According to Nongghiep.vn
The business joins the big field, but…
In the Mekong Delta, in the past 5 years, localities in the region have tried their best to strengthen, support and develop cooperatives (cooperatives), cooperative farmer groups… through the integration of programs and projects. Especially in some provinces and cities, thanks to the Sustainable Agricultural Transformation Project (VnSAT), new-style agricultural cooperatives have started active activities, invested in warehouses and dryers, and mechanized the fields. production stage in the field to meet the conditions of production association (LKSX) with enterprises (DN).
Currently, Can Tho city has about 20 enterprises providing agricultural inputs and purchasing rice. Enterprises participating in large fields (collectively) purchase from 50-150 VND/kg higher than the market price. The city continues to create conditions to support cooperatives to develop trade unions, each crop on 34,000 hectares with over 23,500 farmer households participating. Farmers participating in the trade union are trained in advanced rice production techniques.
However, the core problem is how to attract enterprises to participate in production control and support model agricultural cooperatives? Therefore, Can Tho Department of Agriculture and Rural Development selected 4 partner cooperatives such as Khiet Tam, Hieu Binh, Thinh Phat, Nhan Loi to participate in rice production according to SRP (International Sustainable Rice Production Standards) technique. meet the consumption requirements according to the criteria of the Olam Rice Export Group.
Some other localities in the Mekong Delta realized that there were not many rice trading enterprises in the area, so they actively called for enterprises to cooperate in export production. Recently, Soc Trang province has invited many enterprises inside and outside the province to participate in expanding the scale of trade unions. In which, special attention is paid to the advantages of the province’s specialty rice varieties, such as: ST rice varieties (especially ST24, ST25 rice varieties), seasonal Tai Nguyen rice, and light aromatic rice.
Despite many advantages, the group of specialty rice varieties of Soc Trang is still not qualified for development. The province’s rice production is over 2 million tons/year, of which the group of specialty fragrant rice varieties accounts for over 53%. Meanwhile, in the province, there are only 3 rice processing enterprises for export with a scale of more than 20,000 tons/year and 19 factories and rice processing establishments. Total production of preliminary and processed products from rice is about 50,000 tons/year. Therefore, Soc Trang desperately needs businesses outside the province to join the production association with cooperatives in the province to expand the trade union.
It can be realized that, over the past 10 years, the number of “eagle” enterprises participating in the rice production chain from the very beginning, such as Loc Troi Group, Trung An Joint Stock Company, etc., is still not many. Why?
A senior official working in the local agricultural sector commented: The most difficult point in the localities is that there are not many “leading” and “sparrow” enterprises that have joined the production control. Every enterprise needs a stable raw material area.
Meanwhile, some enterprises face difficulties in capital investment in technical infrastructure, seasonal response when simultaneously harvesting rice in the ripe season, such as means of transport, drying equipment system, warehouse for storage, etc. quality assurance of rice processing.
That does not include the need for working capital. If enterprises associate with trade unions on 1,000 hectares, the rice output is 6,000-7,000 tons/crop, the loan amount is over 40-45 billion VND. The “big boat” enterprises cited that as one of the difficult reasons.
Obstacles, exist from where?
According to the Department of Crop Production, the results of implementing trade unions through production linkages between enterprises and cooperatives in the Mekong Delta have decreased in area. In the Autumn-Winter 2021 crop, it only reached over 93,470 hectares, equaling 66.7% compared to the stable level of 140,000-150,000 hectares of previous crops.
Some difficulties, existing in the process of implementing rice production control fall into production conditions in some localities, such as: In the harvest season, due to concentrated rice production, farmers sell fresh rice, leading to Enterprises face many difficulties in preparing means of transport, not enough drying equipment and storage, so harvested rice often has to be gathered at the shore about 4-5 days to be collected. Some rice areas exceed the time of harvest, needing 7-10 working days to be cut, which affects yield and quality.
A fairly common problem is that although there is a purchasing contract between farmers and enterprises, there is still a case where enterprises cannot buy in time and farmers sell to outside traders.
Besides, there is a factor that the force of rice buyers and sellers has not been focused on yet, and has not been attached to the chain of export production in the rice industry.
Regarding production and sale contracts, there is still a lack of an appropriate legal framework for resolving disputes in linkages between producers, especially contracts for production and consumption of products between enterprises and farmers. For example, the contract signed with farmers is not clear; In the contract, there is no agreement on the place of purchase, humidity, impurities, lack of sanctions when the parties fail to perform the contract properly.
The content of the product outsourcing contract is a guiding contract, not an economic contract, so the legality is not high, the parties are easy to violate the contract.
Meanwhile, a part of farmers still cultivate according to old practices, do not comply with the production process guided by technical staff, have not participated in activities and meetings fully, leading to difficulties in production. policy declaration. From the above factors, it can be said that in production there is no close link between farmers and enterprises.
According to the proposal of the Department of Crop Production, in order for the cooperation and LKSX to achieve good results, in the coming time, it is necessary to review the plan to change the structure of crops and products in accordance with advantages, market needs and suitability. respond to climate change in each region and region; To develop concentrated and large-scale agricultural commodity production areas, organize production in chains for national key products. At the same time, to encourage the development of clean agriculture and organic agriculture; associated with processing and consumption, building brands of key agricultural products in order to increase added value and develop sustainably.
Soc Trang province has identified 21 specialty rice material areas, built 17 specialty rice farming models to adapt to climate change. The whole province organizes production of more than 240 trade unions with 371 cooperative groups and 54 agricultural cooperatives with consumption association contracts with a total area of more than 53,170ha. The entire above-mentioned area is produced in the direction of bio-safety, organic, good agricultural practice according to VietGAP standards. Particularly, the model of organic specialty rice production is being replicated with over 2,400 hectares.
