Agriculture sector to make breakthrough in the first months of 2024

On July 30, the Office of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in Ho Chi Minh City held a meeting with industry associations and the press to inform about the implementation of the agricultural and rural development plan in the first 6 months of the year and the tasks for the last 6 months of 2024.

Commenting on the agricultural sector situation in the first 6 months of 2024, Mr. Le Viet Binh - Chief Representative of the Southern region of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development said that there are advantages and challenges intertwined, including the impact of market fluctuations, severe hot weather, drought in the Central Highlands and Central regions, and saltwater intrusion in the Southern provinces...

"The Ministry and the entire sector have proactively coordinated with ministries, sectors and localities to focus on implementing solutions to develop production, respond to market fluctuations, weather, and epidemics; promote trade, open markets to boost agricultural product consumption" - Mr. Le Viet Binh said.

In particular, in the face of the risk of livestock and poultry epidemics (especially African swine fever), the Ministry has strengthened its direction to localities to prevent, detect, and handle cases of transporting and trading smuggled livestock breeds and livestock products of unknown origin. Thanks to that, livestock and poultry farming has developed relatively stably.

In the first 6 months of the year, the total export turnover of agricultural, forestry and fishery products reached 29.2 billion USD, an increase of 19% over the same period in 2023. The United States, Japan and China are the 3 largest export markets for agricultural, forestry and fishery products of Vietnam. Imports reached 20.92 billion USD. The trade balance of the agricultural, forestry and fishery sector achieved a surplus of 8.28 billion USD.

Mr. Le Thanh Tung - Deputy Director of the Department of Crop Production also said that although the climate adaptation situation has been warned many times, in 2023 and 2024, the dry season has complicated characteristics such as a long duration, although there are rains but they are not stable. The water source of the Mekong River in the dry season is less.

This also causes saltwater intrusion deeper inland, over a long period of time, with high salinity levels, but does not have too serious an impact on crop and livestock farming.

In the last months of 2024, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development will continue to direct the production of Summer-Autumn, Autumn-Winter and Summer-Autumn rice crops in accordance with weather and market developments. Closely monitor the production of industrial crops and fruit trees, especially key fruit trees, to have appropriate crop distribution instructions, increasing the proportion of certified products (safety, GAP).

Organize and implement measures to strictly control the trading and transportation of livestock, poultry and related products, especially at border gates, trails and openings in border areas. Strongly develop the market, remove barriers, and facilitate the consumption of agricultural, forestry and fishery products.

At the same time, speed up the implementation and disbursement of public investment capital. Closely monitor the developments of weather, water resources, hydrometeorology to drastically implement urgent solutions to prevent and combat drought, water shortage, and saltwater intrusion, to avoid water shortage for daily life and impact on agricultural production.

Source: https://laodong.vn/kinh-doanh/nganh-nong-nghiep-but-pha-trong-nhung-thang-dau-nam-2024-1373634.ldo