The capital city leads nation in rural development
VGP - After 10 years of administrative boundary expansion, Ha Noi is leading the country in terms of rural development and is setting an example for the nation with 294 out of 386 communes meeting or exceeding the Government’s new rural development standards.
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According to a report by the city's census office last June, the city is now running 154 large rice fields and 101 organic vegetable farms.
Re-organizing agricultural land into centralized and large production zones is regarded as a critical step in rural development to take advantage of shared infrastructures, machinery and manpower.
However, it has proven to be one of the challenging tasks due to the inherent complexity of its nature, which involves a mirage of logistics and community-related issues.
In addition, 15 livestock production centres were established or relocated from residential areas. 3,941 farms have been registered and reported to the city’ authorities with 101 farms using high-tech solutions and 56 aquaculture areas operating effectively.
Deputy Secretary of the Ha Noi’s Party Committee Ngo Thi Thanh Hang said that it was a bold and important move, which required a large amount of political will and cooperation between the city’s authorities and its residents.
The city now has to focus on developing quality products, building its own brand and improving incentives and guiding businesses to invest more in agricultural production, Hang added.
The city is also home to some 12 well-known brands of agricultural products in both domestic and international markets.
As the city’s rural areas develop, citizens’ incomes have been steadily rising. The city’s number of poor households dropped to a record low at less than 2.5% based on a report by the city’s census office last June.
She said Ha Noi’s objective for 2018-20 was to continue pushing for faster development of rural areas as well as to restructure its agricultural sector to produce and add even more value to farm products. Hang stressed the need to further streamline and improve the legal process to support farming communities, especially with the issuance of land right certificates.
The city’s natural resources and environment department has been charged with the task of overseeing some 30 districts and communes. Five task forces have been sent to local communities to answer questions, collect inquiries and help local authorities to process paperwork. Obtaining land right certificates, for many farmers, is a major step towards securing financial co-operation from commercial banks to expand their production capacity.
However, the city is aware of numerous obstacles that must be resolved. From 2018 to 2020, Hanoi will continue to encourage businesses to make more investments, preferably in hi-tech farming activities, Hang said.
The city is actively directing, with many synchronous and feasible solutions, to focus on the remaining communes that strive to reach new rural standards by 2020 to fulfill the target of over 80% of communes meeting new rural standards under the Hanoi Party Committee's program.
Centralised slaughtering houses and food processing centres are priorities and seen as key to improving the quality control process and food safety standards.
