Vietnam Farmers’ Union convenes seventh Congress

In his opening remarks, Chairman of the VFU Central Committee Thao Xuan Sung said that the association is entering a new stage of development in the context of industrialisation and modernisation and international integration.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) are creating both opportunities and challenges for Vietnam’s agriculture, farmers and rural areas, Sung said.

Those opportunities and challenges require the VFU to continue reforming its operation methods towards combining dissemination work with intensifying the provision of consultancy, support and vocational training for farmers.

The association will participate in social criticism and supervision over the implementation of the Party and State’s policies, while carrying out socio-economic and cultural development projects and programmes in rural areas effectively, he added.

On the first working day, the congress elected a 25-strong Presidium and a five-strong Secretariat, discussed and approved its working agenda and statutes, and adopted election regulations.

The three-day seventh congress is expected set forth 14 criteria on farmers’ emulation movement during 2018-2023. The popularisation of the Party and State’s policies and regulations, as well as the VFU’s resolution for all farmers, is the important target. The VFU also hopes to have at least 60 percent of its members with Internet access, 100 percent of the union’s officers receiving training in agricultural cultivation techniques, and all of the VFU’s chapters organising consulting activities and vocational training for local farmers.

During 2013-2018, the union admitted nearly 2.2 million members, raising the total membership to 10.2 million people. Some 130,000 training courses and conferences were organised, and over 14,000 production models which applied advanced technologies were successfully transferred to the farming community.