Hi-tech agriculture "thirsts" for skilled labor

Update: 20-11-2017 | 21:42:10

Binh Duong has many enterprises investing in hi-tech agriculture. One concern of businesses is human resources.

Not quantity but quality

Binh Duong Sugar Company has a hi-tech dairy farm in Phu Giao district with more than 200 dairy cows that are cared according to high tech standards. The whole system of air conditioning, ventilation, wastewater treatment, cleaning... of the farm cost billions VND to produce the best milk. Nguyen Thanh Trung, CEO of the company, said that running a farm of more than 1,000 hectares was one only a technology engineer and a veterinary engineer. High-tech agriculture uses a lot of modern machinery and equipment, so it does not need many common laborers.

Hi-tech agriculture of Binh Duong is in need of skilled labor. In the photo: Phu Giao district leaders visit banana processing farm of U&I Agriculture Joint Stock Company.

Beside the farm of Binh Duong Sugar Company, there are hundreds hectare of elephant grass. For the cultivation and harvesting of grasses, the company employs only 2-3 laborers, because machines and equipment do all cultivation and harvesting procedures. A lawn mower gives one day's productivity of 20-30 laborers. Therefore, with this large scale, the company employs very little manpower. The two engineers running the entire farm were recruited from Ho Chi Minh City.

According to Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development's hi-tech development plan, each province must have at least 10 enterprises, 10 agricultural production zones and 1 or 2 agro-ecological zones by 2020 to heighten the proportion of hi-tech agricultural production value, accounting for at least 25% of the total agricultural production value of the whole country. However, at the national level, human resources for high-tech agriculture have not satisfied this trend.

Salary of a hi-tech agricultural engineer is not less than a few thousand dollars per month. However, many businesses in Binh Duong still find it difficult to find skilled labor. Some companies have to go abroad to invite professionals.

Long-term training strategies are in need

U&I Agriculture Joint Stock Company is a enterprise owning strengths in the field of planting high-tech fruits. Banana, melon, vegetables... of the company have appeared in many countries. However, to maintain production, the company has to hire two experts from Philippines and Israel. Pham Quoc Liem, general director of the company, said that some countries in the region had a developed high-tech agriculture before Vietnam for decades, so they have mastered technology and have more experiences than domestic experts. At present, the company arranges for domestic laborers work together with foreign experts to learn more knowledge and to receive technology transfer and precious experiences.

According to experts, the development of high-tech agriculture firstly needs capital, but whether it works effectively or not depends on people. It is forecasted that by 2020, the labor force of the agricultural, forestry and fishery sector would lack about 3.2 million trained workers. To help solve this problem, the Prime Minister approved Vietnam Human Resources Development Plan for the period 2011-2020. Accordingly, the percentage of trained labor force would be heightened from 15.5% in 2010 to about 50% in 2020.

To Binh Duong, in addition to the Central’s policies, many experts said that the province should promote biotechnology research activities, focusing on improving the quality of human resources training on the spot, with the addition of regimes to attract talents in the field of high technology agriculture. This ensures that high-tech agriculture would develop stably and sustainably.

Reported by Xuan Vi – Translated by Ngoc Huynh

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Hi-tech agriculture "thirsts" for skilled labor

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