Grow Asia Forum 2016: Viet Nam shares experience on agrofood value chain development

The Grow Asia Forum 2016 was organized in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, from 31^st May – 2^nd June 2016 with the participation of more than 150 leaders from the ASEAN countries, international organizations and multi-national companies.

This year’s forum focused on discussing on the investment opportunities and the way to link the small-scale farmers in the value chain; innovation support; financial resources to support farmers and the application of technical solutions to implement the relevant initiatives.

Vietnamese delegation was led by the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) Cao Duc Phat. At the forum, Minister shared Viet Nam’s experience in implementing public-private partnership activities (PPP) in agriculture; the results obtained from the activities of Partnership for Sustainable Agriculture in Viet Nam (PSAV)…

Speaking at the forum, Minister Cao Duc Phat stressed that agriculture is still playing an important role in socio-economic development and poverty reduction. This sector helped to ensure food security and social stability of Viet Nam by contributing about 17% of GDP, creating jobs for 47% of labor forces and main sources of livelihood for about 70% of the population.

Viet Nam is one of the top 5 exporting countries in the world for agricultural products such as cashew nuts, rice, pepper and seafood (shrimp) with a total export turnover of $30.14 billion in 2015. However, Viet Nam’s agricultural growth is currently facing negative impacts from pollution and climate change; this requires proper changes and adjustment as: Promoting small-scale (small households) production to large-scale and centralized production; diversifying products, improving the quality of agricultural products in order to meet the new requirements of the market in order to improve the income of farmers; at the same time, promoting technology transfer and knowledge which aim to transform from the “brown” economy to “green” economy.

At the forum, Minister Cao Duc Phat also discussed about issues related to financial source for replanting crops, increasing production and strengthening the role of the farmer organizations; Minister also shared experience in applying model from PPP for comprehensive and sustainable agribusiness in Viet Nam.

On the sidelines of the forum, the Minister will also have bilateral meetings with leaders of ASEAN member countries to promote relations between Viet Nam and these countries. Grow Asia’s partner countries will share initiatives of their respective value chains and introduce new business models which are achieving great results in their countries.