The event was a joint effort between the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Vietnam Cooperative Enterprise Development (VCED) project.
The VCED project aims to form and develop five new large-scale cooperatives in the Mekong Delta provinces of Soc Trang, Binh Thuan, Ninh Thuan, Lam Dong and Ben Tre since 2015.
It helps improve farmers’ income in a fair and sustainable manner via developing agriculture value chains in a new cooperative model, as well as enhance cooperatives’ competitiveness in various areas, including management capacity, workshop and equipment upgrade, and trademark building.
Gaby Breton, co-Director of VCED project and chief representative of Canada’s Socodevi in Vietnam, said the project has benefited many products such as grapefruit in Ninh Thuan, dragon fruit in Binh Thuan, grapefruit in Ben Tre, milch cow in Soc Trang and Lam Dong.
Farmers are also given an insight into agriculture insurance and risk management via the project, she said.
Jean Yves Drolet, expert in risk management in agriculture from Socodevi, said Socodevi now maintains business links with nearly 25,000 agriculture and forestry farms.
According to him, farmers in Canada are given access to farm and crop insurance, as well as loans with reasonable interest rates.
Participants at the event also discussed how to improve cooperatives’ access to loans.
Socodevi now groups 27 cooperatives and organisations with an aim to share expertise and work with partners in developing countries. It has also made considerable contributions to Vietnam’s socio-economic development over the past nearly two decades.
Source: VNA