In recent times, despite many difficulties and challenges, the agricultural sector has affirmed its role as the foundation and pillar of the provincial economy. The average growth rate of the province's agricultural sector in the 2021-2023 period reached 5.86%/year, making an important contribution to the province's overall growth.

The high prices of coffee and durian have brought positive results, increasing income for people and businesses, contributing to promoting agricultural development in Dak Lak province. (Source: Vneconomy)

Rising agricultural prices – a boost for the agricultural sector

According to statistics from the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Dak Lak province, in 2023, agricultural, forestry and fishery production will have a fairly good growth rate, with the total output value estimated at VND 22,310 billion, an increase of 4.47% compared to 2022. The high prices of coffee and durian have brought positive results, increasing income for people and businesses, contributing to promoting the province's agricultural development.

Building on the achievements of the previous year, in the first 6 months of 2024, the agriculture and rural development sector of Dak Lak province has achieved many positive results, the prices of agricultural products (coffee, pepper, durian) increased, contributing significantly to stabilizing people's lives and developing the socio-economy of the whole province. The value of agricultural, forestry and fishery production at current prices reached 33,680 billion VND, an increase of 21.9% over the same period in 2023.

Compared to 2023, irrigation ensures proactive irrigation for over 84.45% of crop areas in need of irrigation, an increase of 0.57%; the proportion of rural residents using hygienic water reaches 97%, an increase of 0.5%; the proportion of communes meeting new rural standards reaches 56.29%, an increase of 4.64%; the forest cover rate (including rubber trees) reaches 38.03%.

The agricultural sector has proactively coordinated with localities to closely direct the crop season, change the structure of crops and livestock, arrange the variety structure in accordance with weather developments and market signals; strengthen disease control, so the productivity and output of the province's main crops and livestock have all reached and exceeded the assigned plan.

Specifically, the winter-spring crop planting area of ​​2023-2024 exceeded the set plan, the whole province planted 69,171 ha/57,680 ha, reaching 119.92% of the plan, an increase of 1,405 ha over the same period in 2023; the total number of livestock in the province reached about 16.5 million, an increase of about 2 million. Aquaculture activities maintained development in the direction of commodity production, some facilities continued to develop the farming of specialty aquatic species.

The new rural development program continues to be widely and substantially implemented. Up to now, the province has 78/151 communes meeting 19/19 criteria for new rural development, an increase of 4 communes compared to the same period in 2023, an average of 16.13 criteria/commune. The One Commune One Product (OCOP) program has been focused on implementation, to date, there have been 237 OCOP products achieving 3 stars or more.

The province currently has 569 cooperatives, 229 cooperative groups and 868 farms; an increase of 70 cooperatives, 3 cooperative groups, and 25 farms compared to the same period in 2023. A number of other tasks such as administrative reform and digital transformation, agricultural extension, trade promotion, etc. have been promoted by the industry, ensuring production requirements. In addition, Dak Lak has built a series of concentrated production and livestock areas through linkages and cooperation between enterprises, with about 400 cooperatives and hundreds of agricultural cooperative groups.

Attaching management codes to durian trees in Dak Lak. (Source: VOV)

Improve the ability to respond to natural disasters , ensure people's lives

Dak Lak province currently has 856 irrigation works including: 619 reservoirs, 161 dams and 76 pumping stations. In addition, the province has 02 dyke lines of 2,427.6 km, up to now, 1,593.63 km of canals of all kinds have been solidified, reaching 65.64%. In 2023, the development of irrigation infrastructure ensures an estimated irrigation rate of 83.88% of the crop area in need of irrigation (100% of the plan). The rate of households using hygienic domestic water is estimated at 96.5% (100% of the plan), contributing significantly to the development of the agricultural and rural economy in Dak Lak province.

In economic development, Dak Lak province pays special attention to investing in the construction and management of irrigation works. Therefore, in recent times, the Dak Lak Provincial Irrigation Sub-Department has continued to effectively implement the Irrigation Sector Restructuring Project approved by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Provincial People's Committee issued an Action Plan for implementation in the province, contributing to the successful implementation of the Agricultural and Rural Development Sector Restructuring Project and the Agricultural Sector Restructuring Plan for the period 2021-2025 in Dak Lak province.

The Department has advised competent authorities to prioritize the development of irrigation infrastructure and clean water in rural areas, paying special attention to investing in the construction of large projects, prioritizing the construction of projects in remote areas, areas with difficulties in water resources according to the plan.

In particular, for damaged works that are at risk of being unsafe during the rainy and stormy season, the Department focuses on upgrading, repairing and considering upgrading the scale and capacity to maximize the effectiveness of the works, while accelerating the progress and quality of construction of irrigation works to exploit and promote efficiency in a multi-purpose direction, in which priority should be given to proactively ensuring irrigation water for 84.45% of the crop area that needs irrigation in the whole province in 2024.

In addition, the Department deploys solutions to improve the ability to respond to natural disasters, the effectiveness of natural disaster prevention work, promptly grasps the situation of weather and hydrology developments to forecast for people to proactively prevent and respond to all unfavorable situations for agricultural and forestry production and people's lives, and coordinates to promptly deploy solutions for natural disaster prevention and search and rescue.

Ea H'Leo reservoir irrigation project, Dak Lak province. (Source: Industry and Trade Magazine)

Regarding forest management, protection and development, Dak Lak Forest Protection Department said that Dak Lak currently has 501,206 hectares of forest land (including 426,046 hectares of natural forest and 75,160 hectares of planted forest); 232,423 hectares of non-forested land (including 8,568 hectares of planted forest). The estimated forest cover is 38.35%; the forest planting work has reached 151.6% compared to the plan.

In 2022 alone, the forest rangers coordinated with relevant agencies to inspect, detect, and file 1,220 cases of violations of the Forestry Law, a decrease of 85 cases (equivalent to 6.5%) compared to the same period last year. Thereby, 1,063 cases were handled (including cases carried over from 2021), with total revenue of more than 2.2 billion VND; budget contribution of more than 1.8 billion VND...

In the coming time, the Dak Lak Forest Rangers will focus on drastically and synchronously implementing the Party and State's guidelines and policies; continue to consolidate and improve professional qualifications, political qualities, public ethics, rectify working style and manners, always unite, proactively innovate, be creative, strive harder, and excellently complete assigned tasks.

In the first months of 2024, the Center for Clean Water and Rural Environmental Sanitation of Dak Lak province also regularly monitors the weather situation to have timely response plans; monitors water sources to have water regulation plans to ensure water sources for production and daily life...

The Dak Lak Provincial Center for Rural Water Supply and Environmental Sanitation is managing and operating 44/128 centralized water supply stations in the province, providing water to more than 33,100 customers.

According to the Center's assessment, due to the impact of climate change and the environment, in recent years, the amount of surface water and groundwater in the province has decreased. Meanwhile, people's demand for water has increased continuously, especially in the dry season. In the first 5 months of 2024, the province experienced 1 drought and 3 tornadoes and hailstorms, affecting production and people's lives in the province.

To ensure a stable and continuous supply of domestic water, the Dak Lak Province Clean Water and Environmental Sanitation Center sent a document to localities to prioritize water sources for domestic use, and at the same time requested Dak Lak Electricity to proactively provide stable power sources for water supply stations.

During peak season, affiliated units in the province have switched to daily reporting mode, focusing on inspection and maintenance of equipment and pipelines, ensuring timely troubleshooting and preventing interruptions in domestic water supply.

Delegates chaired the Conference to summarize the work of the first 6 months of the year and deploy tasks for the last 6 months of 2024 of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Dak Lak province.

Strive for 6 goals

In 2024, the provincial agricultural sector sets out 6 targets to strive for: the total value of agricultural, forestry and fishery products reaches 23,500 billion VND; the value of agricultural, forestry and fishery production (at current prices) is estimated at 104,542 billion VND; irrigation ensures proactive irrigation for over 84.4% of crop areas in need of irrigation; the rate of communes meeting new rural standards is over 56%; the rate of rural population using clean water is 97%; the rate of forest coverage (including rubber trees) is over 38%.

To realize the above 6 goals, Dak Lak agriculture sector continues to promote solutions to restructure the sector towards concentrating production, creating high-quality production areas; linking cooperation, improving the quality of cooperatives; attracting investment in agriculture and rural areas, especially in the processing sector.

In addition, Dak Lak's agricultural sector strives to maintain growth rate, build a comprehensively developed agriculture in the direction of modernization, integration, and adaptation to climate change; develop circular, high-tech, clean, organic agriculture associated with tourism; promote digital transformation in the agricultural and rural sectors; build advanced, exemplary new rural areas; manage, protect, develop, and use forests and forest land effectively and sustainably... At the same time, focus on effectively implementing Resolution No. 23-NQ/TW of the Politburo on the direction of socio-economic development and ensuring national defense and security in the Central Highlands region to 2030, with a vision to 2045.

In addition, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of the province will study 16 free trade agreements that Vietnam has signed with regions and countries to take advantage of these agreements. Especially exploiting markets with demand for importing goods from Vietnam where Dak Lak has advantages, in order to reorient production to ensure meeting the quality standards of the markets, contributing to increasing income for producers.