Lương Quốc Đoàn, chairman of Vietnam Farmers' Union. VNA/VNS Photo

Lương Quốc Đoàn, chairman of Vietnam Farmers' Union, talks to Vietnam News Agency on the threshold of the union’s eighth congress taking place from December 25 to 28.

Could you tell us the outstanding results of the union’s emulation movements in the 2018-23 tenure?

The union’s 2018-23 term has been a challenging one due to the impact of objective factors and conditions.

First, general difficulties of the world situation, especially the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, negatively impacted socio-economic development, leading to disruption of the investment supply chain into agricultural production.

Since then, the prices of fertilisers and animal feed have increased. Faced with such a context, the unions at all levels have focused on helping farmers adapt and offering them support in agricultural production.

Associations at all levels have gathered farmers to set up clubs such as farmers’ club with role models of production and business, billionaire farmers’ club, and farmers’ club with digital transformation.

They also focused on consultation and vocational training to help farmers develop production and business. During the past term, the Farmer Support Fund collected over VNĐ1.7 trillion, increasing the total fund to nearly VNĐ5 trillion.

The fund has supported many farming households to get rich, start businesses, as well as increase income and improve the lives of members.

In addition to coordinating with the Bank for Social Policies and the Vietnam Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Agribank) in deploying and supporting capital sources for farmers, the associations at all levels worked with other commercial banks to help farmers access more capital sources.

The union and the banks provided lending worth over VNĐ170 trillion to farmers to invest in production and business, thereby limiting usury and "black credit".

The Việt Nam Farmers' Union created conditions for farmers to access scientific and technological advances and strengthened legal education and legal assistance for farmers. In the past term, the union gave many opinions on developing laws related to farmers.

A new point in the past term is that the associations at all levels focused on organising vocational training for members and farmers associated with the agricultural product consumption chain, developing services and rural tourism, attracting many young farmers to participate. Through vocational training, farmers not only follow their experience and tradition, but also approach new techniques and science in production to meet market needs.

What the associations at all levels have done very well is to support members to promote, connect and consume agricultural products. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the association at all levels coordinated with 726 safe agricultural stores to make connection and help farmers sell their products.

Farmers' associations at all levels, especially at the provincial level, have built, maintained and developed safe agricultural product stores with the purpose of connecting not only within a province, but throughout the country.

Products from the northwestern provinces such as Hà Giang and Lai Châu have been sold in the Central Highlands region. The central union has encouraged provinces and cities to sign and support each other in each region and group.

Farmers were very excited when the difficulty in selling their products was solved. This is one of the goals for the farmers' union to participate with the State in expanding the domestic consumption market.

The Việt Nam Farmers' Union has signed an agreement with Vietnam Post Corporation to bring agricultural products to the Postmart e-commerce platform. Many farmers are selling their own products and doing business on that e-commerce platform.

​Farmers have been trained to use smartphones. We see that now the rate of farmers using smartphones has increased greatly. However, the exploitation of information on farmers' phones is still limited. Therefore, the union has coordinated with large businesses such as Google, VNPT and a number of businesses with resources to host training on how to exploit and use smartphones effectively.

​One of the most prominent and effective movements of the Việt Nam Farmers' Union is the emulation movement: “good farmers in production and business, and solidarity to help each other get rich and reduce poverty sustainably”. Could you please tell us about the movement’s outstanding results in the past term?

This movement has been considered a regular task and a target set at the regular union’s congress.

The union, in the past term, has revised the regulations and criteria for evaluating farmers in good production and business, creating fairness and balance between regions. We encourage farmers to arouse their will, self-reliance and desire to rise up to enrich themselves and their homeland.

The quality of the movement has improved thanks to those changes. Every year, over 6.2 million households join in the movement during the 2028-23 term. Among those, over 3.6 million households achieved the title of good farmers in production and business at all levels, exceeding the target of the seventh congress by 6.74 per cent.

During the past term, 300 farmers with good production and business were honoured with the number of billionaire farmers doubling.

We have had specific activities for typical, outstanding farmers to make them the nucleus, typically arousing the will and desire to get rich for other farmers. So far nearly 800 farmers have been honoured as good production and business role models.

In October 2023, for the first time, the union held a ceremony praising 63 outstanding cooperatives.

After being honoured and returning to their localities, outstanding farmers and cooperatives also felt excitement and pride. Many people shared: "We are more determined to keep the title.”

Many union members and farmers have recently followed the trend of converting agricultural production associated with digital transformation. In the new term from 2023 to 2028, what orientations and solutions will the union look forward to keep up with and facilitate that trend?

In the context of the country's deep integration and the global trend of green transformation, agricultural production needs to change in a positive direction.

The Party and State have determined that agriculture is a national advantage and a pillar of the economy. Developing a green economy and an environmentally friendly circular economy is an inevitable trend in the period of industrialisation and modernisation of the country.

We have huge advantages in agriculture. But overall, the small and fragmented agriculture sector still has many limitations. The processing of agricultural products must ensure higher quality, meet the increasing needs of the domestic and export markets. Green production is a vital trend and farmers are the core subjects to realise that trend faster, and more effectively and sustainably.

The Việt Nam Farmers' Union will set out three key groundbreaking tasks, including: Strongly innovating the method of gathering and uniting farmers; Actively participating in collective economic development in agriculture; and Improving qualifications and skills for farmers and association officials at all levels. VNS