The conference on organic agriculture on October 20. — VNS Photo Trần Như

Trần Như

HÀ NỘI — The organic farming sector needs to shift from certifying individual products to building whole production systems that keep soil healthy, protect biodiversity and help farmers cope with climate change, experts and industry representatives said at a conference in Hà Nội on Tuesday.

The real challenge is not adding more certified organic products but scaling up farming systems that restore ecosystems, create value and give farmers a secure long-term livelihood, said Đào Thế Anh, president of the PHANO rural development science association and chair of the members’ council of the Agroecology Learning Alliance in Southeast Asia (ALiSEA).

Certification confirms that a product meets set standards, Anh said, but counting certified products or hectares reveals little about soil health, biodiversity, nutrient cycling or how heavily farms depend on outside inputs.

Hà Phúc Mịch, chairman of the national organic agriculture association, said the transition requires a coordinated strategy covering policy, production zoning, research, technology transfer, certification and market development, backed by training and a reliable supply of suitable farm inputs.

Hà Phúc Mịch, chairman of the national organic agriculture association, speaks at the conference. — VNS Photo Trần Như

Cooperatives at the conference said strong links along the supply chain are what allow farmers to stay in organic production and expand it.

Đoàn Tấn Đạt, director of the Tấn Đạt agricultural cooperative in the Mekong Delta province of Vĩnh Long, said the group started in 2016 with seven farmers growing organic rice on 6.5 hectares.

It now has 85 full members and about 800 affiliated farmers working roughly 100 hectares, 30 of them certified organic. Its products carry US, European Union, Japanese and Canadian organic certification, giving it access to some of the world’s most demanding markets.

But conversion and certification costs remain a heavy burden, Đạt said. Cooperatives vary widely in their management capacity, sales agreements are often fragile, and few have the money to invest in processing or marketing.

Every link in the chain has a role, he said: farmers must follow production rules, cooperatives must organise growing areas, and companies must help steer production and guarantee buyers.

Above all, all sides must share the risks, responsibilities and rewards.

He called for production driven by market demand, tighter management and quality control, contracts with real commitments, and investment in processing, storage and circular-economy practices.

Larger companies can fill some of those gaps by investing in technology and supply zones. Dairy producer TH Group, an early mover in organic farming, runs a closed 'pasture-to-table' chain, having converted its feed-crop land to European and US organic standards and built up an organic dairy herd.

Certification body Control Union confirmed in 2017 that TH’s livestock operations and organic production chain met the European organic standards in force at the time. The company says its organic herd now exceeds 1,000 cows, supplying its organic fresh milk.

Speakers said the model shows that organic farming must be integrated from soil and feed through animal husbandry to processing, an approach that both safeguards quality and builds a brand. Replicating it, however, will require support tailored to smallholders and cooperatives with limited resources.

A farmer inspects organic pomelos in Minh Châu Commune, Hà Nội. — VNA/VNS Photo

Farming methods must change as well. Lê Mai Nhất of the Plant Protection Research Institute said growers should favour native varieties or those that can resist pests or tolerate climate stress, and adopt integrated pest management alongside biological and microbial products that rebuild soil and strengthen crops.

Smart sensors and artificial intelligence can help track weather and pests and issue early warnings, letting farmers act sooner and cut their reliance on chemicals.

Đào Thế Anh urged a move away from a plot-by-plot, product-by-product approach toward managing entire farming landscapes by improving soil, diversifying crops and habitats, and recycling biomass and nutrients to make the whole system more resilient.

Conversion should be designed around each area’s ecology, resources and market opportunities rather than a single national template, he said, with production planning tied to the management of land, water, biodiversity, infrastructure and technical services.

Participants said organic farming cannot thrive on the efforts of individual producers or on certification alone. They called for policies that help organise supply zones, strengthen cooperative management, encourage companies to commit to long-term partnerships and widen farmers’ access to science and technology.

Success, they said, should be judged not only by product quality but also by environmental outcomes, the resilience of farming systems and farmers’ incomes.

Treated as one quality tool within a broader strategy rather than an end in itself, certification could help organic and ecological farming deliver benefits beyond the marketplace, from restoring ecosystems to sustaining rural livelihoods, they said. — VNS