Ministers of agriculture in ASEAN have adopted a joint guideline on promoting the use of digital technology in the agricultural sector, in order to equip Southeast Asian countries with recommendations and consider implementing decisions that shape transformation digital transformation in food production and trading…

Deputy Minister Le Quoc Doanh attended the online conference

This is one of the joint results of the 43rd ASEAN Agriculture and Forestry Ministers Meeting (AMAF 43), held online on October 27, 2021 under the chairmanship of Mr. Syahrul Yasin Limpo – Minister of Indonesian Agriculture and Rural Development. Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Quoc Doanh represented Vietnam to attend the conference.

AGRICULTURE IS SERIOUSLY AFFECTED

Deputy Minister Le Quoc Doanh said that the Covid-19 pandemic has been and continues to affect the global economy and society, including Vietnam. Supply chains and trade flows are disrupted; production, business and service activities, especially import and export industries, aviation, tourism, labor, employment, etc., have stalled.

Referring to the process of adapting to the Covid-19 epidemic of Vietnam’s agricultural industry, Deputy Minister Le Quoc Doanh said that Vietnam has solutions for recovery and priorities for agricultural production in and after Covid-19 epidemic.

In response to supply chain disruptions, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Vietnam has established two special working groups in the North and the South to direct production, connect supply, and consume agricultural products in provinces and cities in the context of the Covid-19 epidemic and prepare a scenario for a new production cycle after the gap.

From the results achieved by the Working Groups, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has launched the Forum to connect supply and demand for the agricultural market with the online participation of 63 provinces and cities and nearly 200 enterprises. industry, industry associations and cooperatives, production facilities throughout the country. Thereby, creating a close and multi-dimensional cooperation link between management agencies, businesses and farmers.

In addition, Vietnam has also issued a number of policies to promote production, circulation, consumption and export of agricultural products in the context of Covid-19 prevention and control and promoting recovery after Covid-19. In particular, there are many solutions to solve difficulties for businesses, localities and people.

Deputy Minister Le Quoc Doanh set out five orientations for sustainable agricultural recovery and growth in the new normal for countries in the ASEAN region.

Firstly, it is necessary to strengthen intra-ASEAN cooperation and ASEAN cooperation with partners to connect the supply chains of food, agriculture, forestry and fishery; supporting smallholder farmers; small, medium and micro enterprises overcome the negative impacts of Covid-19.

Second, promote innovation for green agricultural growth and resource conservation. Cooperation in building transparent, responsible and sustainable agricultural value chains.

Third, promote cooperation in digital transformation in agriculture based on data, including digital transformation in management, policy issuance and agricultural development solutions, such as forecasting, warning market reporting, planning management.

Fourth, encourage the response and participation of all actors in society, especially businesses and people, and further promote the role of public-private partnership/partnership (PPP) in recovery and green growth.

Fifth, improve the proactive adaptive capacity of the vulnerable to shocks, and at the same time support these subjects in effectively exploiting resources, perfecting business models to participate in business activities participate in the process of transforming agriculture towards green and sustainable.

RECOVERY AGRICULTURE PRODUCTION SYSTEM

At the conference, the agricultural sector leaders of the Southeast Asian countries came to an agreement on solutions to strengthen the resilience of the Food System to combat the impact of the pandemic equally urgent.

For the ASEAN Strategy on Biomass Energy for Regional Agricultural and Rural Development Communities for the period 2020-2030, the Conference encouraged all ASEAN partners and stakeholders to work with ASEAN to implement implement relevant Action Plans to contribute to energy supply and energy security for rural communities by generating modern biomass energy through organic waste management by agricultural by-products and plantations for timber as fuel.

The delegates also reiterated the importance of the ASEAN Guidelines on Promoting Investment in Food, Agriculture and Forestry (ASEAN-RAI), and encouraged partners to support the implementation of the Guidelines at the national level and the region to promote investment in food, agriculture and forestry in ASEAN.

Efforts to strengthen cross-sectoral cooperation on conservation agriculture, climate-smart agriculture, and sustainable land management initiatives to ensure the sustainability of bio-agricultural systems regional status was also noted.

At the same time, countries need to strengthen control of zoonoses and zoonotic diseases by applying the expertise of members of the ASEAN Coordinating Center for Animal Health and Animal Diseases (ACCAHZ).

In addition, the conference adopted recommendations for the ASEAN Common Fisheries Policy Feasibility Study focusing efforts on the full implementation of 12 Regional Fisheries Policy Frameworks including marine litter.

The Conference adopted the ASEAN Guidelines to promote the use of digital technology for the ASEAN food and agriculture sectors, in order to provide recommendations and consider implementing decisions that will shape digital transformation in agriculture in the area.

The Guidelines also outline the conditions and actions needed to use digital technology to improve the Food and Agriculture System, including interventions to facilitate digital adoption in agricultural and food sectors.