PM asks authorities to protect farmlands

13:57' 21/04/2008 (GMT+7)
Unregulated farm conversions could leave farmers jobless
Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has urged local authorities and related agencies to 'minimise' the conversion of agricultural land, especially the wet rice areas for non-agricultural uses.
One farmer has to dry rice on the pavement in Linh Dam urban area, formerly a farming area.
Projects in violation of the Land Law should be restored to their original agricultural state, Dung said in his instruction published by the Government website last Friday.
"The Government fears that the unregulated conversion of farm land into industrial parks urban areas or construction sites will affect national food security and push thousands of farmers out of their jobs.
Dung appointed the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment to cooperate with related authorities to set up a task force to evaluate the status of farm land use in provinces nationwide.
The delegates will work with various agricultural provinces' People's Committee in Northern, Central and Southern Vietnam to inspect the zoning and strategies for using farming land at grassroots administrative levels. The results recorded in the inspections would be compared with national statistics.
The PM's decision requires numerous local organisations to reassess the land use situation. Land being ineffectively used or reserved for projects behind schedule should be restored.
Tran The Ngoc, Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment, said the country had lost 34,330 hectares of land for paddy cultivation between 2005 and 2007.
Of the figure, 16,000 ha in the Mekong River Delta and 8,000 hectares of paddy in the Red River Delta had been converted for other purposes. Ngoc said many projects let farm land turn fallow so they could be turned into industrial parks but the rate of land actually in use by those projects was quite low.
Ngoc cited the 306 ha Xuyen A Industrial Park in southern Long An Province, which was authorized in 1997 but until now still leases less than 15% of the total area. The 274 ha Duc Hoa Industrial Park in the province only uses 26% of the land.
Most of provinces and cities in the nation's rice basket were racing to set up industrial parks to attract more investment funds, Ngoc said, adding that some provinces lack the potential to attract foreign investors.