HÀ NỘI — Organiser of the programme "Pride of Vietnamese Farmers" officially declared the list of 63 outstanding Vietnamese farmers of 2017 on Thursday.

The organiser also announced names of 24 persons engaged for 30 years in the country’s Đổi mới ( Reform) process and stated that the fifth edition of TV show "Pride of Vietnamese Farmers” would be telecast live.

At a press conference organised by the Việt Nam Farmers’ Association, the organiser said those on the list were selected by the Farmers’ Association, Party Central Committee’s Commission for Publicity and Education and the ministries of agriculture and rural development, and industry and trade.

Referring to the results for 2017, the organiser reported it received 137 nominations from 63 provinces and cities across the country, from which the "Pride of Vietnamese Farmers" programme’s final selection panel carefully shortlisted 63 people for the award.

The awardees were members of the association’s branches at localities, excellent farmers who had good achievements in the three movements launched by the association, namely “Farmers emulate production, business excellence, solidarity to help each other to enrich and reduce poverty sustainably,” “Farmers emulate building new countryside,” and “Farmers participate in ensuring national defence and security.”

Out of the 63 awardees, nine are women and 54 are men. Ten among them are members of ethnic minorities. The oldest recipient is Võ Văn Ten, 75, from Tây Ninh Province’s farmers association, and the youngest is Nguyễn Văn Nữa, 29, from Đồng Tháp Province’s farmers association.

According to the organiser, out of the 63 outstanding Vietnamese farmers of 2017, 54 are involved in production and business in agriculture and had a rural career, three are engaged in technical invention, one in the process of new countryside and five participated in national defence and security.

To mark five years of the programme “Pride of Vietnamese farmers” (2013-17) and the country’s 30-year reform on agriculture and countryside (1986-2016), organisers also selected 24 outstanding persons engaged in the reform process.

These were farmers and agriculture-related businessmen who had the most outstanding achievements during 30 years of the country’s renovation.

The official award ceremony will be aired live on TV in the evening of October 14. — VNS