Dak Lak earmarks private sector role

The Central Highland province of Dak Lak is focusing on restructuring agriculturePhoto: Le Toan

The province’s agriculture restructuring plan will define production and service areas as well as take on specific projects that mobilise resources, particularly private investment.

Dak Lak will encourage and expand public-private-partnership (PPP) models and will propose mechanisms and policies that incentivise the private sector in terms of land, tax, credit, and other support.

The province is also making efforts to enhance the efficiency of public investment by improving transparency and strengthening prevention of and response to corruption and extravagancy in the agricultural sector.

Projects prioritised for private investment include developing high quality varieties of produce that are resistant to epidemics and climate change, preventing and controlling epidemics, improving the capacity of agro-forestry-fishery businesses, and ensuring hygiene and quality standards.

Other projects will include trade and investment promotion programmes both at home and abroad, the protection of rare, ecologically sensitive forests, and irrigation.

The province is capable of various forms of agriculture including cultivation, animal husbandry, aquaculture, and forestry.

Dak Lak will also designate an area for paddy rice to ensure food security and use sustainability models to develop their coffee plantations with a gradual reduction from 200,000 hectares at current to 163,000 hectares by 2020.

Other cash crops include rubber, cashews, pepper, cacao, and fruit and there is a detailed roadmap for each industry to reach international standards.

In terms of animal husbandry, the province will expand the number of cows, pigs, poultry, and bees. By 2020 Dak Lak aims to have production value from these businesses account for 30 per cent of the total.

The province will also create a favourable environment for aquaculture businesses.

Meanwhile, Dak Lak plans to grow and improve its 562,000 hectares of natural forests and will designate certain areas for protection and support.

The province’s plan aims at 50 per cent of communes achieving new rural criteria by 2020.

Dak Lak is a multiple industry breadbasket with a population of 1.8 million, of whom 70 per cent work in agriculture.

Its agriculture industry accounts for roughly 50 per cent of local GDP with an annual growth rate of 4-5 per cent over the last three years.