Listening and accompanying farmers

The dialogue between the Chairman of the Provincial People’s Committee and farmers has been implemented in the province since 2020. This is a practical activity to help members of Famers’ Association and farmers (members and farmers) have more opportunities and conditions to express their thoughts, opinions. Thereby, many pressing issues of their concern have been promptly resolved.

A member of Cao Loc District Farmers’ Association raises an opinion at the dialogue between the Chairman of the Provincial People’s Committee and farmers in 2023

In addition to fully implementing the Central guidelines and policies for agriculture, rural areas and farmers, in recent years, the province has issued many resolutions, programs, and projects for agriculture, rural areas and farmers to develop. In particular, along with organizing monthly citizen receptions to resolve “hot” issues, the provincial leaders also listen to thoughts, expectations as well as recommendation, suggestions from farmers through dialogue with farmers.

To prepare for the dialogue between the Chairman of the Provincial People’s Committee and farmers, every year, the Provincial Farmers’ Association (PFA) organizes a conference to collect opinions from officials, members and farmers of all 10 districts and Lang Son city about difficulties and problems in production and business process. Here, after listening to people’s opinions, the leaders of the PFA will answer questions within their scope and authority. Those beyond the scope of the PFA will be summarized and answered at the dialogue between the Chairman of the Provincial People’s Committee and farmers.

The dialogue between the Chairman of the Provincial People’s Committee and farmers has been implemented since 2020. Here, the members and farmers frankly expressed their thoughts and aspirations related to vocational training, health insurance, social insurance, employment…

For example, in September 2023, the dialogue between the Chairman of the Provincial People’s Committee and farmers took place with the participation of more than 200 farmers. At the conference, there were 14 opinions and recommendations from members and farmers under their concern such as solutions to support farmers in producing and consuming agricultural products; investment issues in agricultural and rural infrastructure; policies and mechanisms to support farmers in production… Notably, here, nearly 2/3 of the opinions about digital transformation in agriculture were raised by members and farmers.

Mr. Ly Van Tu, a member of Farmers; Association of Tan My commune, Van Lang district said: “I participated in the dialogue between the Chairman of the Provincial People’s Committee and farmers in September 2023 and found the dialogue to be very frank and open. Here, I asked a question about digital transformation and supporting people to sell agricultural products. Accordingly, in order to introduce, advertise products and expand agricultural product consumption markets in an economical way in terms of both cost and time, I hope that all levels and sectors will have more support policies to help people improve their level and skills in applying e-commerce sites.

As soon as listening to farmers’ opinions, a representative of the Department of Information and Communications answered to questions about this content. Specifically, the department has been coordinating with Farmers’ Association (FA) to guide farmers to build stores on e-commerce platforms and introduce products, to mobilize members and farmers to install and use the application (app) for buyers on langson.postmart.vn and electronic payment accounts, Xu Lang Digital Citizen app… with the aim of strongly spreading the spirit of digital transformation in members and farmers of the province. At the dialogue, the Chairman of the Provincial People’s Committee requested relevant departments, boards and sectors to continue researching, coordinating in implementation and to promptly recommend policies to best support farmers in digital transformation.

Thanks to that, digital transformation in agriculture, helping farmers create digital accounts and sell agricultural products on e-commerce platforms is increasingly achieving positive results. Currently, the whole province has nearly 21,000 products posted on e-commerce floors, an increase of 4.3% compared to 2022, ranking 2nd nationwide. There are over 48,900 successful transactions, an increase of 4% compared to 2022, ranking 4th nationwide. More than 228,000 agricultural households have received digital skills training, ranking 3rd nationwide…

​Additionally, participating in health insurance (HI) and social insurance (SI) drew the attention of many people and they raised their opinions with the hope that to receive specific information and clarification from the authorities. Immediately after the conference, the Provincial SI and FA at all levels coordinated to strengthen propaganda and dissemination of guidelines, mechanisms and policies of the Party, State and province on these contents. As a result, by the end of 2023, the whole province has have over 112,600 people participating in health insurance (reaching 102.3% of the plan) and an additional 473 people participating in social insurance (reaching 131.7% of the plan).

Besides, the grand of land use rights certificate is also a “hot” issue raised by many members and farmers at the dialogue. To gradually solve this problem, the Chairman of the Provincial People’s Committee directed the Department of Natural Resources and Environment to increase the issuance of land use rights certificates to qualified households and individuals in accordance with the law. In 2023, the Department of Natural Resources and Environment has issued over 4,800 land use rights certificates to households and individuals.

In addition to the above issues, the legitimate and practical issues that the members and farmers was interested in and raised opinions in the dialogues were step by step directly answered by the leaders of the Provincial People’s Committee and they also directed the relevant agencies to research and find solutions such as orienting and supporting farmers to produce in a green, clean and safe direction; paying attention and creating conditions to meet the loan needs of farmers in production development; strengthening the support and linkages between farmers, businesses and cooperatives from production to processing and product consumption… Thereby, it contributes to creating jobs and increasing income for members and farmers. As a result, in 2023, there have been 10,364 households achieving the title of good production and business in the province, reaching 100.13% of the plan, up 349 households compared to 2020. Average income per capita currently reaches 59.75 million VND/year (an increase of 8.03 million VND compared to 2022). The whole province currently has 20 chains linking the production and consumption of agricultural products (an increase of 13 chains compared to 2021).

Mr. Hoang Van Ngon, Chairman of the PFA, said: “The annual dialogue between the Chairman of the Provincial People’s Committee and farmers is an activity that concretizes the Party’s policies and guidelines, which is the leaders of the local governments periodically dialogue and address the legitimate needs and aspirations of the members and farmers. This is also an opportunity for the Chairman of the Provincial People’s Committee to listen, understand, share and encourage the members and farmers in the province to promote traditions, overcome all difficulties and join hands to emulate in production and contribute to socio-economic development in the province.

It can be seen that the dialogue with farmers has very practical meaning. The dialogue aims to promptly remove difficulties and obstacles of members and farmers in production and business. At the same time, it applies the guidelines, mechanisms and policies of the Party, State and province quickly into life, contributing to improving the material and spiritual life of farmers.