Is it necessary to enact a law on agriculture to meet demands of a new production period? This question was raised and discussed by Institute of Policy and Strategy for Agriculture and Rural Development (IPSARD), Center for Information, Library and Science Research (National Assembly Office) and FAO in a workshop conducted on 22/2/2008.
New situation and requirement for a law on agriculture
According to Mr, Chu Tien Quang, head of agricultural policy and rural development division of Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM), Vietnam agriculture has currently been transforming from self-sufficient to market oriented goods production and increasingly integrating into world economy and world agriculture. The renovation of agricultural policy at early stage of reform (Doi Moi) program has brought about positive impacts but should continue to be upgraded in the time to come. Vietnam’s agriculture needs to be developed towards a sustainable manner considering effectiveness as a primary priority while production organization and management should be further improved through intensifying science and technology investment in such way that products produced can get better competitiveness power and stand firm in market.
 |
| Mr. Nguyen Lan Dung |
Mr. Nguyen Lan Dung, deputy of National Assembly (NA) and a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee of NA said that the requirement for a law on agriculture is very clear: Farmers are always ready to use no-registered plant protection chemicals without considering the health of the consumers. Fertilizer producers are not “truthful” when they advertise the ingredients and usefulness of their products. The animal and plant quarantine stations at border areas are unable to monitor and control over the quality of huge commodity quantities imported into the territory due to the lack of technical know-how and, especially, the functional regulations etc.
Scientific base for enacting a law on agriculture
In the angle of research, Mr. Pham Bao Duong (IPSARD) put a question “At the present situation, should Vietnam develop a law on agriculture? And if it should, what does the law on agriculture deal with?”. To answer this question, Mr. Duong said that in Vietnam, agricultural production is mainly carried out by small holder farmers whose productions are small (0.22ha per capita). The scartered agricultural land makes the production cost higher, the production efficency lower and is difficult to apply science and technology advances.
Despite of these limited factors, commercialized production has been expanding and strongly developed in many areas of agricultural commodity production (rice, poultry in Mekong river delta; coffee in Central Highland; rubber, cashew nut in Southern East; tea in northern midlands and northern mountains; fruits in Mekong river delta etc.). This however has caused a number of conflicts in using natural resources between farm households and processing and trading units, between businesses themselves and these conflicts can not be settled due to the lack of legal foundation and law.
At present, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) manages 03 subsectors: agriculture (crop and livestock), forestry and fishery. While forestry and fishery are regulated by law (law on forest protection and development and law on fishery), no law has been enacted for agriculture.
The agricultural legal system currently consists of different regulations, decrees, decisions which are poorly integrated and reflect low efficiency. Experiences from other countries indicate that there are separate laws regulating agriculture as the case of China (agricultural law in 1993 and 2003), EU (common agricultural policy – CAP), USA (Chapter 7 – Agriculture in America law), Japan (major agricultural law in 1961 and 1999) etc.
Mr. Nguyen Van Tu, Legal Department of MARD, said that it was necessary to develop a law on agriculture and that for the coming time, the draft of a law on agriculture should be included and discussed in meetings to be conducted by the National Assembly of term XII.
Should a law on agriculture be enacted under the existing legislation?
 |
| Mr. Ngo Duc Manh |
Although not objecting the promulgation of a law on agriculture, Mr. Ngo Duc Manh, deputy chairman of NA’s Foreign Affairs Committee reminded that it was necessary to avoid a large participation in drafting a law on agriculture because this may cause overlapping and essential problems in agriculture can not be settled. Currently, such areas as animal health, crop seeds and plant protection etc. are governed by legal documents which can be developed into law. Developing other aspects such as agricultural land or food hygience and safety into agricultural law may break and badly affect the comprehensiveness of the current legal documents.
Mr. Ngo Duc Manh especially noted the current nature of legal and law drafting of the country which often aims at solving specific matters. Under this direction, laws should be developed in a way that they can be implemented right away without having a support from a set of instructions (decrees or circulars). Therefore, the promulgation of a law on agriculture (omnibus law) can be only feasible when detailed and full review and analysis are made to existing legal documents to avoid overlapping. The issuance of a frame of a common agricultural law therefore requires extensive studies so as to successfully systemize all current regulations on agriculture.
A law on agriculture must create “a pushing force”
Rather than analyzing deeply technical matters, Mr. Luu Quoc Dung who is from NA’s Economic Committee and is in-charge of issues relating to agriculture said that a law on agriculture is necessary and should create “a pushing force”. The question now is how to identify factors that help to create a pushing force. The positive impacts brought about by reformed policy in agriculture at early stage of Doi Moi program and other breakthroughs have stemmed from satisfactory meeting the demands of agricultural producers over the last two decades.