The Decision No. 497/QD-TTg on loans subsidy for buying machines, and equipment to serve the agricultural production, issued recently by the Prime Minister, is an opportunity to review the mechanization of agriculture. Although Vietnam is an agriculture-driven nation, the mechanization to serve the field is underdeveloped and finds difficult to apply into the production process.
According to the Vietnam Agricultural Mechanic Association, if based on the capacity of machines, Vietnam has an average of 1.16 horsepower per cultivation hectare, equaling to a half of other developing countries. There is a fact that Vietnam’s agricultural mechanics is much lower than nations in the region. For example, the cultivation field, which is considered to take lead in applying mechanization in working the soil, only meets 70 percent. In the rice cultivation, the mechanization reflects in the harvesting process with mowing-machine and conjugate threshing-mowing machine. In the preservation phase, driers and conservation storages are insufficient. Enterprises mainly collect and buy rice for export while have not yet invested in the processing and drying equipment. Therefore, the rate of broken rice as husking remains high, resulting in the lower export price than that of Thailand.
Over the past years, the agricultural sector has called on farmers to apply the mechanization into production process. However, because majority of paddy fields are not concentrated, it is very difficult to implement the mechanization. In addition, the living standard of farmer is still poor, so they are not able to invest machines by themselves. Although the state has offered some policies to develop the mechanics, this has not yet created big breakthrough. The government has offered 24 investment projects, but only two of them have been carried out. The remaining 22 projects are infeasible. Moreover, as enterprises borrowed loans, no bank agreed because the credit-worthy capacity was not high in case their products were not consumed. The fact showed that the state has not yet given real opportunities for enterprises.
According to experts, to mechanize the agriculture, it is necessary to settle some big problems. Firstly, modern machines need to be equipped at all phases of the production process from working the soil, cultivating, taking care, harvesting, preserving, and processing. After more than 20 years of reform, in some localities, only working the soil and harvesting have been mechanized. However, it is unable to develop a production of agricultural mechanics from zero. This means that to invest modern machines, the sector needs a large sum of capitals. The challenge has emerged immediately as the country started the industrialization and modernization in agriculture since the conservation and backwardness are inborn defects of farmers. They find difficult to acquire advanced technologies while majority of young laborers in rural areas has unfinished education. Few of them were trained well, but they have not returned back homeland. Besides, to mechanize the agriculture, the domestic mechanics needs to get ahead instead of depending on foreign products and technologies.
Experts also proposed that Vietnam should focus on investing and developing the machines manufacturing industry, particularly farming machines, processing machines and farming product preservation equipment in order to meet the domestic demand and step by step towards to export. The state needs to encourage and create favorable conditions for small and medium production establishments to join in manufacturing machines for the agriculture systematically. The state also needs to focus on three main policies to promote the development of agricultural mechanization. They include the policy on cultivated land, the policy on prices and the policy on farmer training. With compensation for site clearance, it is necessary to harmonize benefits of the state, investors (enterprises) and farmers. The state also needs to subsidize the designing, manufacturing and purchasing agricultural machines. Training programs for farmers should be free in order to equip them with the knowledge in using and maintaining machines. The state should consider the agricultural mechanization as a national strategy and the implement needs a long time.
Minh Diep
Vietnamese
