The application of scientific advances in agricultural production is an inevitable trend to reduce labor force and increase crop productivity in order to bring about high economic efficiency. In particular, the use of drones (drones) to spray plant protection drugs (BVTV) in Long Dien district initially showed effectiveness not only in production, but also contributing to protecting the health of farmers. . Farmers watched the demonstration of flying equipment spraying pesticides by the District Farmers Association in coordination with SNEWRICE JSC to perform the winter-spring crop 2020-2021 on the fields of An Nhut commune. 30% DISCOUNT OF Pesticides The device for spraying pesticides for plants is unfamiliar to many farmers in the province, but to farmers in Long Dien district, this device is quite familiar. In the Winter-Spring crop of 2020-2021, the District Farmers Association in collaboration with SNEWRICE Joint Stock Company (Ho Chi Minh City) held a demonstration of spraying pesticides by drone on more than 30 hectares of rice in An Nhut commune (the company supports 100 % injection). This form initially shows practical effectiveness and promises to be able to deploy on a large scale in the near future. This is also an activity in the project of implementing high technology application in agricultural cultivation, improving production efficiency for farmers. With drones, the droplets coming out of the nozzle are very small and smooth, helping the farmer reduce the actual amount of water needed while ensuring even surface spread and high efficiency. The spraying of pesticides on rice by drones also increases labor productivity by 15-30 times, shortens the spraying time per unit area; 30% reduction in pesticides compared to conventional spraying. Witnessing the spraying equipment in the field with his own eyes, Mr. Huynh Van Manh (An Lac hamlet, An Nhut commune) said that in the past, he sprayed pesticides with a bottle on his back. Although he is equipped with protective equipment such as raincoats, gloves, and boots, he cannot avoid inhaling the smell of medicine. In this Winter – Spring season, he registered with the Farmers’ Association to spray pesticides with drones on his family’s 4ha of rice. “With the manual spraying method, for each hectare of rice, I have to pay 400 thousand dong to hire labor. In the Winter – Spring crop 2020-2021, I spray with a drone, the cost is lower, only 350 thousand VND / ha, and the amount of medicine is reduced by nearly 30%. So I will use drones to spray drugs in the coming rice crops, ”said Manh. According to Huynh Trung Thanh, Director of An Nhut Agriculture – Service Cooperative, spraying with drones saves water and pesticides while reducing rice yield loss by 150-200 kg / ha compared to conventional spraying. rice is not stepped on like when sprayed with a can. “On the fields of An Nhut cooperative, farmers linked production and cultivated simultaneously on an area of ​​more than 200 hectares, so the use of drones to spray pesticides is very effective,” said Thanh. for more info. Using drones to spray pesticides helps to save production costs, reduce the impact of pesticides on the environment and affect water and soil sources. ESTABLISHMENT OF HIGH-TECH AGRICULTURAL CO-operative Over the past years, farmers in Long Dien district have applied agricultural mechanization and brought higher efficiency in production; Contribute to agricultural restructuring, improve the quality of agricultural products and increase profits. However, the application of flying equipment in spraying, fertilizing … is still limited due to large investment costs. According to Mr. Huynh Van So, Vice Chairman of Farmers Association of Long Dien district, the spraying of pesticides with drones has shown many benefits to the fields in An Nhut commune. Therefore, on April 15, the District Farmers Association cooperated with the TT.Long Dien Farmers’ Association to set up Green Leaf High-tech Agricultural Cooperative. The cooperative has 7 members, specializing in providing services and applying science and technology in agricultural production. “Since the use of drones in agriculture in Long Dien district is relatively new, the District Farmers Union will coordinate with SNEWRICE JSC to disseminate this technique step by step. Step one, the company will make drone spraying service for farmers. Step two, proceed to training and implementation in cooperatives. Then, when the effectiveness has been verified over time, the Farmers’ Union levels will be massively deployed in the fields of An Nhut, An Ngai and Tam Phuoc communes, ”said Mr. So. The adoption of drones for agricultural production is an important transition in accelerating the mechanization of the agricultural sector. This step contributes to promoting competitive advantages, improving the efficiency and quality of agricultural products and increasing farmers’ income.

Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Tran Thanh Nam speaking and directing the conference. Photo: Quang Yen.

The number of cooperatives operating exceeded the set target

According to the report, by the end of March 2021, the country had nearly 17,600 agricultural cooperatives and 68 cooperative unions operating in the agricultural sector. Basically completing the target of 15,000 effective agricultural cooperatives assigned by the National Assembly and the Government.

Currently, 56/63 provinces and cities have issued a Resolution of the Provincial People’s Council on policies to encourage production and consumption of agricultural products; 48/63 provinces issued a list of key key products and commodities that need to be encouraged for development; 16/63 provinces have approved projects and joint projects of the province with 359 projects approved. In which there are 271 scientific organizations, 586,585 farmer households, 4,028 agricultural cooperatives participating in association with 1,867 enterprises. Out of more than 4,500 OCOP products, nearly 40% are owned by cooperatives and agricultural cooperatives.

According to statistics, there are 30,026 agricultural production and business farms nationwide, using 35,904 ha of land, 3.1 ha / farm on average; 3.7 employees / farm on average. The farm’s investment capital for production is VND 1,042 billion; average revenue reached 1,478 billion.

By the end of 2020, the country has 165 traditional occupations and 1,951 craft villages and traditional craft villages which have been recognized. The total number of establishments engaged in production and business in the rural industry is over 817,000, creating jobs for over 2.3 million workers, the total revenue from rural activities is over 236,000. billion VND, average income is 4 to 4.5 million VND / person / month.

In recent years, the level of mechanization of agricultural production in some stages has increased, especially for rice production. Targets for agricultural mechanization in some stages by 2020 will increase by 2-8% compared to 2019.

From 2017 to now, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has advised the Government to issue two important documents, namely Decree No. 40/2017 / ND-CP on management of salt production, processing and trading and Decision No. 1325 / QD-TTg of the Prime Minister on August 31, 2020 approving the salt industry development project for the period of 2021-2030. Salt production reaches about 1,350,000 tons, basically meeting the demand for salt in the country. To initially form industrial salt production zones in three provinces of Khanh Hoa, Ninh Thuan and Binh Thuan.

However, despite strong changes in both quantity and quality, the scale of revenue and the size of members of the agricultural cooperative remains small. Leadership capacity of cooperatives is still limited.

The implementation of agricultural mechanization still lacks strategy and is not synchronous. Important policies such as investment in supporting infrastructure, especially infrastructure for production and business, land policy and especially credit are still the bottlenecks.

Therefore, at the conference, many opinions said that the key point for cooperative development is human, so it is necessary to pay attention to support and improve the cooperative management capacity for the board of directors and the president of the society. board.

Deputy Minister Tran Thanh Nam and leaders of Dak Lak province chair the conference.

In addition, delegates also said that relevant ministries should continue to review and complete the legal system, mechanisms and policies on collective economic development, agricultural cooperatives (land, tax, credit). use …), promptly remove difficulties and problems, create conditions for the collective economy and agricultural cooperatives to develop stably.

Especially when the Free Trade Agreements take effect, the issue of product safety, quality and food security; Commodity competition will take place very fierce. With its advantages and potential, economic cooperation through cooperatives and cooperative groups will contribute to increase product value.

Main mission

Speaking at the conclusion of the conference, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Tran Thanh Nam asked localities to continue developing cooperative economies in the direction of mechanization of production, cooperation in investment in processing technology. to develop agricultural products in the direction of multidisciplinary and multi-occupations, adapting to the market economy, renewing production and business modes, in order to step by step improve the competitiveness of goods.

Deputy Minister Tran Thanh Nam emphasized that the task in 2021 is to continue perfecting the system of legal documents in violation of the industry law, promoting synchronous mechanization in agricultural production. Develop a rural career development strategy to 2030; Project to develop agricultural cooperatives to respond to climate change; Development of collective economy and cooperatives.

Conference scene. Photo: Quang Yen.

According to Deputy Minister Tran Thanh Nam, MARD is preparing to issue a circular guiding the functions, powers and tasks of the agricultural sector. Therefore, the organization of the local apparatus, depending on the situation of each locality, is structured and arranged properly, and at the same time, the local Departments of Agriculture and Rural Development advise to develop key programs and plans to help support and develop agricultural cooperatives.

“Currently, the cooperative infrastructure is very weak. Therefore, industries need to have mechanisms to support the development of cooperatives. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has tried to develop cooperative infrastructure for the past time, but it has not been as expected. We will try our best in the New Rural Program and make points in a number of projects ”, emphasized Deputy Minister Tran Thanh Nam.

At the end of the conference, Deputy Minister Tran Thanh Nam launched the 2021 Typical Handicraft Products Contest. Accordingly, the contest will receive works from September to October and summarize the awards at the Craft Village Fair. later.

“Now we must have a new mindset, that is to develop agriculture in the direction of combining multiple professions and associated with rural services. The second trend is that the OCOP Program is very effective, the rural industries are also attached to it, so we have to do research to promote this program. This is the task of the Department of Economic Cooperation and Rural Development to coordinate with localities in building long-term strategies ”, Deputy Minister Tran Thanh Nam.

Mr. Giap Van Huan (on the right), Chang village, Viet Tien commune, planted Thai jackfruit in a net house with an inert iron frame.

According to the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Viet Yen district, from 2016 up to now, the district has been supported and invested more than 24.4 billion VND to build 116 mesh houses, high-tech agricultural production (CNC) film houses, each model is 1,000 m2 wide. In which, the Provincial People’s Committee supported 12,3 billion VND to build 40 models; the district supported people and cooperatives with 12.1 billion dong to build 76 models. Thereby, 100 net houses, membrane houses in Viet Tien commune, only Minh Tam General Agricultural Cooperative (referred to as Minh Tam Cooperative) has 30 houses to be built and put into use.

Despite a large investment, after a period of operation, most of the film houses, especially net houses, are ineffective. Currently, most of the net houses are left empty and torn. Many households voluntarily dismantle the steel frame and change the crop structure, wrong for the original purpose.

After the newspaper stated, the People’s Committee of Viet Yen district instructed the District Department of Agriculture and Rural Development to coordinate with the People’s Committee of Viet Tien commune to review and inspect the reality, invite Minh Tam Cooperative and the households to change the purpose of using net houses by themselves. job.

Mr. Ngo Xuan Trung, Vice Chairman of Viet Tien Commune People’s Committee, said on April 6 and April 14, the functions of the district and the commune People’s Committee invited representatives of Minh Tam Cooperative (the unit assigned by the District People’s Committee to be in charge of net houses, diaphragm houses in the area) and 9 households using net houses against the original commitment (in two villages of Chang and Ha) to the office to clarify the reasons for conversion and production orientation.

The torn net house area of ​​Minh Tam Cooperative has yet to be repaired.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Tu, Director of Minh Tam Cooperative, said that the reason for the rapid failure of the net is that the net house is not suitable for the sub-region here. Because this area often occurs strong winds that make the net quickly torn and torn. Minh Tam Cooperative as well as other households have invested in repairing, replacing but still ineffective. Due to the loss of intensive farming of vegetables (low selling price, crop failure …), farmers and cooperatives have changed crops.

At the working sessions, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Viet Yen district and the People’s Committee of Viet Tien commune requested Minh Tam Cooperative and the households to self-overcome, remove perennial trees, replant vegetables, tubers and fruits according to the original commitment. . The time to complete the remedy is before May 30, 2021.

The People’s Committee of Viet Tien commune also informs households participating in the project of building plastic houses and net houses in the area: If any household does not do this, they will be recorded in writing and sanctioned according to regulations. Households whose contracts have expired will be liquidated by the District Department of Agriculture and Rural Development and the People’s Committee of Viet Tien Commune.

Requesting Minh Tam Cooperative to remove torn, damaged nets and cover new nets before April 10; cleaning roads, canals and ditches in the net house area before April 24, 2021; directing staff to regularly check, grasp and guide member households and associate with the cooperative to grow vegetables, tubers and fruits in net houses, not to leave empty land.

Up to this point, Minh Tam Cooperative has not recovered the torn nets, covered with new nets as directed. Because according to Ms. Tu: “If we cover the net, we have to spend about 900 million dong so the cooperative doesn’t have the money to do it”. Households also reported that they do not have the budget to stretch new nets and apply for changing land use purposes because they have invested a lot of money to plant perennial trees.

Households participating in the project voluntarily converting crops for the wrong purpose were invited to the office of the People’s Committee of Viet Tien commune to work in the afternoon of April 14.

Talking about this issue, Mr. Than Van Thuan, Vice Chairman of the People’s Committee of Viet Yen district, said that the main reason leading to Minh Tam Cooperative and households participating in the net house project, the ineffective production is due to The cooperative has not yet built a preliminary processing area, cold storage for agricultural products, so the cooperative cannot sign production contracts with households and businesses (DN) for consumption.

To overcome this, the locality will soon request the Provincial People’s Committee to approve the planning of the preliminary processing zone, so that the district will have grounds to support the construction of this area. This is the basis for Minh Tam Cooperative to be eligible to sign production contracts with households and purchasing enterprises. Regarding net houses whose frame has been removed and the purpose of use changed, Mr. Thuan affirmed that he will give statistics, make records and strictly deal with it, requiring net owners to restore the status quo and grow vegetables and crops according to project. “We are determined to restore the efficiency of the greenhouse and net houses as soon as possible,” said Thuan.

The investment in building high-tech agricultural production zone is the right policy. However, the net houses and plastic houses are ineffective, some of them have changed their use purpose for a long time due to lack of management. Hopefully, local rights, cooperatives and people participating in the project will soon join hands to overcome, avoid wasting investment capital.

News, photo: Dai La