The Central Executive Committee of the Vietnam Farmers’ Union (VFU) held its 6th congress in Hanoi on February 22.

Participants at the congress agreed that the VFU will create models to transfer technology to its members in 2011.

One of the thorny problems in 2010 was how to provide access to capital for farmers. The chairman of the Cao Bang Provincial Farmers’ Union, Phan Thong, said that many communes in the province are still very poor and farmers in these areas need credit support.

However, there is a lot of red tape in the procedures and the short repayment times make the famers hesitant to borrow. In addition, diseases and low quality fertiliser have negatively affected their income in recent times.

In 2010, the value of agro-forestry and aquatic production reached over VND230 trillion, an increase of 4.7 percent over 2009.

The unions in all levels also cooperate actively with organisations and businesses to provide capital, give advice and offer job training programmes and market information for the farmers.

They also implement policies to promote agricultural production including helping disadvantaged people and families of beneficiaries in the 63 poorest districts across the country. They provide farmers with capital to purchase materials to build houses and help them access investment capital and apply technology in their production to raise their living conditions.

(VOV)