Overcoming the waste of scientific and technological research resources in Bac Kan

Over the past years, Bac Kan province has invested hundreds of billions of VND in implementing scientific and technological research projects for practical application and production promotion. However, besides effective research, many projects and topics are far from reality and have no applicability, leading to waste of investment resources. This is a problem that needs to be resolved soon.

In 2020, Bac Kan province invested funds for Thai Nguyen University of Agriculture and Forestry to implement a project to build a model of intensive production of medicinal herbs according to the product value chain and diversify products from medicinal herbs such as Chinese yam and Rehmannia glutinosa (also known as Chinese yam).

After more than two years of implementation, the project has completed the contents according to the approved description; built a planting model in Cho Don district; researched and produced two products from Chinese yam (mountain yam powder and sliced Chinese yam), one product from Rehmannia glutinosa (dried Chinese yam). The mountain yam powder and sliced Chinese yam products have been certified as 3-star OCOP products at the provincial level... The provincial acceptance council has evaluated and classified the implementation results of this project as satisfactory.

This project is only at the satisfactory level because it is very difficult to replicate in practice. The characteristic of the yam is that it grows very deep into the ground. When planted in soft soil, the tubers are deep underground and cannot be exploited manually. The project had to hire an excavator to dig up the fields to exploit them, affecting the people's cultivated land.

The situation of research projects that are not practical and do not meet the needs, leading to difficulties or inability to replicate, is not uncommon in Bac Kan. From 2020 to 2024, Bac Kan will implement a project to research and develop peach trees in Nam Cuong commune, Cho Don district.

The project renovates 40 existing peach trees in the locality to produce uniform fruit, increasing productivity by 5 to 10%; selects 5-10 original trees for grafting; propagates and builds a model for planting new peach trees on 3 hectares; trains 30 local people on planting and caring for peach trees. However, this project only sets a target of 85% survival rate after replanting, not fruiting trees. This makes it difficult to determine whether the project is actually effective or not.

There is also a situation where the same topic is repeated over and over again. A topic that has been researched, accepted, and applied is still invested in for re-research in the following years, and the results still do not have many new things.

A typical example is the research on pig farming. Bac Kan has invested in research and implemented a series of similar topics, such as: Project to build a local pig farming model in the form of semi-wild in Pac Nam district; Project to expand the model of local pig farming in Bac Kan province; Project to build a local pig farming model in the form of semi-wild on a household scale in Bac Kan town... This leads to a waste of resources because basically semi-wild pig farming in all localities of Bac Kan is the same, there is no need for each district to implement such a topic.

On average, each year, Bac Kan invests about 10 billion VND in research and implementation of scientific and technological topics and projects. From 2017 to 2024, organizations and individuals inside and outside Bac Kan province have proposed and ordered 508 provincial-level scientific topics and projects.

The whole province has 77 topics and projects being implemented, including 6 national-level topics and projects and 71 provincial-level topics and projects (of which 60 topics and projects were approved and implemented in the period; 11 topics and projects were transferred before 2017).

As of July 2024, 2 national-level projects have been completed, 4 projects are being implemented; 49 provincial-level projects have been completed, 17 projects are being implemented, 5 projects have stopped or terminated contracts. 51 projects have been accepted, of which: 49 provincial-level projects have been accepted and classified as satisfactory or higher; 5 projects have been classified as excellent; 26 projects have not been accepted.

According to the monitoring results of the People's Council of Bac Kan province, the topics and projects are mainly proposed and ordered by departments, institutes, schools, and research centers outside the province, while the number of projects proposed and ordered by localities is still small. Some projects have not yet originated from the practical needs of localities and establishments.

Notably, the evaluation of the effectiveness of application and replication of scientific projects and topics is also revealing many problems. According to the report of the Department of Science and Technology of Bac Kan, out of a total of 49 topics and projects that have been accepted and transferred to units and localities, 30 topics and projects have been replicated and replicated well (accounting for 61.2%); 16 topics and projects have been maintained (accounting for 32.7%); 3 topics and projects have not been maintained (accounting for 6.1%).

However, the monitoring results of the Provincial People's Council showed that there were projects that the Department of Science and Technology assessed as being well replicated, but in reality they were not replicated. The Department assessed that there were only 3 topics and projects that were not maintained, but in reality, the number was 7 topics and projects.

Many projects, after research and acceptance, were not maintained or expanded, such as: Applying technical advances in experimental farming of monkfish; Building a model for growing tobacco in the autumn-winter crop in Cho Moi district; Building a model for sustainable tangerine production following VietGAP standards...

According to the People's Council of Bac Kan province, the annual review of topics and projects is still slow, leading to some tasks not being implemented at the beginning of the year but only in the middle of the year. The selection of some experimental fruit tree planting models is not suitable in practice.

The short implementation time is stipulated, only the survival rate and flowering rate are accepted, but there is no regulation on acceptance of fruit trees with high productivity and value, leading to the inability to confirm the effectiveness and practicality of the topics and projects. After the project is accepted, the model is transferred to the people and localities for care, but there is no final assessment of whether the trees have grown, produced fruit with productivity and value or not to encourage replication or to make recommendations if it is not suitable for practice.

The cause of this situation is determined to be that localities have not been proactive in researching, proposing, and ordering scientific and technological tasks. The review and approval of topics is not close to practical needs while there are no regulations on criteria for evaluating, determining, and classifying the effectiveness of topics and projects when applied. Most localities have not yet allocated funds or integrated other sources of capital to deploy and apply topics and projects in practice.

Another reason is that people have to contribute 30% of the funding, leading to a reluctance to participate in implementing topics and projects. Most households when participating do not follow the technical procedures instructed by topics and projects...

Director of the Department of Science and Technology of Bac Kan Nguyen Dinh Diep said that to overcome this situation, in the coming time, the Department will advise the province to orient the proposal, ordering, and selection of scientific and technological tasks that are close to actual conditions. Departments and branches will strengthen coordination with research-in charge agencies to investigate, survey, and propose orders. Since 2022, the Standing Committee of the Bac Kan Provincial Party Committee has issued Directive No. 24-CT/TU on strengthening the Party's leadership in the implementation of scientific and technological tasks in the locality. In particular, the core content emphasized is that when selecting content to order scientific and technological tasks, it is necessary to focus on solving key, key, and urgent issues of the locality and be responsible for the urgency of the proposal. This is an appropriate guiding viewpoint that needs to be seriously implemented by sectors and localities in Bac Kan to ensure that the situation of wasting investment funds when implementing topics and projects as in the past does not recur.

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