Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam is paying attention to mobilising resourcesto invest in developing green agriculture with an aim to raising the market shareof its agricultural exports to the European Union.

Last year, Vietnam’s export revenue of agro-fishery-forestryproducts set a record high of 53.22 billion USD, up 9.3% year-on-year. However,Europe accounted for only 11.3% of its market share.

This is a modest number, although the agricultural sectorhas optimised many advantages of the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA).

One of the main reasons is said to be the union’s highrequirements on farm imports, while Vietnam’s agricultural productionhas yet to meet green growth requirements.

According to the World Bank’s report, agriculture is thesecond highest emitter, accounting for 19% of the nation’s total gas emissionsin 2020. About 48% of the sector’s emissions and more than 75% of methaneemissions are from rice production.

Therefore, to boost farm exports to the EU, thesector is advised to pay more attention to green growth indicators throughmaking policies and roadmaps to reduce greenhouse gas and methane emissions in accordancewith international commitments.

Last year, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Developmentapproved an action plan to implement the National Strategy on Green Growth from2021-2030, which aims to specify goals, tasks and solutions to realise thestrategy and the national action plan for green growth.

Under the plan, the ministry will work to develop the agriculturalsector in an ecological, organic, circular and low-carbon direction to improvegrowth quality, added value, competitiveness and sustainable development, whilereducing pollution in agricultural production and rural areas, and promotingenergy efficiency towards carbon neutralisation by 2050. Specifically, thesector aims for 2.5-3% in annual growth, and 42% in forest coverage.

It will also strive to increase the use of organicfertilisers to 30% of all those consumed, along with 30% of pesticides and atleast 30% of farm areas using water-saving systems.

The sector will switch 300,000 hectares of rice to othercrops with higher economic and environmental efficiency, while aiming for over2% of organic farms out of the total farming area./.