Problems plague implementation of organic plan

The VND1 trillion (US$50 million) plan to grow organic vegetables that was approved by the Hanoi People\'s Committee last May is likely to fall behind schedule, according to municipal authorities.

The city planned to grow organic vegetables on 2,500ha by the end of this year and 5,000ha-5,500ha by 2015.

However, to date, the people\'s committee has only approved three proposals, that occupy a total of 187 ha.

Funding for the project has come from city and provincial government budgets and is designed to subsidise enterprises that have received approval from the Government.

Trinh Duy Hung, vice-chairman of the Hanoi People\'s Committee, admitted that most of those targets were unlikely to be met.

Most of the delays were due to land clearance issues and problems over irrigation, according to the Department of Agriculture and Development authority.

"Another problem is that local authorities are not efficiently reviewing proposals. In some areas, local leaders are not following the plan closely enough and have failed to help project owners communicate properly with farmers," Hung said.

Nguyen Gia Phuong, head of the Agriculture Division under the Planning and Investment Department said the city should formulate a clear and detailed policy to help private enterprises get involved in the scheme.

"Profits from organic vegetable projects are unlikely to be as substantial as those in the industrial sector, so unless we give enterprises a lot of support they are unlikely to get involved," he said.

Ton Kin, a private enterprise that is interested in joining the scheme, said it had faced opposition from local farmers. In Soc Son District, one of three locations the company planned to invest in, a spokesperson for the company said farmers believed that planting flowers would be more profitable than growing organic vegetables. Meanwhile, in the two other areas, Ton Kin had failed to agree compensation levels for farmers who had to be relocated.

Nguyen Van Tam, head of the Dong Du Co-operation in Gia Lam District, said enterprises should strive to strike a balance between their interests and those of the farmers. "Farmers will only get involved in a project if they feel it is lucrative enough," Tam said.

Pilot project

The Planning and Development Department is carrying out a pilot project with the Hanoi Agricultural Planning and Development company, whose proposal has just got approval from the department. The project will be carried out on 200ha of land in Dan Phuong District in western Hanoi. This is the only project where the company will be responsible for both developing suitable infrastructure to grow vegetables, and storing and marketing them.

"They have started carrying out the project. We will use their model as an example for other enterprises," Phuong said.

Hung urged local governments to be more active in implementing the scheme.

"In some areas, local government offices are still hesitant to interact with other parties so when issues arise, it takes a long time to resolve them," he added.

Hung also asked local authorities to reject projects that did not follow the regulations closely enough.