PM: agricultural restructuring must ensure food security

PM: agricultural restructuring must ensure food security

07/01/2008 -- 4:45 PM

Ha Noi (VNA) – Agricultural restructuring must ensure food security and jobs for labourers, said Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung.

The Prime Minister gave the instruction to the agricultural sector at a conference of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in Ha Noi on January 7 to launch the 2008 plan.

PM Dung stressed that agriculture, though contributing only 20 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), is the foundation for stability as 72 percent of the country’s population live in rural areas.

The PM asked the sector to focus its efforts on restructuring farm production to fulfill the plan for this year and the 2006-2010 plan in the long term. He also stressed the need to apply scientific and technological advances to improve quality of farm produce.

Looking back the year 2007, PM Dung noted that the country faced many challenges posed by WTO membership, price hike, natural disasters and epidemics, but per capita income in the agricultural sector and rural areas increased 6.6 percent and the poverty rate among households in rural areas reduced by 2 percent.-Enditem
(VNAgency)