Hanoi (VNA) – Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phucchaired a working session with ministries and agencies in Hanoi on February 19to discuss the acceleration of rice purchase as a way to improve income forfarmers.

He asked the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Ministryof Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) to seek greater and longer-termmarkets.

In the near future, the Finance Ministry was required to buysufficient rice as assigned by the State while exporters must keep a volumeequivalent to at least 5 percent of their total exports in the past six months,and soon ship 200,000 tonnes of the grain to the Philippines and 100,000 tonnesto China as planned.

The leader said the State Bank should hold responsibilityfor hiking loan quota for rice enterprises. The Commission for the Management of State Capitalat Enterprises, the Vietnam Northern Food Corporation and the VietnamSouthern Food Corporation must pool resources to promptly buy rice forstockpiling.

He asked theMARD to hold meetings with leaders of provinces and agencies next week topromote rice purchase from farmers. Localities were assigned to monitor theprocess to ensure farmers’ legitimate rights.

The MARD andlocalities must hasten the restructuring of rice sector to deliver qualityproducts, he said, adding that outcomes of the Mekong Delta rice conferencemust be reported to him to deal with existing issues.

Minister ofAgriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Xuan Cuong said the country exported6.1 million tonnes of rice last year, earning 3 billion USD.

According tohim, a food production plan has been built with a total area of 7.5 million ha,down 200,000ha from 2018, but the application of technology will help ensurethe output of 43.5 million tonnes and export of 6-7 million tonnes this year.

Rice forexport is mainly from the Mekong Delta and nearly 20 percent of the total areaunder the grain have been harvested.-VNA