The performance of the agriculture sector in the third quarter of 2022 saw some noteworthy points, such as rice production falling but livestock and aquaculture recovering quickly. Fisheries output in the quarter reached more than 2.4 million tons, up 2.8 per cent year-on-year.

On September 29, following talks between Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and Cuban Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz, who is visiting Vietnam, a series of MoUs on cooperation in agricultural and food development were signed by government members of the two countries.

Deputy Prime Minister Le Van Thanh has approved the “Promoting the application of information technology in collecting information and forecasting the situation in the agricultural product market” scheme. The project aims to complete the construction of a centralized data center for the agricultural sector by 2025, applying AI, big data, and remote sensing technology to predict fluctuations.

On July 11, in a discussion with Mr. Janusz Wojciechowski, EU High Commissioner for Agriculture, who is visiting Vietnam, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Phung Duc Tien said Vietnam wants to attract FDI from the EU focused on developing knowledge in agriculture, ecological agriculture, and organic agriculture, and especially core technology and the training of high-quality human resources.

While the export of many agricultural and aquatic products grew strongly in the first five months of 2022, the fruit and vegetable industry has continually declined. According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, localities need to encourage enterprises to invest in high technology in processing to boost the proportion of high value-added agricultural products while the Ministry will increase its support to the industry.

Science, technology, and innovation have made significant contributions to agricultural development and resulted in Vietnam being among the top 15 exporters of agricultural products. Efficiency in agricultural scientific research in Vietnam is not high, however. Most crop varieties, high-yield livestock, machinery, equipment, and agricultural materials are imported. In addition, the country’s agricultural exports are still mostly raw materials. Scientists have proposed many solutions to overcome the situation.