Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) Ho Xuan Hung says that though the State devised a policy on agricultural mechanisation, farmers have almost never benefited from this policy. He recalls that many localities began using modern machines in agricultural production several years ago, receiving strong response from farmers. After a short period of time, industrial parks mushroomed in rural areas along with the development of the national economy, seeking super profit. Consequently, many farmers gave up agricultural production to work for industrial parks while localities no longer cared much about agricultural mechanisation.

It was a great shock when MARD announced that post-harvest loss has made up 10-11 percent of total food output.

“It is unbelievable in comparison with the development of the agricultural sector, which achieves a growth rate of only 3-4 percent annually,” Mr Hung says, adding that nothing has been done so far to improve the situation.

According to Doan Xuan Hoa, deputy head of the Agro-Forestry Product Processing and Salt Production Department under MARD, Vietnam has only mechanised several processes of agricultural production such as soil preparation and transportation while the proportion of mechanisation in rice transplanting and harvesting and sugarcane harvesting is very low. In addition, he says the manufacturing and assembling of agricultural machines has not met the sector’s demand. 

Although Vietnam has up to 42 mechanical engineering plants, most of them focus on manufacturing and assembling motorcycles and automobiles for much larger profits.

Mr Hoa says that the Vietnam Engine and Agricultural Machinery Corporation (VEAM) under the Ministry of Industry and Trade is the country’s largest machinery manufacturer, which makes up 30 percent of the domestic market share.

“If our agricultural mechanisation only relies on VEAM, its production scale is rather small and unit price is comparatively high. This explains why Chinese-made engines penetrate Vietnam in a large quantity. Meanwhile, the number of machines imported from other countries remain limited and they do not match the specific characteristics for the country,” says Mr Hoa.

To speed up agricultural mechanisation, experts say Vietnam should develop specific policies for the mechanical engineering sector and help farmers use the machines effectively. In fact, time for running machines in agricultural production is less than in industrial production, and most farmers are poor and cannot afford to buy them. Mr Hung says that only when the Government develops policies to support farmers in purchasing the machines, can agricultural mechanisation reap rewards. 

According to Mr Hung, MARD will classify farming and livestock breeding zones for mechanisation. For rice and sugarcane growing in the Mekong River Delta, mechanisation will be applied to the harvest process to reduce loss in the post-harvest period and improve the quality of these products. Mr Hung quotes statistics as saying that in agricultural production, except for soil preparation, rice threshing and husking processes, transplanting, tending and harvesting are mostly manual work.