Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc on March 18 stressed the need to ensure national food security, considering this a top priority task to stabilise market, production and particularly people’s lives.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc calls for greater attention
to ensuring national food security in any circumstances 

Food is an essential and strategic commodity that must be maintained and stabilised in any circumstances, said PM Phuc at a conference reviewing the implementation of the 10 year-long national food security master plan until 2020.

According to the Government leader, the recent outbreak of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) offered a lesson in regulating the food market so as to avoid a possible state of chaos.

As one of the world’s rice export leaders, Vietnam is ready to contribute to global food security, but priority should be given to ensuring food provision for approximately 100 million Vietnamese people, said the PM.  

The govenrment leader pointed out the fact that despite being a global rice producer, Vienam just ranks 57 out of 113 countries in terms of food security. In addition, farmers enjoy better life, with profit from rice cultivation increasing 30% compared to production costs, but many families remain poor.

He asked delegates to evaluate the implemention of the national master plan on food security over the past years, taking into account shortcomings and solutions to overcome them.  

He raised a number of questions for discussions relating to land acreage allocated for agricultural production, investment, technology application, as well as the role of businesses and cooperatives in production and consumption, in order to sustain agricultural production and ensure food security.

Food security is of paramount importance for any country, especially in the context of global political instability and climate change, threfore ensuring people’s safety and stability is the primary concern of the entire Party and State, the PM stressed.

He revealed that the the government will soon submit to the Party’s Political Bureau and the National Assembly a draft resolution on national food security.

It was reported at the conference that over the past 10 years the agricultural sector has maintained an annual growth of 2.6%, while the national malnutrition rate has dropped from 18% to nearly 11%.   

As many as 9.6 million rural people have taken vocational training courses, with many now enjoying stable sources of income.

By the end of 2019 Vietnam had 15,300 agricultural cooperatives, of which 73% operated efficiently. The country also had 12,600 investors in agriculture.