Further improvement of the draft Decree on land for rice cultivation in Vietnam

Further improvement of the draft Decree on land for rice cultivation in Vietnam

Some contents need further research and improvement as follows:

(1) Regarding the scope of regulation (Article 1): The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development shall take the lead, cooperate with the Ministry of Justice to thoroughly review and incorporate the Deputy Prime Minister’s directives given in Notice 293/TB-VPCP and the opinions of the participating Ministries and sectors to complete the regulations in Article 1, ensuring the full institutionalization of the contents and tasks assigned in Article 182 of the Land Law 2024.

(2) Regarding the regions planned for high-yield, high-quality rice cultivation:

- Supplement the definitions of terms and criteria for determining the agencies responsible for identifying high-yield, high-quality rice cultivation zones, strictly protected land for rice cultivation, and land for rice cultivation areas that can be converted for other crops and livestock.

- Regarding the criteria for determining high-yield, high-quality rice cultivation zones (Clause 1, Article 5): The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development shall take the lead, cooperate with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment to review and improve toward minimizing qualitative criteria, and supplement quantitative criteria, especially concerning the application of science and technology, emission reduction, high productivity, suitable for each region, easy to implement; supplement criteria for compatibility with the land use plans at all levels.

(3) Regarding the regulations on converting crop structures and livestock on land for rice cultivation (Article 6):

- The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development shall review and improve by adding the Ministry’s responsibility for guiding the types of perennial crops used for conversion as a basis for the provincial People’s Committees to perform the tasks assigned in Clause 3 of this Article; only allow conversion within the flexible land for rice cultivation area specified in Resolution 39/2021/QH15 of the National Assembly dated November 13, 2021, on the National Land Use Planning for the period of 2021 - 2030, with a vision to 2050, National Land Use Plan for 5 years 2021 - 2025.

- Supplement regulations on criteria for "not losing the necessary conditions to return to rice cultivation as stipulated by the law on crop production" to ensure proper execution of the tasks assigned by the Land Law and Law on Crop Production to the Government of Vietnam, establishing a basis for localities to determine convertible crops, livestock, and issue conversion plans for crop and livestock structures on land for rice cultivation.

- Supplement regulations on criteria for identifying the rice land area that land users can convert the crop structure and livestock; while assigning the provincial People’s Committees to be responsible for demarcating and publicly announcing the rice land area permitted for crop structure and livestock conversion in the locality based on these criteria.

(4) Regarding the conditions for constructing works directly serving agricultural production on land for rice cultivation (Article 9): The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development shall take the lead, cooperate with the Ministry of Construction, Ministry of Planning and Investment to complete towards:

- Limiting the entities and cases allowed to construct works directly serving agricultural production on land for rice cultivation to encourage the development of collective economy, joint ventures, linkages, large-scale, modern commodity rice production with high productivity and quality; minimizing widespread construction on land for rice cultivation that causes social disorder through specific criteria regulations, such as agricultural project criteria; enterprise financial capability criteria; project scale criteria; land for rice cultivation area usage criteria, etc.;

- Supplement regulations on assigning the provincial People’s Committees the responsibility for appraising and licensing this construction.

(5) Regarding the regulations on paying money for the state to supplement the area of specialized rice land lost or to increase the efficiency of using land for rice cultivation (Article 12): The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development shall take the lead, cooperate with the Ministry of Finance to continue supplementing clear regulations on managing and using this money according to the conformity of relevant laws.

(6) Regarding policies to support, invest in infrastructure construction, and apply modern science and technology for high-yield, high-quality rice cultivation zones (Clause 3, Article 14):

Inherit and improve existing mechanisms and policies for land for rice cultivation; simultaneously, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development shall take the lead, cooperate with the Ministry of Planning and Investment, Ministry of Finance, and the State Bank of Vietnam (on credit policies, if applicable) to develop and complete new policies for high-yield, high-quality rice cultivation planning regions in the following directions:

- Support and investment policies need to be limited, not widespread, targeted correctly, focusing on achieving high productivity, quality, increasing value added, achieving the goals of the high-yield, high-quality rice planning regions demarcated and publicly announced by the provincial People’s Committees.

- Clearly differentiate support policies from investment policies, on this basis defining the responsibilities of the State, businesses, and investors.

- Clearly define sources of funds (investment funds, recurrent expenditures) according to current law for support policies, investment policies; evaluate the impact of policies to determine feasibility.

- Supplement additional policies on support and investment in applying modern science and technology as stipulated in Article 182.

- For State support policies, it is required to clearly and specifically stipulate policy contents to ensure the feasibility and effectiveness of the policies, such as: forms of support; subjects and activities that are supported; levels and standards of support; conditions and criteria for support eligibility; support duration; procedures, documents for policy implementation; competent agencies in policy consideration and decision-making; mechanisms and agencies for inspecting and supervising support and use of support.

- Diversify forms of support.

More details can be found in Notice 320/TB-VPCP issued on July 12, 2024.

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