ĐÀ NẴNG — Việt Nam’s agricultural sector last year showed the most development of any of the past seven years and agricultural exports reached US$40.5 billion, helping the country confirm its position as an important exporter.

Phạm Thị Hồng Yến, head of the International Co-operation Division under the Việt Nam Co-operative Alliance (VCA), made the statement at the 19th annual meeting of the Asian Farmers’ Group for Co-operation (AFGC) on Wednesday in Đà Nẵng.

The event was themed ‘The role of co-operative organisations to address the challenges of climate change for Asian farmers’.

The two-day conference, which ended on Thursday, was attended by representatives from AFGC’s 10 member states: India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Mongolia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Việt Nam.

Most agricultural co-operatives in Việt Nam effectively support their member businesses and contribute to national economic growth, according to an official.

However, Yến said, the country’s agricultural sector is starting to face the serious consequences of climate change.

Statistics from the World Bank showed Việt Nam ranked first out of 84 developing coastal countries in terms of serious impacts on population and gross domestic product (GDP) caused by rising sea levels. 

Yến said many co-operatives did not have access to information about the impacts of climate change on their products to craft suitable response plans and few can apply hi-tech practices to address climate change.

This year, VCA plans to build 77 model co-operatives organised around local specialities and will provide each one with $2,000 in support.

Nguyễn Ngọc Bảo, chairman of the VCA, said that besides exchanging experience on how to resolve challenges caused by climate change, the VCA hoped to receive more knowledge in developing agriculture, applying hi-tech solutions and forming co-operatives around local specialities.

Việt Nam now has more than 22,400 co-operatives, 74 co-operative unions and more than 103,400 groups of co-operation with a total of seven million members, according to VCA. VCA joined the AFGC in 2011. — VNS