processing work will be mechanized.
In order to achieve the set targets, the MARD has initiated a series of measures focusing on restructuring agriculture production, Bach Quoc Khang, director of the Department for Agro-forestry Processing and Salt Making said.
Khang said pilot mechanization projects will first be introduced to major rice producing regions and other agricultural centers. The projects will, upon successful completion, be replicated in other regions.
Phan Thanh Tinh, director of the Institute for Agriculture Electrical Engineering and Post Harvest Technology, said over the past 20 years of renewal the agro-forestry electrical engineering sector has seen many advances.
The number of tractors now in use within the country has increased by 9.5 times and water pumps used in irrigation projects have increased by 7.9 times compared with 1990.
Tinh said around 67 per cent of cultivated lands were plowed by tractors, adding that farmers nationwide used more than half a million rice harvesting and threshing machines, an increase of 10 times from 1990.
Science and technology has been at the forefront of reducing past harvest losses and stabilizing the agricultural product consumption market.
Tinh said some machines and equipment manufactured by his institute, particularly drying equipment, have helped farmers to reduce post harvest losses to 12 per cent for rice, down from 13-16 per cent in 1994, and to 15 per cent for vegetables and roots down from 20-30 per cent a decade ago.
The use of high technology in agriculture has increased export revenue from farm products by over 20 per cent per annum.
The mechanization drive has also spread to the husbandry industry, Tinh said. Compared to 1990, the number of machines used in the industry has increased by 20 times, amounting to 45,000 machines nationwide. (VNS)
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