Illustrative photo (Photo: tinnongnghiep.com)

According to the department, in the field of farm economy, there are currently 34,348 farms producing and trading in the agricultural sector. The number of farms increased by 6.9% per year in the 2011-2019 period, with more and more diverse products.

Over the past years, vocational training for rural workers has been intensified, thus helping train 2.84 million rural workers, and about 2.79 million labourers, or over 98% of the total trained labourers, getting jobs.

The Department of Cooperatives and Rural Development also noted that localities have selected training occupations to meet farmers’ production requirements, focusing on key industries associated with the restructuring of the agricultural sector; agricultural promotion models and production development projects which create jobs for rural workers.

The report of the department indicated that by the end of 2020, the whole country had about 817,000 establishments engaged in production and business in rural industries, with a total turnover of over VND236 trillion.

Handicrafts export turnover reached USD2.35 billion, creating jobs for over 2.3 million workers, contributing to raising incomes for people and ensuring social security in rural areas.

In particular, in 2020, despite the serious impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the export growth rate of handicraft products reached about 10%.

Regarding the implementation of the poverty reduction program, the department reported that the subproject to support production development for poor districts and communes alone allocated nearly VND766 billion. In addition, more than VND797 billion was also arranged to support production development under Program 135.

According to the report from 41 provinces, in the period 2016 - 2019, more than 13,500 projects to support production development were carried out, with more than 1.5 million households supported, contributing to reducing the poverty rate from 8.7% in 2016 to 2.75% by the end of 2020.

As 2021 is the first year to implement the socio-economic development strategy for the period 2021 – 2030, the department has set out 10 key tasks, especially promoting the establishment of new cooperatives and renewing existing ones, while continuing to pilot the sending of cooperative staff for overseas training.

In farm development, the department will advise the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development on promulgating the criteria of agricultural farming associated with agricultural and rural tourism; and  effectively promoting trade promotion, international standards compliance and developing trade village tourism./.

Compiled by BTA