Agricultural production in recent years has achieved great achievements. The biggest achievement is to ensure national food security, from a country with a backward agriculture to become a country with a commodity agriculture, with a significant position in the region and in the world. The Covid-19 pandemic is complicated, many localities have implemented social distancing, affecting most industries, including agriculture. Facing these difficulties, the Agriculture sector has had many timely and effective response solutions, demonstrating the role of the pedestal of the economy in difficult times, ensuring the supply of food, food and essential goods is an important basis for the implementation of security and people’s safety during the pandemic.
That is most clearly reflected in the gross domestic product (GDP) in the third quarter of 2021, which was estimated to decrease by 6.17% compared to the same period last year, of which the agriculture, forestry and fishery sector rose the only one. The most positive growth among the three pillars of the economy which are agriculture, industry – construction and services was agriculture sector with an increase of 1.04%; while the industry and construction sector decreased by 5.02%; service sector decreased by 9.28%. Despite being affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, agricultural production still developed compared to the same period last year: rice yield increased, livestock production grew steadily, and export turnover of some agricultural products achieved good results. The agricultural sector increased by 3.32%, contributing 0.31 percentage points to the growth rate of total added value of the whole economy; the forestry sector increased by 3.3%, contributing 0.02 percentage points; the fisheries sector increased by 0.66%, contributing 0.02 percentage points.
That result is mainly due to the fact that agricultural production in the first nine months of 2021 took place in relatively favorable weather conditions, along with the restructuring of crops in a positive direction, planting new rice varieties ưith high economic value, gradually replacing traditional rice varieties so the production results of all rice crops are positive. The winter-spring crop of 2021 achieved great achievements with the highest yield ever. The harvested area of winter-spring rice in 2021 nationwide will reach 3,006.5 thousand hectares, equal to 100.5% of the previous year’s winter-spring crop with a yield of 68.6 quintals/ha, an increase of 2.2 quintals/ha, production of 20.63 million tons, up 755.1 thousand tons. Rice yield and production increased in most localities across the country. In the northern provinces, the harvested area of spring rice reached 1,086.4 thousand hectares, equal to 99.1% of the previous year’s spring crop due to the yield of 64.5 quintals/ha, an increase of 1.8 quintals/ha, output reached 7,004.1 thousand tons, up 128.7 thousand tons. In the southern provinces: The harvested area of spring rice in 2021 reached 1,920.1 thousand hectares, an increase of 23.4 thousand hectares over the same period; yield reached 71 quintals/ha, an increase of 2.5 quintals/ha; output reached 13.63 million tons, up 626.4 thousand tons. Some localities have increased productivity and output of spring rice compared to the same period last year, such as: Kien Giang, the yield increased by 3 quintals/ha, the output increased by 43.8 thousand tons; Long An increased by 1.4 quintals/ha and 28.4 thousand tons; Ninh Thuan increased 1.6 quintals/ha and 38.7 thousand tons.
The production results of this year’s autumn crop increased significantly compared to the previous year. The area of autumn rice cultivation in 2021 nationwide is estimated at 1954 thousand hectares, an increase of 8.8 thousand hectares, equaling 100.5% compared to the autumn crop in 2020; autumn rice yield is estimated at 56.5 quintals/ha, up 1.2 quintals/ha, equaling 102.2%; output was estimated at 11.03 million tons, up 282.7 thousand tons. In which, in the Mekong River Delta, the autumn rice cultivation area is estimated at 1,509 thousand hectares, down 15.1 thousand hectares; due to the estimated yield of 56.6 quintals/ha, an increase of 1 quintal/ha, the output is estimated at 8.55 million tons, up 76.7 thousand tons. The yield of autumn rice cultivation has increased in almost all regions, of which the highest increase is in the North Central region at 51.4 quintals/ha, up 3.6 quintal/ha, followed by the Central Highlands: reaching 55.9 quintals/ha, an increase of 1.7 quintals/ha. The Mekong Delta region reached 56.6 quintals/ha, an increase of 0.9 quintal/ha. This is the region with the highest autumn rice production in the country with 8,546.9 thousand tons, accounting for 77.7% of the output. of the whole country, an increase of 76.7 thousand tons. Many localities with high productivity compared to the previous autumn crop are Tra Vinh, Ben Tre, Soc Trang, and Ca Mau. The area and output of autumn rice increased in the North Central region, the area increased by 2.4%, the output increased by 10.2%; the Central Coast increased by 13.1% and 12.2%, of which the localities with the most increase were: Khanh Hoa increased by 11.2 thousand hectares and by 66.7 thousand tons; Binh Dinh increased by 3.2 thousand hectares and by 20.7 thousand tons; Quang Ngai increased by 2.7 thousand hectares and by 15.3 thousand tons.
Winter rice crop is being implemented in all localities with many advantages. As of mid-September, the whole country had sown 1,577.4 thousand hectares of winter rice, equaling 99.8% of the same period last year. Up to now, the season rice in the Northern provinces is in the flowering stage, the early rice is in the ripening stage, has harvested 133.6 thousand hectares, accounting for 12.2% of the cultivated area and equal to 104.7% over the same period. With favorable weather conditions, the winter rice yield in 2021 of the Northern provinces will reach about 57.7 quintals/ha, up 0.1 quintal/ha over the same period.
Not only rice, contributing to the growth of agriculture sector includes perennial crops. Yield and production of perennial crops are quite good: it was estimated in 9 months cashew production reached at 365.2 thousand tons, rising by 5.1%; rubber reached 822.8 thousand tons, rising by 2.6%; pepper reached 275.6 thousand tons, rising by 2.3%; tea shoot reached 865.2 thousand tons, rising by 1.8%. Production of some major fruit in 9 months this year was recorded to increase, in comparison with that of over the same period last year: mango reached 801.1 thousand tons, rising by 6.7%; dragon fruit reached 1.030.5 thousand tons, rising by 1.7%; oranges reached 689.7 thousand tons, rising by 3.8%; pomelos reached 511.3 thousand tons, rising by 6.1%; bananas reached 1,779.2 thousand tons, rising by 2.6%; longan reached 544.4 thousand tons, rising by 7.8%. Many perennial plants are grown according to VietGap and GlobalGap standards, meeting the standards and conditions for export to Australia, the United States, Europe, Japan, Korea, and China. Therefore, the export turnover of agricultural and forestry products in 9 months of 2021 reached 17.7 billion USD, a quite high increase compared to the same period last year at 17.6%, of which the export turnover of vegetables and fruits reached 2 million USD. 0.8 billion USD, up 11.1%.
Livestock is also a key sector contributing to the overall growth of the agricultural sector. Livestock production provides food for the people and raw materials for the processing industry. Livestock production in the first 9 months of the year developed stably, livestock products increased significantly compared to the same period last year. It was estimated in 9 months production of pig living weight reached 3,060.9 thousand tons, increased by 5%; production of cattle living weight reached 332.4 thousand tons, rising by 2.4%; only production of buffalo living weight reached 86.6 thousand tons, decreased by 0.4%; cow milk production reached 856.6 thousand tons, rising by 11%; production of poultry eggs reached 12,8 billion eggs, rising by 4.3%.
In the 9 months of 2021, despite being greatly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, which temporarily disrupted the supply chain of production – processing – consumption of agricultural, forestry and fishery products, the supply of agricultural products was still abundant, to meet the needs of domestic consumption and for export. Agriculture has promoted the role of the pedestal of the economy, stabilizing people’s lives. Agricultural production plays a very important role in the national economy, especially agriculture provides raw materials for the processing industry, contributing to accelerating the growth of the industry and promoting the economic development of the country.