Restructuring the agricultural sector, associated with sustainable poverty reduction in Dien Bien

Leaders of Dien Bien province visited the macadamia tree planting model in Tuan Giao commune, Dien Bien province.

An important contribution to the overall growth of Dien Bien province is the outstanding growth in the agriculture, forestry and fishery sector with a rate of 4.1%, the proportion in GRDP is about 13.65%.

The backbone of the local economy

Reviewing the outstanding results achieved by Dien Bien in the period of 2020-2025, Comrade Le Thanh Do, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee, said: In the period of 2021-2025, Dien Bien's economy continued to grow quite well compared to the region; the average annual growth rate reached 8.76%; GRDP per capita reached 54 million VND/year. Playing an important role in the overall growth of Dien Bien's economy is the outstanding growth of the agriculture, forestry and fishery sector with a rate of 4.1%, the proportion in GRDP accounted for about 13.65%. The growth results of the agriculture-forestry sector are a solid foundation to ensure socio-economic stability and improve people's lives.

The outstanding achievements in the agricultural and forestry sector are the results of restructuring towards development by key sectors and product groups, which have now formed concentrated production areas, such as: rice, tea, coffee, macadamia, rubber. Currently, the area of high-quality rice in Dien Bien province accounts for nearly 60% of the total cultivated area; the area of rubber is more than 5,000 hectares, coffee is more than 8,000 hectares, macadamia is more than 12,600 hectares.

Some specialty products have been branded and given geographical indications, typically Tua Chua tea, Muong Ang coffee, Dien Bien rice, contributing to increasing the value and competitiveness of local agricultural products; initially forming production, processing and consumption chains associated with cooperatives and enterprises, thereby increasing the added value of products and increasing farmers' income.

Comrade Le Xuan Canh, Director of the Department of Agriculture and Environment of Dien Bien province (standing) checks the quality of rice grown according to the carbon emission reduction model in Muong Thanh field.

New rural areas have received investment attention, clearly identifying key points in each component content. The whole province has mobilized 13,159 billion VND to invest in new rural construction through infrastructure investment and production support. By the end of June 2025, the whole province has 2 district-level units completing the task of building new rural areas; 2 communes meeting model new rural standards, 5 communes meeting advanced new rural standards.

In the field of poverty reduction, Dien Bien has achieved important results, contributing to clearly improving the lives of rural people; the rate of rural poor households has decreased rapidly (average about 3.2%/year), now down to 22%; poor households have gradually had more complete access to basic social services, contributing to improving the quality of life.

With the initiative of farmers, recently many more valuable fruit trees have been put into experimental cultivation for high economic efficiency.

However, looking directly at reality, Dien Bien's agricultural sector still has many shortcomings and limitations that need to be overcome. That is: the production scale is still mainly small and fragmented, and there have not been many concentrated commodity production areas. Agricultural development still focuses on improving productivity and output based on input resources. The added value of agricultural products is not high, mainly raw exports, processing and preservation are still weak, leading to a situation of good harvests, falling prices, and unstable consumption. Although OCOP products have developed in quantity and quality, overall, there are still not many strong brands to reach out to domestic and foreign markets, the whole province still does not have a national OCOP product (5 stars).

Many specific solutions to restructure agricultural production

At the 15th Congress of the Dien Bien Provincial Party Committee, term 2025-2030, delegates unanimously approved the goal: developing agriculture and forestry applying modern science and technology; combined with the development of processing industry and services, tourism... so that agriculture continues to be the pillar of the local economy.

To complete the goal, comrade Le Xuan Canh, Director of the Department of Agriculture and Environment of Dien Bien province, said that the industry has specified each target according to 4 groups of fields. In particular, by 2030, the total value of agricultural, forestry and fishery products will reach 3,057 billion VND (an increase of 16.6% compared to 2025); developing the macadamia area to reach about 40,000 hectares, coffee to reach about 20,000 hectares; forest coverage to reach 47% and 60% of communes to meet new rural standards, reducing the poverty rate by an average of more than 3%/year and no households falling back into poverty.

Farmers of Tuan Giao commune take care of coffee trees in the nursery.

To achieve those important goals, comrade Le Xuan Canh said, the agricultural and environmental sector proactively advised the Provincial Party Committee, People's Council and Provincial People's Committee to focus on directing the implementation of 6 groups of solutions.

Firstly, perfect the development orientation of the agricultural sector on the basis of clearly identifying key products and subjects with competitive advantages of the province.

Recent practice shows that although the capital from the National Target Programs for agricultural production development is very large (about 500 billion VND/year), the implementation in many localities is still spread out, supporting many types of plants and animals, leading to low efficiency and not creating a breakthrough.

Therefore, the requirement is to build a clear and unified development orientation for the province's agricultural sector, linked to the advantages of each region, each product and the ecological environment.

For example: high-quality rice area in Muong Thanh; macadamia area in Tuan Giao-Tua Chua; coffee and tea area in Muong Ang, Tuan Giao; pineapple area in Na Sang, Muong Nha; ecological and landscape restoration area in Muong Nhe, Muong Phang... as the basis, focusing on investing in synchronous infrastructure, attracting businesses to invest in processing facilities, building collective brands and geographical indications for products. This will be the key content that Dien Bien concretizes in the "Project on restructuring the agricultural sector associated with building new rural areas and sustainable poverty reduction in Dien Bien province for the period 2026-2030, oriented to 2035".

Forest protection and development to increase coverage is an indicator that Dien Bien's agricultural sector is particularly interested in focusing on implementing in the coming period.

Second, developing rural areas is associated with organizing agricultural production to increase people's income.

Identifying agriculture as the main livelihood for the majority of people in rural areas, in the coming period, Dien Bien's agricultural sector will focus on advising on prioritizing the use of resources to support communes towards achieving new rural standards, narrowing the gap between localities, and developing livelihoods suitable for each region and each population group.

For favorable areas, prioritize agricultural development to form commodity agricultural production areas and high-tech agriculture to serve urban areas. For difficult areas and ethnic minority areas, focus on supporting suitable plants and breeds, promoting household-scale production associated with cooperatives, and at the same time encouraging the development of ecological and organic agricultural models and community tourism.

Along with that is coordinating vocational training for rural workers linked to production needs, promoting technical training, effective production models for people, thereby increasing income and quality of life. Thereby, effectively linking agricultural development, new rural construction with the goal of multidimensional poverty reduction, improving the quality of life of rural people.

Third, promote the application of science and technology and digital transformation, considering this a breakthrough solution to improve productivity, quality and added value of agricultural products.

This is also one of the major orientations identified in the 15th Provincial Party Congress Documents, demonstrating the determination to make science and technology a breakthrough, creating momentum for modern and sustainable agricultural development. On that basis, Dien Bien's agricultural sector will focus on coordinating with experienced and capable partners to select and create plant and animal varieties suitable for mountainous conditions, especially pest-resistant varieties.

For local specialty crops, it is necessary to apply new selection and breeding technology to preserve and improve the quality of specialties, apply packaging technology, and label with QR codes to trace the origin to create trust in the market.

At the same time, it is necessary to promote the application of new, modern farming methods suitable to local conditions such as: greenhouse models, net houses, hydroponic and organic farming, application of drip irrigation technology, water-saving irrigation, smart rice farming models adapting to climate change, and using high-quality varieties.

Advanced production models are deployed in the form of "hand-holding", with support from institutes, schools, businesses, and units that order science and technology tasks. At the same time, digital transformation is gradually brought into agriculture, through management, granting codes for growing areas, certifying parent trees, and building e-commerce platforms for key products.

To expand rice fields, recently Dien Bien province has focused on investing in many irrigation works for remote and border communes.

Fourth, innovate production organization, support cooperatives and enterprises to develop production and business in a practical and effective direction.

To reorganize agricultural production in a modern and effective direction, the role of cooperatives and enterprises needs to be promoted more strongly. In the immediate future, the province needs to allocate part of the capital from the National Target Program and production development support projects to help farmers and cooperatives convert from traditional farming to standard farming processes, including support for seeds, organic fertilizers, and pesticides.

Along with that, support cooperatives and enterprises to complete documents, certification processes for organic standards, parent plants, and livestock facility codes. At the same time, proactively call on and connect large processing and consuming enterprises such as Doveco, TH, Nafoods... to participate in value chain linkage, purchase organic products, and ensure stable and long-term output for farmers. Thereby, forming a close "four-house" link, creating a foundation for sustainable development of commodity agricultural production.

Fifth, proactively innovate investment attraction work, especially in the field of agricultural processing industry.

Focus on investing in and upgrading the multi-purpose irrigation system, ensuring water supply for production and daily life, while preventing natural disasters and adapting to climate change. Speed up the progress of cadastral mapping, building land databases, allocating land and forests, classifying forests and forestry land to create conditions for farmers, cooperatives and businesses to confidently invest in the long term.

Implementing the principle of market land prices encourages the development of a system of organizations providing independent land valuation services; publicizing and making transparent land use planning, plans, and unused land funds to facilitate investors in choosing investment locations; concentrating land, creating land funds for concentrated agricultural development, and applying high technology.

Tia Dinh commune officials instruct farmers on coffee tree care techniques.

Sixth, in addition to the key tasks mentioned above to increase income for rural people, it is necessary to consider sustainable poverty reduction as a comprehensive goal, requiring synchronous coordination between the agricultural sector and other sectors and fields. Dien Bien will synchronously implement sustainable poverty reduction solutions.

To fundamentally reduce poverty, the Dien Bien agricultural sector will closely coordinate with relevant departments and sectors to ensure people have full access to basic social services such as health care, education, and culture. At the same time, with the function of state management of land, irrigation, and rural water, it will focus on implementing well the task of supporting residential land, production land, clean water, and environmental sanitation, thereby improving living conditions and creating opportunities for people to escape poverty sustainably.

LE LAN

Source: https://nhandan.vn/co-cau-lai-nganh-nong-nghiep-gan-voi-giam-ngheo-ben-vung-tai-dien-bien-post915835.html