HCM City (VNS/VNA) - Though the Vietnamese government and Ho Chi MinhCity’s administration offer many incentives and have favourable policies toencourage businesses to invest in agriculture, they often remain on paper,heard a conference held in the city on August 27.

For instance, a government decree issued lastApril reduces land rents for agricultural companies and provides subsidies forresearch, buying machinery, human resource training, and construction. However,many firms, and authorities, are waiting for a circular that will guide implementationof the decree.

There are also government policies foragriculture insurance against natural disasters and diseases in the case ofcertain crops and animals, credit, vocational training in rural areas, andfinancial aid for building fishing ports, ships and fish farms.

HCM City has its own policies to encouragebusinesses to invest in agriculture, including subsidies for acquiring officefacilities and adopting VietGAP standards.

One such was Decree 655 issued last February,which was hailed by businesses for meeting their needs, having simpleprocedures and waiving interest on loans for buying machinery, seeds, breedinganimals and animal feed and paying salaries.

However, the benefits often do not percolatedown to businesses. Owner of a cantaloupe farm in Hoc Mon district Le Nguyen CamTu said he has been applying to lease some public land for a year but has notreceived any response from authorities despite the plentiful availability ofland.

Renting private land could be risky since itdepends on the whim of the lessor, he said, calling on authorities to make iteasier to lease public lands.

Le Ha Mong Ngoc, Director of Nam VietBiotechnology Joint Stock Company, said she has been unable to get a foodsafety certificate for her lingzhi mushrooms despite applying for years. 

“Though our food processing procedures arestrict, without proper certification we cannot sell the mushrooms despite thehigh demand for the product. Many farmers we are working with have had to stopgrowing the lingzhi mushrooms.”

She also called for better market and productorigin surveillance to keep out fraudulent and low-quality products and protecthigh-quality brands and consumers.

The HCM City’s Department of Agriculture andRural Development, which organised the conference, said it would pass onthe complaints to relevant departments for action.-VNS/VNA