assessing status of applying vietgap and proposing ... · voted). vietgap significanly benifits the...

Paper Number: ICHUSO-120

Proceedings of 14th International Conference on Humanities and Social Sciences 2018 (IC-HUSO 2018) 22nd-23rd November 2018, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Khon Kaen University, Thailand

Assessing Status of Applying VietGap and Proposing Solutions to Encourage

Farmers Applying VietGap in Huong Thuong Commune, Thai Nguyen City

Dang Hoang Ha1 and Pham Tuan Ngoc2

1,2 Life Science Department - International School, Thai Nguyen University, Thai Nguyen, Vietnam

1 E-mail: [email protected], 2 E-mail [email protected]

Abstract

This study investigated the status of applying VietGap model on tomato

cultivation and economic efficiency of the model in Huong Thuo ng commune, Thai

Nguyen city, Vietnam. The study was conducted from September to December in 2017.

129 households were chosen to survey in the research area. Only about 54% of farmers

applied VietGap on produce tomatoes, and the figure is not likely to exp and, the rest of

surved household do not apply VietGap, and they are not willing to apply VietGap. One

of the most importance reasons for this situation is the lack of output traders (49/129

voted). VietGap significanly benifits the cultivation, however, there are a lot of challenges

as high investment, unstable output trader, and cost more time and labor fee in being

compared with unapplied VietGap, which is difficult for poor farmer to apply this model,

this could drawback the advantaged of the model. In addition, to solve this problem,

people need local government to facilitate them a support on investment, support the

linkage between farmers and output traders.

Keywords: VietGap, VietGap challenge, economic efficiency

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1. Introduction

Throughout the development of the nation, agriculture has always been an active

contributor to the socio-economic development of the Vietnam. In that moment, chemical

pesticides played an important role in agricultural development for the puropse of crop protection,

malaria prevention. From 1960s to 1990s, due to the limited knowledge on pesticide, people had

only seen the positive aspects of pesticide and less interested in cleaning and controlling the work

on the environment; warehouse, storage floor and other place where storage the chemical

pesticide were often neglected. For a long time after that, environmental pollution happened,

government and farmers have to pay much attention to the packaging of pesticide chemicals, it

accumulated into the ground, soil, or due to rain and flood conditions, the pesticides have been

spread to the environment, which cause pollution. (Vietnam Environment Administration, 2015).

Due to the above situation, food hygiene and safety issues, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural

Development of Viet Nam has published a series of regulations to improve quality, reliability and

safety of agriculture product, reduce the use of pesticide. For today's horticulture produce, these

principles are called VietGap (Good Agriculture Practice).

Good agricultural practices - VietGap is an indispensable way to improve the quality

of agricultural products. However, after many years of implementation, the area of agricultural

products under this process accounts for less than 1% of the total planted area (Tung, S. 2016).

In Huong Thuong commune, 129 households produce tomato on study time. (according to the

Huong Thuong people's committee) In 2010, a group of cooperatives producing and consuming

safe vegetables in Thai Nguyen province has been trained to produce safe vegetables under the

guidance of the People's Committee of Thai Nguyen City. There are 50 households applying this

model with the total cultivation area up to 3ha. After 5 years, this area is reduced to 1 ha and the

numbers of households still maintain the VietGap model is only 20 households (Thai Nguyen

People's Committee, 2016).

At present, the report does not indicate why the farmers do not apply the VietGap

model. It is wondered if the cause of stopping the production of safe vegetables in Huong Thuong

commune is similar to the reasons that other reports have recorded? Thus, it is necessary to

investigate on the status of applying VietGap, the causes and difficulties of production,

sustainability and economic efficiency.

.

The current status of applying VietGap model across the country

Currently, VietGap has not been allocated the entire area of Vietnamese vegetables.

The 2015 VietGap research shows the total area of VietGap in 2015 reached 2,429 ha, which is

about 0.26% of total vegetable area of Vietnam. Vegetables VietGap is mainly grown in four

provinces: Lam Dong, Hanoi, Thua Thien Hue and Ho Chi Minh City. The Strategic Plan for

Food Safety in Viet Nam in the period 2011-2030 aims to achieve 60% of VietGap certified

vegetable area by 2020, which is extimated a growth rate of 700% per year.

In Thai Nguyen, tea and vegetables VietGap has been present in many places. However, this

production process has not been widespread and expanded into commodity production areas.

There are many places where the People's Committee of Thai Nguyen city has been promoted to

the commune level to organize training courses on safe vegetables production, VietGap. Huong

Thuong Commune has also been organized by Commune People's Committee and guided

households to produce vegetables in the VietGap model.

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Difficulties in adopting the VietGap model

Vietnam's vegetable production is cultivated in small and fragmented scale, therefore,

it has many difficulties in applying technical regulations and standards in production as well as

quality control of vegetable products. The state management force, inspection and supervision are

not strong enough, there are overlapping responsibilities among the ministries and branches,

among the units in the Ministry; Legal documents are not stable. The information and propaganda

work has not really been widespread; the inspection, supervision and handling of violations are

still very limited. VietGap has not been improved to suit Vietnamese conditions; lack of technical

guidance, recording format, so limited scope of application of VietGap. Farmers meet many

dificulties in recording the production process, purchasing records, using seeds, fertilizers, and

pesticides. There are many production models under GAP but not linked to business and consumer

markets; Product prices are not higher than normal products, do not guarantee the interests of

farmers, while the cost of consulting, certification is high, beyond the capacity of farmers.

Capacity of some certification and consulting organizations is limited; VietGap certification has

not met the requirements or lacking inspection and supervision after licensing the certificate. The

majority of consumers do not have adequate knowledge about food safety, the habit in purchasing

safe vegetable is, while the channels of consumption of safe products are weak, state management

has not helped consumers distinguish the product, provide safe and secure in the market (Hai Vu,

P. 2016). Simultaneously, he pointed out that the first factor relates to the cost of production,

growing safe vegetables costs more than normal vegetables, howerver, the price of the product is

not always higher than the price of unapplied VietGap vegetables.

High cost component is the cost of obtaining a certificate. Average VietGap

certification can be up to 17.8 million VND per hectare while the validity of these certificates is

short, only 2 years. The second reason is the organization of a safe vegetable distribution system.

Having a separate distribution system is important; otherwise safe vegetables will be mixed with

normal vegetables (Moustier, et al. (2013).

Difficulties of applying scientific and technological advances to production as well as

applying sets of standards in order to have higher quality products satisfying basic criteria such as

ensuring safety disease, environmental safety, social security, responsibilities and traceability of

the product, the product must also be produced in conditions that are consistent with the criteria

set. In fact, the lack of synchronism and imbalance between planning and developing in many

years of shrimp farming is one of the reasons that the implementation and application of VietGap

as well as other standards is more difficult. Up to now, the area of extensive shrimp farming,

extensive improvement still accounts for 75% of total shrimp farming area in our country, which

means that most of the infrastructure in the shrimp farming areas does not meet the conditions set

for the application of the standards to obtain better, cleaner and safe products. According to

statistics, shrimp farming in our country only really began in 1980s and broke out in the late

1990s and early 2000's.

Benefits from the application of VietGap in safe vegetable production

Thu Ha (2016), in one cost, the dragon fruit growers earned VND 1.26 by applying

VietGap standard in farming. The ratio between profit and turnover is 0.56 times, which means

that in a revenue share that dragon fruit growers earn benifits from VietGap standards, they have

a profit of 0.56. The results of the analysis of production costs together with the financial ratios

show that the dragon fruit production under the VietGap standard has brought high economic

efficiency for the dragon fruit farmers in Ham Thuan Nam district. Therefore, dragon fruit

growers should maintain this activity and aim to expand the scale so that the income from dragon

fruit cultivation becomes the main source of income for the family.

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Dong Quang (2013), with the bold investment of billions of VND to organize hi-tech

production, fully equipped modern machinery and equipment used for growing, harvesting,

preserving, and transporting goods to the place of consumption and application of vegetable

production under the VietGap Process. In April 2012, the Animal Farm was evaluated and granted

Certificate of Vegetable Products to be produced in accordance with VietGap and was re-issued

with certificate of VietGap -TT-12-01-68-0001 validing until 04/07/2015. Currently, Phong Thuy

Farm and its affiliate provide stable market for about 5,000 tons of safe vegetables per year. Since

then, the turnover of the farm has also been raised to 8-10 billion, profits 1 billion per year,

doubling the previous. The farm also helps to create jobs for 130 laborerswith the salary of 1.8 -

2.8 million VND per month for each, of which 70 are ethnic minorities. The cultivation process of

the farm has become a motivator for many neighboring households in the area. At present, Phong

Thuy Farm has signed a contract with 5 vegetable producers on 15ha to produce 3,000 tons of

products per year.

For society: It is the evidence to affirm the names of seafood products, cultivation and

animal husbandry of Vietnam, increase export turnover due to overcome technical barriers, not

violate the regulations and requirements of importing countries. Applying VietGap to change the

current practice of production, society to reduce medical costs, people are using food safety and

hygiene means improving the quality of life of the community and ensures preserving the

sustainable development of society. For producers: VietGap help producers respond more

promptly to issues of production related to food safety and hygiene through controlling production

in the tillage and livestock production stages until harvesting, creating high quality products,

stable. Processes and certificates granted by VietGap will bring confidence to distributors,

consumers and regulators. VietGap certification helps producers build brand products and create a

stable market for processing and exporting enterprise, the quality of raw materials will ensure the

quality of the output of the products, thus maintaining the prestige of the customers and raising

the revenue. Due to the availability of input materials, enterprises can reduce the costs and time

for testing the incoming fishery samples. Reduces the risk of products being banned from

importation or being 100% tested when imported due to unsatisfactory chemical residue

requirements. For consumers: Consumers will be able to use products that meet safe and hygienic

quality, which is also the main objective and the greatest benefits that VietGap brings. By laying

down the risks and implementing regulations, VietGap will create the right to demand of

consumers, thereby contributing to the generation of consumers who are easily aware of hygienic

products. It is also the main driving force for people and manufacturers to improve and produce

good products from agriculture for the society.

Solutions have been proposed from previous reports

Thu Ha, (2016) proposed the use of the VietGap participatory assurance model of

organic vegetables for other models to reduce costs and increase consumer trust. In addition to the

cost of certification, other costs such as investment in building homes, labor costs, etc. local

government should support farmer to expand the scale of production. Other solution is to find a

simply safe process to reduce production costs and certification.

According to Huu Tho (2010), the Prime Minister has proposed the development and

submission of the Prime Minister's Decision on investment policies to support the application of

GAP in cultivation to increase investment, support from state budget for safe production under

GAP; improving the legal documents to implement the Law on Food safety; assignment of state

management among units under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, between the

central and local levels in a concrete, clear, non-overlapping or omission manner. Improving

VietGap in the following directions: Simplified, easy to implement for most production facilities.

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To concretize VietGap in technical regulations on production conditions, preliminary processing,

GAP implementation guidelines, and recording forms in a specific way for producers to apply.

Licensed VietGap for some key crops. Strengthen the capacity of GAP certification organizations

and consultancies under the guideline of socialization to improve the knowledge of producers on

GAP. Provide a variety of solutions that form the market for GAP products with a variety of

regulated distribution channels for food safety, to help consumers distinguish and be willing to

pay a reasonable price for GAP certified products.

2. Methodology

Data collection and sampling

There are 129 households in Huong Thuong commune cultivating and producing

tomatoes at the time of study (September to December).

For the most confident results, Huong Thuong is decided to be the sampling size, and

this sampling technique is most representative of the tomato production to come to a general

conclusion about the situation of the applying VietGap in the commune.

Non-Probability Sampling method is the sampling method of this study to select any sample that

is most convenient for the survey, where all households that cultivating tomatoes located in

Huong Thuong commune.

When interviewed, each household will nominate a representative person who is the

main responsible for the cultivation of the family's vegetables, or the whole members of

household can respond to the interview, select the general idea.

Data analysis

• To determine the percentage of households that are applying, used to apply, or

have not applied the VietGap model, use the formula:

𝐴𝑝𝑝𝑙𝑖𝑒𝑑 𝑉𝑖𝑒𝑡𝐺𝑎𝑝 𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑒 (%) = 𝑛𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑠𝑒ℎ𝑜𝑙𝑑𝑠

𝑆𝑎𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑒 𝑠𝑖𝑧𝑒× 100

• To determine the economic efficiency for both applying and non - applying

VietGap, we use the formula:

𝐸𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑜𝑚𝑖𝑐 𝑒𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑐𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑦 =𝑝𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑒 𝑜𝑢𝑡𝑝𝑢𝑡 (𝑟𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑛𝑢𝑒)

𝑝𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑒 𝑖𝑛𝑝𝑢𝑡 (𝑖𝑛𝑣𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡)

• During the time of data collection, the applicants have an uneven distribution of

farm size. Therefore, when asked about revenue, profit, the variable distributed in

different unit (Northern pole, approximately 360 m2, hectare) so that the data must

be in one unit, which is square meter. Revenue and profit are ruled to million VND

per hectare (million VND/ha.

• In addition, this paper uses Microsoft excel software to save and synthesize and

analyze data.

3. Result and discussion

Huong Thuong is a commune in Thai Nguyen city, Thai Nguyen province, Vietnam. It

was a commune in Dong Hy district, until August 18, 1977 according to the Resolution of the

National Assembly Standing Committee, the commune was transferred to Thai Nguyen city. Total

annual output of Huong Thuong is 2,634 tons / year; Average food reaches 448 kg / person / year.

In 2011, per capita income of Huong Thuong is 11 million VND / year. The total rice area is

430ha with 70% of Khang Dan rice and 30% of hybrid rice. Vegetable area is 133ha specialized

in growing vegetables. Thus, developing VietGap is necessary in order to guarantee local food

security and to ensure resident livelihood.

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Status of applying VietGap on tomato farming in Huong Thuong commune

The results of the study (Figure 1) show that 53% (68 households) are applying the

VietGap model on tomato production. Among them, there are 20 households in Cay village. This

village has maintained not only the production in tomatoes but also many other vegetables and

fruits. However, in 2010, the cooperative group of produced and consumed safe vegetables in Cay

village introduced 50 households participating. After 5 years of implementation, this numbers

were reduced to 20 households currently. Area applied VietGap also reduce from 3 hectare to 1

hectare.

There are 48 households from the cooperative group of produce and consume safe

vegetables in Huong Trung village. Huong Trung Commune participated have participated in the

project of building a system of food safety and hygiene for green vegetables in the province for 5

years until now. The project is managed by the Department of Science and Technology and is

implemented by the provincial Center for Vocational Training 20-10. Since, 50 members have

practiced correctly according to the technical process of producing safe vegetables under VietGap

standards. In November, 2015, although the project was closed, those farmer still continue to

produce safe vegetables with an area of 2 hectares and certified to meet standards.

Figure 1: The rate household applied VietGap model

However, the results of the report have shown that two households have abandoned

the VietGap model; the two interviewed respondents pointed out the reasons for that is the lack of

output for safe vegetables and market prices, sometimes, fresh vegetables sold at wholesale

prices. While, 53% or more than half of the tomato growers have adopted and maintained the

VietGap model still consider as positive developments. Huong Trung village have less abandoner

than Cay village because of the VietGap certification process. After 3 year from the first training

in Cay village, VietGap have been modified to adapt more to farmer’s situation.

The figure 1 also shown that 25% household (32 households) has used to apply

VietGap, including 2 households who had left the VietGap model in Huong Trung. When

interviewed, they indicated that the production process needed a lot of money to renovate land,

irrigation, seed control and more work in strict compliance with production principle and

environmental protection as the health of the consumer. At the same time, these costs and efforts

make the safe vegetable product is more expensive than the non-transparent tomato varieties of

origin. Meanwhile, the income of the majority of customers is not high enough to make the

change in safety food products; the sense of self-protection awareness have not respected yet.

That means they have to spend much more on inputs than conventional tomato production

Applied VietGap

53%

Used to applied VietGap

25%

Never applied VietGap before

22%

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methods, but the price of the products is unstable. Some households also said that the price of

tomatoes is not dependent on quality but on traders and safety food businesses. In addition, some

households believe the reason that they are afraid to go to meetings, are unfamiliar with recording

"field diary", do not want to build chemical garbage in accordance with standards ... Farmers are

not easy to change traditional practices to follow a scientific and safe manufacturing process.

The households have never applied VietGap come from the Gia village (12

households), Sop (9 households) and Ham village (8 households). In these villages, people have

been introduced to productivity and economic efficiency through their neighbor who applying the

VietGap model because of the requirements in the training program (each one was trained as a

propaganda unit on VietGap effectiveness). On the other hands, the households still have many

reasons that cause them not want to start applying the VietGap model. The first reason they gave

is the expensive investment cost. In addition, improving land, building irrigation systems,

breeding control, they also have to build net house, with very high total costs can be up to 100

million for 400 m2. With long-term harvests, they are not acquired to investing in a sustainable,

long-term production system.

Figure 2: Number of household willing to expand or keep the scale of VietGap

When surveying the household who applied VietGap about their willing to expand of

the model, there are 54 households express that they will stay at the current scales, and the rest

want to move on at VietGap (14 households).

The reason that cause this problem they explain that supermarket and safety vegetable

store has their own quantity target in import each crop, so that when they are full of stock, they

will stop import product. If households try to expand the scale, the rest of product which could

not import by supermarket and store will be selling in traditional market. The agreed households

believe that will not expand in the same type of tomatoes, they wanted to try new other vegetable

and fruit (Figure 2).

Challenge of applying VietGap in Huong Thuong commune

VietGap has been applied in this commune for 5 years, but there are only over 50%

household still applying, but the result show that there still a lot of challenge when apply this

model.

The first challenge is the cost of investment or expansion. The results showed that 32

households supposed that the investment cost was very expensive (Figure 2). When interviewed,

the households raised a lot of items that need to be invested. Therein, they are the costs of land

improvement; construction of the net, irrigation system, when set up, the installation could cost

agree21%

disagree79%

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100 million VND per 400 m2. Other is the costs of controlling seedlings, costs for fertilizers,

labor ... and more expensive than that is the certificate of VietGap clean fruit and vegetables and

its cost attached. The certificate is not too high (for VietGap safe vegetable production is about 15

- 20 million VND for a 10 ha). In order to aquire this certification, farmer also has to spend more

money to complete the production process as required. The most expensive one is the cost of

analyzing sample of land, water, counseling; evaluating staff training, construction, document

organization ... so that the total amount can spend up to hundreds of millions VND. Without

support from the government and cooperative groups, farmers are difficult to implement the

application of the model.

Applying VietGap on tomato cultivation and production will be more time consuming

and labor intensive. With unapplied VietGap models, households can use pesticides to kill weeds,

but now, when using the new model, households have to sacrifice their labor and time to do so.

Research results show 19.37% (25 households) think that when applying VietGap

model, they will have to spend more cost in time and labor. Previously, when planting with

unapplied VietGap models, households had more time, but after applying VietGap, labor force

was not enough. Meanwhile, small households who have several hundred square meters must

assign family members to take care of the tomatoes; larger scale households (up to 5000 m2) must

hire more workers to maintain the model.

Figure 3: The challenge of applying VietGap model based on household opinion

One of the biggest challenges is to stabilize the output for farmers applying the

VietGap model in production. 49 households (38% total sample size) said that the biggest

challenge now is the output of clean tomato products.

Thai Nguyen is a very stable market for safe vegetables. At supermarkets, if customer

demanding tomatoes in this season, they must order a week before to buy. But, finding a reliable

partner and reasonable price adjustment is a big concern for the production of tomatoes in

particular or safe vegetables in general. Households said that the price was not always be liked

way they wanted, sometimes the prices decided by the traders. Households that have applied

VietGap said that the prices of tomato or fresh vegetables are sometimes approximate with the

price of vegetables grown by unapplied VietGap. The reason is that the safe vegetable shops,

supermarkets only import certain number of tomato product, there is no place for farmer to sale

the rest of products if they are out of partner’s stocks. Other whiles, farmer have to find the way

to sell out the all products, they have to find the smaller traders. However, they will pressure the

32

25

49

23

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Expensiveoutput

investment

Cost workingtime

Unstableoutput price

others

households

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price, which is not ensuring the benefits for the farmers.

The remaining 8 household give other reasons. The traditional practice of cultivation

is also a reason. It is very difficult for them to record production, purchase, the use of seeds,

fertilizers, pesticides every harvest to report to responsible VietGap in local. They are afraid of

unstable consumers. For them, applied VietGap products are difficult to sell.

Economic efficiency of applying VietGap model applied on tomato farming

The results show that the input investment of VietGap is 30% higher than the

unapplied VietGap (Table 1). The reason for this increase comes from improving quality of soil.

Under VietGap standards cultivation process, their farms must be monitored and evaluate every 6

months. If the soil is polluted by heavy metal, farmers will have to grow flowers to degrade the

pollutant, while it infects microorganisms causing diseases, the households have to invest in

disinfectants, promulgated by the Ministry of Health for treatment. Fertilizer options are also

more rigorous when applied VietGap. Such products will have to be purchased at reputable

dealers which mean higher prices. In addition, when applying VietGap will have period inspection

products every 6 months, household will have to pay that cost of inspection.

Table 1: Economic efficiency of VietGap compare to non - applying VietGap model

Models Investment

(million

VND/ha/crop)

Revenue

(million

VND/ha/crop)

Profit

(million

VND/ha/crop)

Economic

efficiency

VietGap 194.4 342.3 147.9 1.75

Unapplied VietGap 148.8 223.2 74.4 1.50

Increased compare to

normal model 30% 53.3% 98.8% 16.6%

VietGap require high input investment, so that the quality and price of tomatoes are

higher than unapplied VietGap tomatoes. Regular tomato normally sold about 223.2 million

VND/ha/crop; meanwhile tomatoes applied VietGap is sold with 342.3 million VND/ha/crop,

increase 53.3%. The profit of VietGap tomato also increased by 98.8% compared to non -

applying VietGap tomato, this number has reflected the efficiency of applying VietGap model has

significant better option. When asked about the profit that VietGap can bring about, the unapplied

VietGap household still rejected and believe that infrastructure investment still very high, in

addition, household find difficult in output consumer to signed contract.

Table 2. Variance of households investment

Models Revenue (million

VND/ha/crop)

Standard deviation

(number)

VietGap 342.3 12.6

Unapplied VietGap 223.2 32.7

The variance of revenue between VietGap and unapplied VietGap has significant

deviant (Table 2). The difference is indicated the stability of the VietGap model is much more

stable than unapplied VietGap model.

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In addition, the difference comes from price adjustments between different partners.

This difference is due to many reasons, but mainly because of the seed and the method of

protecting during cultivation. When using VietGap, farmers are required to use the VNS390 seed.

This seed is easy to cultivate, grow well, flower early, easily fruity, mature, and ripen

earlier than other seeds. In addition, it's good resistance to insect pests, less downy mildew and

less curled by virus. The fruit quality is very good, the average fruit is 120-140 grams, the fruit is

hard, bright red, the meat is not very good quality dew, can be used as salad, processing, high

productivity potential.

Because of the same seed, so the difference in revenue between households does not

change significantly. While other households who are not applied to VietGap, they used different

tomato seed such as Dong Anh, Green Poland, White Poland, Hong Lan, HP5, P375, CV12 ,

Tomato 95, hybrid tomatoes. Difference seed means difference revenue, this lead to high standard diviation.

However, the economic efficiency of VietGap tomatoes is only 16% higher than

normal tomatoes. For long term, 16% would be much more profitable than unapplied VietGap

tomatoes but some households who used to apply and have not applied the VietGap model suggest

that the difference of economic efficiency is not convincing enough for them to apply or expand

the model.

Table 3: Profit of VietGap tomato compare to other crops

Type of crop Revenue

(Million/ha) Multiple times

VietGap tomatoes 342.3 1.00

Unapplied VietGap tomatoes 288.7 1.52

Rice 216,6 2.02

Corn 154.9 2.81

Meanwhile, comparing the profit of VietGap tomato with other food crops, the

profitability of VietGap tomato products was significantly higher (Table 2). With food crops like

rice, the value of profits is 2.02 times higher. It is up to 2.81 times higher wi th corns. The non

applied VietGap tomatoes are also more valuable than rice and corn.

Solutions to encourage households to apply VietGap model

For farmers:

Most of the households in Huong Thuong commune are cultivating and producing

tomatoes scratteredly, it is necessary to organize the linkage models to improve the output

quantity, from that, company, supermarkets and the fresh vegetable shop receive the trust of long-

term stability. In other side, farmer has to guarantee quality and standard to maintain the partner.

Those households that are applying the VietGap model need to expand their markets and expand

their scale of production. However, the economic condition of the family must be considered so

as not also expand the shortage of human resources, causing labor costs increase. Households

need to find larger outlet partners than supermarkets and stores such as safe vegetable exporters.

Farmers who have used to apply VietGap model, careful consideration should be given when they

decide to apply VietGap. They also should change other type of vegetables to suit the budget or

profit targets. In terms of working time and workforce, households may consider hiring more

workers to save time. However, the employees should only be in assistance role to reduce labor costs.

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For those who have not applied the VietGap model, they should remove the traditional

practices. Other whiles, they should tend to produce safety product, and try to create a long-term

business with safety food traders.

For the local government:

Continuously organize training courses to propagate and encourage households to

apply or expand the VietGap model. Promote policy to support loans or directly support the input

costs in order to apply the VietGap model. Contact partners, companies that need to import and

export safe vegetables, make a firm output for households to maintain model and develop based

on VietGap model.

It is necessary to reduce the unessential administrative procedures, continuously

adjust the principles of VietGap to facilitate the participation of households in the production and

application of the model but at the same time to ensure the safety, transparency in the

transformation of production models of households.

4. Conclusion

Huong Thuong commune has more than 53% of tomato producer who applying

VietGap model since 2010. 25% used to apply VietGap are doubted about efficiency the Viet

model. There are 22% never applied VietGap. In 68 applied VietGap households, 54 households

do not willing to expand the model, 14 others trying to expand with another type of crop.

VietGap still has many challenges, including finding durability partners, sources of

consumption of safety products. This is one of the issues considered by households to be

important for the applying and expansion of the model. There are also many other challenges such

as input investment is very high compared to unapplied models, more time and labor in farming.

The economic efficiency of applying the VietGap model on tomatoes is no t as

satisfactory as expected by the farmer, only 16% higher than unapplied VietGap, but it brings up

to 98.8% higher profit.

The farmer in the research area has contribute a lot of output of agricultural products

to the local area, but the farmer are only produce in very small scale both in VietGap and

unapplied VietGap, if government can reconnect the household, improve the scale, it could

increase the output quantity and easier to organize and manage. Other disadvantage of applying

VietGap is complicated certification process and extra fee from accessing soil, water and products.

The processing of analyzing is required for several times, cost traveling fee when transporting.

The investment fee is also a drawback factor when household trying to applying VietGap,

Greenhouse, irrigation system for example.

Finally, to encourage farmer applying VietGap, VietGap should reduce the time and

investment in certification process; facilitate investment or reasonable loan for farmer, consult the

output product consumption, help farmers to contact the reputable traders, long-term business.

Propagate and mobilize people to invest; eliminate traditional farming practices.

637



5. Reference

Dong Quang, P. (2013). Solutions to improve quality, safety of products and development of biogas

program. The VietGap Newletter 3. p5.

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations: Home (2012). National review on

voluntary standards. Country: Vietnam, Voluntary Standards, Food Quality Public Policies

and Implementation Framework. Final report. Rome : FAO. p50

Hai Vu, P. (2016). Safe vegetable production standards in Vietnam. JRSS, Proposals for

Communication. p5-7

Moustier, P. & Loc ,N. (2013). The short circuit, method of health certification of vegetables in

Vietnam, CIRAD and FAVRI. Proposal for communication at the SFER symposium.

Tho, H. T., Tuong, T., Minh Ha B. (2010). Evaluating the implementation of VietGap in

Vietnamese some types of plants in the period from 2008 -2010. Magazine of science and

technology forestry no 04-2017

Thu Ha, P. (2016). Output problem of safe vegetable products in Huong Thuong commune. Website

of Thai Nguyen province. Retrieved from http://donghy.thainguyen.gov.vn/-/bai-toan-au-

ra-cua-san-pham-rau-an-toan-tai-xa-huong-thuong. Accessed 16th November 2017

Tung, S. (2016). Why GAP production is difficult to consume?. The Vietnam People’s Military.

Retrieved from http://www.qdnd.vn/kinh-te/cac-van-de/vi-sao-san-xuat-nong-san-theo-

chuan-gap-kho-tieu-thu-517069. Accessed on 4th November 2017

Vietnam Environment Administration (2015). The status of environmental pollution caused by

persistent plant protection chemicals belong to the group of persistent organic substances

in Vietnam.

638

http://donghy.thainguyen.gov.vn/-/bai-toan-au-ra-cua-san-pham-rau-an-toan-tai-xa-huong-thuong

http://donghy.thainguyen.gov.vn/-/bai-toan-au-ra-cua-san-pham-rau-an-toan-tai-xa-huong-thuong

http://www.qdnd.vn/kinh-te/cac-van-de/vi-sao-san-xuat-nong-san-theo-chuan-gap-kho-tieu-thu-517069

http://www.qdnd.vn/kinh-te/cac-van-de/vi-sao-san-xuat-nong-san-theo-chuan-gap-kho-tieu-thu-517069

assessing status of applying vietgap and proposing ... · voted). vietgap significanly benifits the...

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