Land policies to encourage agricultural use

A new decree being drafted by the agriculture ministry would make rice farming land far more expensive for those wanting to use it for other purposes, a senior official says.

The decree is being prepared under a Government request for measures to protect the country’s rice farming area and ensure food security in coming years.

Nguyen Tri Ngoc, director of the ministry’s Cultivation Department, said the draft decree says that investors (project developers) who want to use rice land for production and commercial purposes would have to pay much higher costs for compensation and land clearance.

“For areas that are especially suitable for farming rice and have convenient infrastructure, compensation for using it for other purposes would be double that of current residential land prices,” Ngoc said.

He also said that investors who want to use the rice land in the area that has poor infrastructure would be required to pay compensation three to four times higher than the rate for land being used for cultivating other crops.

In addition, project developers would have to compensate for all investment used to construct infrastructure including irrigation works on the land they plan to use, Ngoc said.

These costly measures would make investors think twice before deciding to use rice land for industrial production and commercial projects, and encourage them to shift their development plans to cheaper land, he added.

The draft decree also includes policies relating to rice products and rice farmers that aim to help them increase their income and retain strong attachment to rice growing.

Ngoc said he considered ensuring a stable income for farmers as the most effective way to preserve fertile rice fields.

Cao Duc Phat, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, stressed the need to improve people’s awareness of the importance of agriculture land, particularly land for wet rice cultivation.

He also suggested other measures that, according to him, would help protect the country’s fertile rice fields.

These include having a proper farmland use plan, accurately assessing rice land prices, clearly zoning agricultural production areas that need to be protected, and improving local agencies’ management ability as well as people’s oversight.

Rapid encroachment

The new decree is a response to rapid encroachment of rice fields by industrial zones and urban areas in many localities, particularly the Red River and Mekong deltas, known as the nation’s rice baskets.

According to an agriculture ministry report, between 2002 and 2008 the country lost 232,000ha of rice fields for other purposes, reducing farming area by 33,000ha each year to the current 3.6 million ha.

The ministry estimated that from now to 2020, another 270,000ha of rice fields would be lost to other purposes.

Minister Phat conceded that the continuous decrease in rice farming area was because of the rapid increase in urban development projects and industrial zones.

The development of industries and urban areas contributed to improving living standards of a part of the population, and created more resources for localities to develop.

However, it has badly affected the development of agricultural production as well as the incomes of a majority of farmers in the rural areas while contaminating their environment with solid waste, wastewater and exhaust fumes, he said.

Another reason that rice land was diminishing was that farmers in many localities had shifted to using it for other purposes without permission from local authorities, Ngoc said.

This was particularly true in provinces in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta, the Southeast region and coastal areas in the southern central region.

Ngoc hoped the new decree would help the country retain 3.8 million ha of fertile rice land, the target set by the Government for coming years. — VNS

Tags: Vietnam agricultural land