Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - Without aproper supply chain, Vietnam’s agriculture may be in for a harsh winter.

An alarming fact mentioned during the 2018 VietnamSpring Agricultural Forum on April 24 is that at present, the country’s entireagricultural sector has about 700 safe product value chains, but only half ofthem seem to operate effectively.

Certain limitations persist within theagricultural value chain from input, production, post-harvest processing, toend consumption or export purposes, said Nguyen Duc Thanh, Director of theVietnam Institute for Economic and Policy Research (VEPR).

Thanh recommended applying modern scienceand technology innovations to the current supply chain, though he was uncertainhow to best implement such an approach for the benefit of farmers, distributorsand buyers alike.

He also alluded to the recent rise of‘Agriculture 4.0’, understood as intelligent production based on breakthroughtechnological achievements such as motion sensors, agricultural robots, or theapplication of Blockchain technology in product traceability.

Vu Truong Ca, Co-founder of the LINANetwork, said that by using Blockchain technology, firms can cut down on thecost of product origin management to near zero.

But Thanh remained skeptical, saying that Vietnameseagricultural producers have yet to understand either the importance of awell-functioning value chain or the application of such a modern technology,leading to a mess of information, or lack thereof, that ultimately befuddlesbuyers.

Deputy Director of the Field Crops ResearchInstitute Dao The Anh considered the lack of modern technology to be a majorconstraint in the national agricultural product value chain, resulting in highinput costs and inefficient production.

Low-cost agricultural chains arecharacterised by high transaction costs, low-level processing technology,limited use of technological advances in production, and the absence ofcommunication between policymakers, businesses and farmers, said Dao The Anh.

He criticised the abuse of fertilisers,pesticides and excessive use of water, alongside a small scale of production,fragmented with excessive use of manual labour and inconsistent output quality.In addition, there is a lack of standard warehouses, poor transport andpackaging methods, and too many intermediaries.

This means post-harvest losses are high, upto 32 percent of total yield for fruits and vegetables, 14 percent for meat and12 percent for seafood, relatively high compared to other countries inSoutheast Asia, he added.

Deputy Director General of the CultivationDepartment under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) TranXuan Dinh said that Vietnamese agricultural exports often face technicalbarriers, especially when exporting to developed countries.

Dinh admitted that though there have beenmany State policies related to said issue, they are rather inadequate andunreasonable when put into practice.

He also said that investment in theagricultural field is limited even for foreign companies, because of high riskdue to Vietnam’s imminent climate change and under-developed infrastructure inremote rural areas.

In order for Vietnamese farmers tosustainably develop agricultural value chains, he strongly advised thepromotion of linkage between rural agricultural cooperatives and distributors,as well as public-private partnerships in infrastructure investment.

The State should also implement supportingpolicies for enterprises, such as low-interest loans and subsidisation, whileplanning large-scale agricultural production areas in a concentrated and modernmanner.

Tuesday’s agricultural forum was organisedby VEPR, in collaboration with the Agricultural Alliance, focusing oninnovating the supply chain to improve national agriculturalcompetitiveness.-VNA