Linking "Four Houses" in Tra Vinh Province, Advantages, Challenges and Opportunities

This is the way to manage and use land resources, rivers and lakes effectively and with high economic value that this connection has an impact on. The color

The fat of the soil will still be retained and ensure that the next crop will not be lacking.

With the right source of nutrients, farmers who cultivate according to the standard methods instructed by the enterprise will not only keep the soil and water sources from being polluted, but also keep the seedlings with stable productivity and high quality.

Improve education and public health

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Family education and health care are improved. Local education and health systems are upgraded, and community health care systems receive more attention.

To grasp the knowledge of new farming techniques requires farmers

must practice and receive technology transfer from business experts

from the associated industry or from local government agricultural extension training courses.

The support method has helped to improve farmers' knowledge. In order to form specialized areas according to development goals, the province has transferred scientific and technological advances through technical training courses and production methods to develop sustainable raw material areas, creating products with uniform designs and quality. In the past year, the province has provided vocational training to more than 6,400 workers from 25 vocational training establishments and trained more than 200 farming households. Meeting experts and accessing many technical documents from abroad requires people's qualifications to be improved. Therefore, the local education sector has been expanded and developed thanks to the increasing training needs of farming households.

The improvement of people's living standards has raised the demand for health care to a higher level, so commune health stations and local hospitals must be equipped with more advanced medical equipment, and doctors must be reinforced for the grassroots level. Community health is more concerned, many disease prevention and health care programs for children are organized and implemented closer to the grassroots level, the clean water supply system has reached over 5,500 households, accounting for 83% of farming households in the whole province in 2009.

In short, the link between enterprises and farmers not only helps bring more profits to farmers but also creates a more dynamic and attractive local macroeconomic environment to attract more investment capital to Tra Vinh. In addition, farmers produce and cultivate according to standards

GAP also contributes to better environmental protection. People in rural areas

also more aware of family education and community health care, thereby contributing to upgrading the local education and health system. Many farmer support programs have been opened to meet the requirements of cultivation and production with the participation of the state, helping the local government apparatus to be more dynamic and operate more effectively. The result of these factors is that the competitiveness index of Tra Vinh province CPI has always been at the top in recent years.

3.7. Linking "four houses" in Tra Vinh province, advantages, challenges and opportunities

3.7.1. The necessity of linking "four houses" in Tra Vinh province

The agricultural economy of Tra Vinh province has made great strides; many agricultural products have become strengths of Tra Vinh such as shrimp, fish, etc. Farmers' lives have also gradually improved. However, Tra Vinh agriculture is still facing many challenges, especially in the current process of WTO integration. Agricultural production is generally still small-scale, fragmented, lacking planning and direction. Farmers are still struggling with fluctuations in the world market, replanting and cutting down according to the fluctuations of market prices, with epidemics and natural disasters; life is not stable and secure.

Agricultural production is seasonal and greatly influenced by natural conditions such as land, climate, and diseases. Therefore, the agricultural market also has its own specific rules in accordance with supply and demand and prices of agricultural products. Because most farmers have low qualifications and use illegal farming methods, it is difficult to adapt to the market mechanism with unpredictable fluctuations in supply, demand, and prices.

Consumption of agricultural products is still a difficult problem for the majority of farmers. The problem of what to raise? What to plant? What is the quantity and quality? Which market to sell is a difficult problem for farmers over the past time and until now, they are still struggling to solve it! The main disadvantage is the biggest difficulty on the path to developing large-scale agricultural commodity production. There is no production service system that can overcome risks and offset transaction costs to reach farmers. Small-scale farmers in Tra Vinh province, on average, have only 0.6 hectares divided into many small plots of land, cannot apply mechanization and modern scientific and technological achievements to develop large-scale commodity production, and cannot create a stable, uniform source of goods with clear origin and guaranteed quality.

for domestic and international market needs.

On the other hand, the globalization process has unfair “rules of the game” that are disadvantageous to the agriculture of developing countries like Vietnam in general and Tra Vinh province in particular. Farmers of poor countries not only have to compete with farmers of rich countries but also have to overcome the huge subsidies from the governments of these countries. On average, farmers in 30 OECD countries receive support equal to 30% of their total agricultural value each year. Therefore, the competition between small Vietnamese farmers and the modern, large-scale, well-organized and heavily subsidized agricultural production system is unequal. Farmers are even less able to negotiate and cooperate with the system of foreign enterprises that are rich in capital, strong in organization, and connected to powerful national corporations to bring agricultural products to the world market. Therefore, although the international market is open, it is difficult for farmers to participate in that common "playground" with small-scale, fragmented and spontaneous production.

To solve all the above problems and support farmers, it is necessary to have the "participation" of many entities: agricultural product trading enterprises, scientists and support from the State. Only then can we create a strong enough synergy for Vietnamese agricultural products to have a sustainable position in the international market and even in the domestic market. Therefore, the connection of "four houses" is an inevitable requirement in the process of developing agricultural commodity production today.

3.7.2. The "four-house" linkage in Tra Vinh still reveals limitations

- Linkage policy is not complete and consistent.

- The organization and implementation of the policy of linkage; the organization of creating connections between houses… are not good. Therefore, the houses do not have full awareness and understanding of the policy of linkage.

-Infrastructure (transportation, irrigation, etc.) is still limited, causing difficulties and hindering the development of production and business of the Houses, as well as creating conditions to connect the Houses together.

- Planning work still has many limitations and shortcomings.

- The educational and professional level of the scientists is still low and limited (including local scientists and those directly involved in agricultural production and business).

- The connection is not really strong partly because there is no trust between the Houses.

- The qualifications and resources of the Houses are still limited and difficult.

For Farmers

-Education and professional qualifications are still very limited.

- Resources are still limited (especially land scale), so production is mainly small-scale and fragmented, thereby limiting the connection with the House (especially the official connection).

- Resources of capital and basic means of production are still limited and outdated, making it difficult for the participation of the association.

- Assistance and support from other levels, sectors and institutions are still limited and do not meet requirements.

For Scientists

-The qualifications of scientists and technical staff at the grassroots level are still limited.

- Investment capital for science in general, research and technology transfer is still low, not meeting the requirements.

- Equipment for scientific research is still lacking and outdated.

- The regime, policies, support and assistance for Scientists are still low; there is no encouragement or support for Scientists in participating in association with other Scientists (the benefits of Scientists mostly come from funding for programs, topics and projects).

For Business

- Professional qualifications and capacity (especially technical staff) are still limited.

- Limited capital resources, difficulties affecting production and business capacity, as well as expanding and strengthening links with other houses.

- The ability of enterprises to access the market is still limited, affecting product consumption, thereby affecting the connection between enterprises and farmers.

- Support and assistance policies from all levels and sectors... have not met the needs of businesses.

The most basic limitation in the association of four houses in Tra Vinh is the profit sharing between producers and enterprises. Farmers do not sell or only sell part of their products to enterprises. On the contrary, enterprises are stagnant in buying farmers' products when prices fall. This has created a lack of mutual trust, so hesitation in association is inevitable.

Farmers' market awareness is still limited, farmers only focus on production and sales. Therefore, they want to sell all products as quickly as possible without thinking about creating quality products to create a sustainable, long-term market. In addition, the capacity and scale of production of farmers and cooperative economic organizations are still limited. This is a difficult problem for farmers, because the position in the market of farmers is always at a disadvantage compared to buyers - businesses. With a small amount of products, it does not stimulate buyers to cooperate due to high purchasing costs. Moreover, due to the limited production capacity of farmers, they often create products with low quality, so the intermediary cost will increase. Although with the support of the Province in developing cooperative economic organizations to meet the need to expand production scale, the quality of cooperation has only stopped at the initial stage, mainly supporting each other in production techniques. Meanwhile, linking together in contributing capital to production,

expand area, jointly plan production and business, cooperate in finding

Finding a market to consume products is still limited, so production capacity has not been promoted, which limits the ability to connect with businesses.

In Tra Vinh province, although local officials are interested and enthusiastic about the issue of linkage. However, market capacity and dynamism in supporting linkage implementation are still limited. Furthermore, local authorities are almost lacking in providing information to both farmers and enterprises, as well as proactively inviting enterprises to the locality. This reduces the motivation for enterprises to link with farmers.

For scientists in Tra Vinh, there is still a lack of scientists. The province has proactively called on scientists from schools, institutes, etc. to research and promote this connection. However, there are many subjective and objective reasons why scientists are not willing to cooperate in research, such as the payment and settlement procedures are too complicated.

The volume of agricultural products signed for consumption contracts in Tra Vinh is still very low. Decision 80 has set a target: to expand the method of signing contracts for the consumption of agricultural products so that by 2010, over 50% of the output of agricultural products of some large commodity production industries will be consumed through contracts. However, up to now, the target of 50% of agricultural products consumed through contracts is an unachievable task.

Contract breaches still occur quite often for most agricultural commodities. Recently, in Tra Vinh province, there was a phenomenon of businesses breaking their trust, farmers suffered heavy losses, 153 farmers in Thanh Phu commune, Cau Ke district cooperated in production with 9 Tao rice seed company located in Song Loc commune, Chau Thanh district, according to the contract, the company sold seeds to farmers at 11,000 VND/kg if paid in advance and

13,000 VND/kg if paid later. At the same time, the company promised to buy back rice from farmers at 5,200 VND/kg. However, because the company's seeds are mixed with many impurities, it takes a lot of effort to remove them and does not guarantee quality, the company only buys them back at the price of 2,800 - 2,900 VND/kg. The situation of forcing prices and forcing prices by agricultural product purchasing enterprises is common, causing farmers to suffer losses. For farmers and farm owners, the phenomenon of not fulfilling contracts is also quite common in most types of agricultural products, especially when the market has fluctuations in agricultural product prices.

Contracts for agricultural product consumption are not implemented evenly among regions and localities in Tra Vinh province, mainly taking place with some key agricultural export products and in concentrated commodity production areas. In other regions, agricultural product consumption is still basically spontaneous through traders, wholesalers, warehouse owners, and rural markets, so it is unstable.

There has not been a model of linkage in production and consumption for each agricultural product and each production area, so there is no basis for summary and replication. One thing can be seen from the reality in Tra Vinh province: almost all linkages between entities are decided by the market.

Scientific organizations play a very important role in the linkage process. However, up to now, the majority of scientific agencies in Tra Vinh are still confused when implementing the “four-house” linkage. There is still a lack of research agencies or organizations that are bold enough to proactively make the linkage orientation a priority in implementing research programs and projects.

There are many subjective and objective reasons leading to the above limitations. Some of the main reasons can be listed as follows:

Enterprises and especially farmers have not yet properly recognized the necessity and benefits of economic linkages in developing agricultural commodity production, especially in the current context of international economic integration. The signing of product consumption contracts in the past still has many nuances of solving social policies, not an economic lever in the market economy. That is not to mention the "form" of the contract that the province has not been able to manage as

Enterprises sign contracts to consume agricultural products to enjoy some "preferential" policies of the locality. Some enterprises participate in signing contracts to implement the policies of the State and the province, so the signing of contracts is forced, not based on the actual needs of the economic development process, from economic benefits, so the connection with producers is still fragmented and not tight.

The tight binding of responsibilities between the parties in the contract has not been

legalized. Most contracts between enterprises and farmers do not have binding terms; the agreement between the parties is like a memorandum, not an economic contract. Due to limited education level and short-term profit-seeking mindset, failure to calculate long-term strategies as well as inadequate awareness of the responsibility to comply with legal regulations, "Farmers" are very likely to violate the contract during the association process. They do not pay attention to properly implementing the terms of their commitments, leading to the quantity, quality of products and delivery time of goods not complying with the contract. A common situation in Tra Vinh is that many farming households, although having signed contracts and received advance investment in capital and technical materials from enterprises, when the price of products on the market fluctuates, they sell products to other people or other units at higher prices or intentionally sell products to other units to avoid paying for the investments received from enterprises, without thinking about their responsibility for the contract. When the market price drops, they return to selling products to the enterprise that signed the contract with them. On the enterprise side, there are also many enterprises that do not truly respect the signed contracts, not ensuring both the quantity and quality of materials supplied to producers. Due to the lack of strict legal constraints, handling contract violations is very difficult and there is no effective solution.

Due to small-scale, fragmented production, enterprises must sign contracts with farmers with a very large scale of subjects (the current form of agricultural production organization is mainly households, it is very difficult for enterprises to sign contracts with each small farmer). When a contractual incident occurs, it is very difficult to negotiate with such a large number of farmers. On the other hand, with a certain signal (such as a market price signal), it will spread very quickly among the majority and easily lead to pressure on the enterprise subject. Not to mention that enterprises will have to spend a lot of human resources and time to go to each farmer household to sign a contract. Therefore, with the level of accumulation and concentration of agricultural production

In the current business environment, signing contracts between businesses and farmers is not feasible.

Enterprises in Tra Vinh province are still weak and small enterprises have not played a central role in the linkage. In the "four-house" linkage, the role of enterprises is very important: enterprises are the ones who take the initiative to sign contracts with farmers and scientists; guide and help farmers in production orientation, applying technical standards on clean production, food safety and hygiene, technical support, capital, materials, fertilizers, etc. To do that, enterprises must have strong enough production capacity. However, agricultural enterprises currently have many limitations in terms of capital, technology, and collection and distribution networks of agricultural products. In addition, there is a phenomenon that some enterprises have abused their monopoly to squeeze farmers' prices, and have not paid attention to investing in raw material areas.

Due to the backward production level and production practices, not keeping up with the requirements of commodity production, the low production potential of farming households, lack of market information, lack of legal knowledge, most agricultural products are of low quality, uneven, and have no brand; prices and markets often fluctuate, so determining the consumption price of agricultural products when signing contracts is very difficult. Moreover, farmers in Tra Vinh still have a small-scale farmer mentality, only seeing immediate benefits and lacking long-term vision, so it is easy to violate contracts when market prices fluctuate.

There is a lack of a mechanism to ensure harmonious benefits for the subjects participating in the association, especially for scientists. There have been many cases where scientists have applied scientific advances to production and product processing, making tens of billions of dong in profit, but their share of the benefits is almost insignificant.

Unreasonable regulations of the State in the price mechanism when implementing Decision 80/2002/QD-TTg. Point 8, Article 5 of this Decision stipulates the floor price in the purchase and sale relationship between farmers and enterprises. That means that enterprises must buy agricultural products from farmers at the floor price when the market price is lower than the floor price, and when the market price is higher than the floor price, enterprises must also buy at the market price. What will happen when implementing this floor price mechanism: when the market price is low, farmers sell products to enterprises, but when the price increases, farmers, for immediate benefits, sell to anyone with a higher price. Enterprises cannot buy at this price, or in other words, are forced to violate

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