APEC International Conference Natural Resources and Infrastructure Management

APEC International Conference Natural Resources and Infrastructure Management for Agriculture & Food Security in Vietnam Tran Cong Thang August 6 – 8, 2012 Centara Grand at Central World, Bangkok THAILAND

Content Food security in Vietnam Natural resource and infrastructure management Prospects & policy orientation

Current situation of food security in Vietnam Food availability Food accessibility Utilization Stability

Food Availability • • While the land for rice tends to decrease, the total rice cultivated acreage has increased steadily (from 6. 04 million ha to 7. 6 million ha) and the total output has increased to nearly 20 million tons since 1990. Not only provides enough for domestic demand but also surpluses for export and rice export reached the peak in 2011 of about 7 million tons. Rice planted area and production

Rice export increase (thousand tons)

Structural Turning Point in VN’s National Rice Consumption (Million Tons)

Food accessibility Income growth has contributed remarkably to the improvement of food accessibility. 25 20 15 Urban areas Rural areas The whole coun 10 Evidence of stable reducing poverty incidence in Vietnam 5 0 2004 2006 2008 2010 2011

Improved nutrition

…. but still high undernourished population Indicator Measure Vietnam Thailand Proportion of Undernourished Population Percent 11 16 Number of Undernourished Millions 9. 6 Dietary energy supply (DES) Kcal/ person/day 2770 Philippines China Cambodia Myanmar Indonesia 15 10 22 16 13 10. 8 13. 2 130. 4 3. 0 7. 8 29. 9 2530 2520 2970 2250 2440 2540

and have big gap in term of high protein food by income Monthly expenditure per capita by income quintiles in Vietnam (1: poorest, 5: richest)

Disconnect Between Vietnam’s Rice Surplus and Nutrition-Related Goals

Stability Vietnam has attained great achievements in ensuring food supply (now and future-even in the worst scenario). . but there are still many factors that affect its stability: • Rising / fluctuated food prices • Natural disaster • Crop competition (due to low profit/high risk…)

Rice price fluctuation

Some scenarios for climate change and its effects in Vietnam

Policies on Natural Resources and Infrastructure Management for Agriculture to ensure food supply.

Land policies Paddy has shown a decreasing trend recently Ensuring the proper use and management of paddy land Promotion of land exchanges and consolidation Support policies to protect and enlarge paddy land • Bring big concern of Gov’t • government has set the goal to keep 3. 8 million ha • Paddy land is an irreplaceable, non-renewable, non-expandable resource. It is the most important factor for production development. Protective, effective and stable use of paddy land is, thus, the decisive measure to ensure the National Food Security” • Stimulating the process of land consolidation with the aim to establish large and modern commercial production areas to replace the small-scale household production. • Issuing support policies for regions or provinces who have favorable conditions for rice production and those for rice farmers

Water resources for agriculture production Setting out comprehensively viewpoint, guiding principles, objectives, missions and implementation measures regarding the protection, exploitation, use and development of water resources Working out methods for prevention and mitigation of adverse impacts caused by water Delivery of state responsibilities for related ministries on water sector avoiding conflict, contradictions, gaps, overlaps on regulating functions, duties, power and organizational structure of the ministries.

Infrastructure investment for agriculture 64% of rice land are irrigated and exempt from irrigation fee. 95% of communes having car road. , National electric grid covers 96, 4% of districts and 89% of communes 100 % of communal office having telephones; 72% of communes having post office; 56% having markets; 100% of communes having clinics; 100% having primary schools; 83% of rural inhabitants having access to clean water

Still limited Investment in agriculture in total investment (bil dong, 1994 price)

Govt Objectives • Ensure food supply by continuing to promote intensive rice production, especially in the Mekong and Red River Delta, creating stable supply sources to ensure national food security in the short and long term. • Ensure nutritional needs by improving nutritional status towards balanced nutrition and calorie consumption increase to reach the average annual of 2600 -2700 Kcal/person and reduce the incidence of malnutrition in children under 5 years old to less than 5%. • Ensure food accessibility by eliminating food shortage and hunger by 2012 and ensuring that 100% of people everywhere, at all times have enough food.

Policy orientation Policies for improving rice yield and rice production are also concerned issues. • Bigger investment in researches on new and better varieties, especially diseases and flood resistant varieties. • Carry out researches to find out suitable crop structures taking into account the ecological balance, ensuring production efficiency and suitability. • Develop large-scale rice production in Mekong and Red River Delta by supporting land accumulation and consolidation, expanding or removing land limits and improving agricultural services. Policies on infrastructure for agriculture • Speed up the process of building rice storages to enhance the current storage capacity and quality. • Promoting mechanization in the production, harvesting, processing and storage of rice. • Providing more and better facilities for rice trading such as construction of Can Tho Port for rice export in the Mekong Delta. • Strengthening the rice distribution system and trading network such as food retail outlets and warehouse systems.

Great thanks!