[{"bbox": [85, 152, 1123, 208], "category": "Text", "text": "Viet Nam has become one of the world's leading producers and exporters of many agricultural-aquaculture products, such as coffee, peanuts, rice, shrimp, pangasius, tuna, squid and others."}, {"bbox": [85, 218, 1123, 538], "category": "Text", "text": "Decades of expansion and intensification of unsustainable agricultural practices, however, have resulted in declining agricultural productivity and degradation of biodiversity and environmental quality in Viet Nam. This 'take-make-dispose' behavior leads to a series of problems. Viet Nam produced about 43.5 million tons of rice in 2023, but about 28.3% of straw were burned directly and 18.4% of that were left untreated on the fields. It is also reported that 30.5% of rice husks were burned, 31% of that were reused as fuel and only 16.5% of that were collected for producing bio-char²⁴. The burning practice contributes to air pollution and does not optimise the value of agricultural residues and by-products. Moreover, the degradation of health ecosystems in Viet Nam, including the loss of fertile soil, natural forests, and mangroves, significantly undermines the country's climate resilience. These ecosystems play a crucial role in mitigating the impacts of extreme weather events and stabilising rain patterns. The loss of fertile soil reduces agricultural productivity and increases vulnerability to droughts, while deforestation and the destruction of mangroves diminish natural barriers against storms and floods, exacerbating the adverse effects of climate change."}, {"bbox": [85, 548, 1123, 786], "category": "Text", "text": "Agriculture is also one of the most water intensive sectors, consuming about 100 billion cubic meter annually, accounting for approximately 88% of the total water consumption in the production sector. Waste water from agricultural activities often contains organic matters (such as protein, carbohydrate, lipid), nutrients (such as nitrogen, phosphorous, kali), non-organic matters (such as minerals, heavy metals), sediments, toxic chemicals (such as pesticide, chemical fertilizers) and pathogens (such as bacteria, virus). Most of the agricultural waste water is not collected and properly treated before discarding into the environment. In 2022, aquaculture generated about 1.2 million tons of waste sludge of which only 27% was pre-treated²⁵. The sector produced 98,6 million tons of CO2e, accounting for 30% of the national GHG emission in 2016²⁶. It also generates a huge volume of waste and residues."}, {"bbox": [85, 799, 1123, 1252], "category": "Text", "text": "Like the industrial sector, the agricultural policy framework also faces lots of challenges. Although the government strategies are ambitious, they have not been effectively translated into concrete policies and incentives to encourage agriculture economic actors to invest in circular economy business models. The traditional growth model, with a short-term vision, has prioritised productivity and rapid economic growth and in favors of immediate gains over sustainability and long-term benefits. For example, Viet Nam set target to be a top shrimp producing country and aims to achieve an annual growth rate of 7.3% and produce 1.1 million Mt by 2025. As a result, the volume of shrimp products is growing quickly (more than 400 thousand tons/year), but at the same time increases the environmental pressure, because wastes and residuals are not properly treated. It is estimated that the associated residuals and by-products from shrimp industry will reach 0.38-0.49 million Mt by 2025 (VNFOOD, 2024). The growth would not be sustained in the long-run as exporters will be required to demonstrate environmental standards to be able to export to advanced markets. They will need to invest in a cleaner, more sustainable and circular production. At the moment, the Vietnamese agricultural commodities for export focus mainly on quantity with low added values. For example, among products exported to EU, raw coffee beans accounts for 95% of the total coffee export turnover, raw cashew nuts, raw pepper and frozen/pre-processed seafood account for 96.8%, 79% and 60%, respectively. The government aims to establish agricultural value chains that are based on sound quality, safety and traceability management systems in order to produce national brand products linked with associated traditional and cultural values."}, {"bbox": [85, 1262, 1123, 1424], "category": "Text", "text": "The Vietnamese agricultural sector also faces a shortage of high-skilled labour and the labour pool for agricultural workers is shrinking. Labour in the agriculture, forestry, and fishery sectors currently accounts for 30% of the total workforce, but less than 2% of about 520,000 students attending universities in 2022 are majoring in related disciplines. Some traditional agricultural areas face challenges in enrolling new students recently²⁷. Higher-skilled workers tend to move to other sectors like manufacturing and services. The income gap between men and women is the biggest in the agriculture and in foreign companies (43%)²⁸. Women are"}, {"bbox": [85, 1563, 522, 1586], "category": "Footnote", "text": "²⁴ Institutes of Agricultural Economics (IAE) report, 2023"}, {"bbox": [85, 1585, 638, 1608], "category": "Footnote", "text": "²⁵ Vietnam Institute of Fisheries Economics And Planning (VIFEP), 2022"}, {"bbox": [85, 1608, 578, 1631], "category": "Footnote", "text": "²⁶ Vietnam Biennial Update Report (BUR) No. 3, MONRE, 2020"}, {"bbox": [85, 1631, 715, 1654], "category": "Footnote", "text": "²⁷ https://vir.com.vn/skilled-labour-force-needed-for-agriculture-sector-104158.html"}, {"bbox": [85, 1653, 610, 1677], "category": "Footnote", "text": "²⁸ Oxfam briefing paper: How to tackle inequality in Viet Nam, 2017."}, {"bbox": [1023, 1678, 1143, 1703], "category": "Page-footer", "text": "Page 10 of 28"}]