Soil health is being affected

According to the Department of Crop Production (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development), land is a special non-renewable means of production. The promotion of soil improvement and intensive farming in recent times has brought many achievements to Vietnam's agricultural sector. However, with the characteristic that 70% of cultivated land in Vietnam is located on steep terrain, leading to the phenomenon of erosion, degradation, and nutrient depletion in highly intensive farming areas; the excessive use of pesticides also affects the health of soil and crops.

Statistics from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment in 2021 show that the country's agricultural land group is over 27.9 million hectares (agricultural land types include agricultural land, forestry, aquaculture, salt production and other agricultural land). In the agricultural land group, the rice-growing land area is over 3.9 million hectares; protective forest land and special-use forest land is over 7.3 million hectares. The area of ​​non-agricultural land group is 3,949,158 hectares.

Cultivated land has been seriously degraded due to the practice of growing multiple crops a year; long-term abuse of fertilizers has led to the soil becoming hard and losing its porosity.

Monoculture farming practices take away the nutritional quality of the soil. In addition, fruit growing areas only focus on NPK, leading to nutritional imbalances in the soil; not allowing the soil to rest; incomplete data systems, and ineffective market forecasting information are also the causes of soil degradation. Typically, the Red River Delta has a high land use coefficient; the Central Highlands intensively cultivates industrial crops such as coffee, pepper, etc., making the pH in the soil many times higher than the natural index.

The Department of Crop Production said that in 2024, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development had many activities to improve soil health, for example, the Ministry issued a directive on improving soil health with a vision to 2030 with 5 key tasks and 8 solutions. The Department of Crop Production has built a soil database software to investigate and survey the current soil status in risky areas; organized workshops...; developed a strategy to manage the country's soil health related to the agricultural sector to submit to the Government for promulgation.

Meanwhile, Mr. Nguyen Quang Tin - Deputy Director of the Department of Science, Technology and Environment (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development) said that to have a database on cultivated land, it is necessary to systematize and complete the research. "We propose that by early 2025, the Ministry's research institutes and agencies participating in the project need to join hands to complete the database," said Mr. Tin.

Mr. Tin said that one of the weaknesses of land is that our country does not have an application (app) for land data, output as well as input. "Almost every year there are research projects on land and fertilizers, but they are still scattered. We need coordinated, large-scale programs such as research on rice varieties and crop varieties" - Mr. Tin emphasized.

Protecting soil health - an important task

Speaking at the conference to deploy the Project "Improving soil health and plant nutrition management to 2030, vision to 2050" recently organized by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Hoang Trung emphasized that soil is a special means of production, the home of ecosystems. Therefore, soil health is an issue of concern to both Vietnam and many countries in the world.

Currently, the average land area per capita is low; combined with intensive farming practices, monoculture, unbalanced use of fertilizers and pesticides; soil pollution due to the development of industrial zones and craft villages; the impact of climate change leading to drought, salinity intrusion, acidification... have seriously degraded soil health.

Deputy Minister Hoang Trung assigned the Plant Protection Department to participate in developing the details of the Project "Improving soil health and plant nutrition management to 2030, vision to 2050". After that, the Ministry will organize to listen to public opinions before officially issuing it. The Department of Crop Production in coordination with the Plant Protection Department must carefully evaluate each series of land in each locality, from which to build a set of criteria to evaluate which land is suitable for which plant. This will also contribute to changing farming practices in a positive direction.

Regarding the project on the development and use of organic fertilizers, the leaders of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development said that it has been implemented since 2017 and has had many practical changes. In 2023, the amount of organic fertilizer put into use was 3 million tons, compared to a total of 7 million tons of organic and inorganic fertilizers. This figure shows that organic fertilizers are being used more. The National Agricultural Extension Center is assigned to coordinate with the Department of Crop Production to organize training for grassroots cadres. This is the key factor in bringing the project to life.