Mr. Le Minh Hoan, Vietnam’s Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), gave a statement to the first Round Table of the Ministerial Policy Dialogues on Transition to Sustainable Agriculture Conference of Agriculture in the context of COP26. He emphasized the country’s remarkable progress in transforming agriculture production to be sustainable and contribute to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
The Ministerial Conference on Agriculture on Transitioning to Sustainable Agriculture is part of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change – COP26, organized by the UK, the host of COP26 on April 26.
To achieve the ambitious mitigation targets set out in its updated Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) to the Paris Agreement, Vietnam has accelerated research, development, and application of technological innovations in agriculture production.
Minister Le Cong Hoan acknowledges the significant support of national and international partners to Vietnam. He encourages other parties of the UNFCCC and development partners to promote climate-smart agricultural practices to build a sustainable food system and contribute to mitigating GHG emissions and addressing climate change impacts globally. He mentioned that in the context of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, Vietnam’s agriculture has proven to be a crisis-proof sector, that will remain important in the future as an economic pillar. However, Vietnam’s agriculture is not only strongly affected by climate change, but also contributing to a significant share of greenhouse gas emissions, accounting for 31.6% of the country’s total greenhouse gas emissions.
Minister Le Minh Hoan emphasized that the agriculture sector has promoted the application of technological applications and software, optimized land use, conducted research and application of integrated models, across sectors and disciplines. Accordingly, in the coming time, the agriculture and rural development sector will continue to promote the restructuring of the agricultural sector in the direction of sustainable development; environmental and ecological protection; promote the development of clean agriculture, climate change adaptation and global agricultural value chain connection.
