Agricultural and forestry farms across the nation will undergo inspections in an effort to solve land-use problems, said a senior agricultural official.

The move follows concerns over the inefficient management of land at State farms.

Workers transport pine saplings for forestry planting. Forestry land use will begin undergoing inspections, according to agricultural officials.

One problem was the illegal renting and borrowing of 7,700ha of State-run farms, out of a total of about 5mil hectares under State management, which has left many local residents lacking land for production.

Some 130 agro-forestry farms will be inspected for their land use and management by June 30, said Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Diep Kinh Tan at a meeting yesterday in Hanoi aimed to reorganise land use and management at State-owned agro-forestry farms.

The inter-disciplinary inspection team of the steering committee on reorganising State-run farms would later inspect at least half of the number of agro-forestry farms in each locality and would submit their results to the Government for consideration by year end.

Tan said despite owning and running as much as 5mil hectares of land, agro-forestry farms across the country have been poorly utilising their resource. The situation has left many farm workers struggling to make a livelihood with a low monthly income of between VND400,000-500,000 (US$25-31).

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development would review, plant marker and approve land use master zoning for enterprises converted from State-run agro-forestry farms, he said, adding that problems involving land encroachment and disputes will be thoroughly solved.

The total area of idle land and ineffectively-utilised land would be reclaimed and put to a better use, under the two-phase plan.

The deputy minister said land-use reports made by localities were inaccurate and did not reflect the real situation, thus resulting in poor business and low production at farms. He requested agro-forestry farms to re-examine land-use in earnest, and warned State-farms would lag behind if no plans for farm development were made available.

Nguyen Xuan Sang, deputy director of Thanh Hoa Province’s agricultural department, said he agreed. Sang said land allocation at local agro-forestry farms was very complicated, citing difficulties in classifying types of forest and its use according to new criteria.

A ministry report shows that agro-forestry farms are located in 52 provinces and cities nationwide with 46 of them already planning to reorganise and renovate State-run farms. Hanoi is one of the six that have no plans to tackle the issue yet.

In the 2006-2007 period, 314 out of 342 agricultural farms and 353 out of 355 forestry farms were reorganised into agricultural and forestry companies. Of these, 18 agro-farms and 11 forestry farms have been dissolved due to poor management.

(Source: Viet Nam News)

Related Posts