Former agriculture minister honoured
The International Rice Research Institute has honoured former Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Cao Duc Phat for his “ardent support” to the Vietnam-IRRI collaboration.
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The former minister is now Vice Chair of the Economics Commission of the Party Central Committee.
Under his leadership of the ministry, several milestone initiatives were reached in partnership with IRRI, most notably a multi-stakeholder effort that helped refine a national strategy to restructure Vietnam’s rice industry.
The restructuring aimed to improve the incomes of Vietnamese rice farmers in the face of global rice market challenges and climate change. The national strategy is now part of the ministry’s master plan for developing the rice industry.
The Vietnam-IRRI partnership started in 1963. The long-standing collaboration has seen the development of high-yielding – and more recently, climate-resilient – rice varieties for the country, sustainable farming practices, conservation of rice diversity, climate-smart agriculture, particularly in the vulnerable Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta, and the hosting and training of more than 850 Vietnamese scholars and course participants.
