Developing high-tech agricultural workers in the process of industrialization and modernization of agriculture and rural areas

Assoc. Prof., Dr. NGUYEN SY TRUNG
Institute of Scientific Socialism,
Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics

Currently, the development of high-tech agriculture has become an inevitable and objective trend in the world’s agricultural sector. In this context, Vietnam has restructured its agriculture towards modernization, implemented digital transformation, and focused on developing high-tech agriculture with the goals of high productivity, high-quality standards, safety, outstanding economic value, and sustainable environmental protection, in order to meet the requirements of promoting industrialization, modernization, and international integration.

Over the past few years, various models, zones, and areas of high-tech agriculture have initially brought about significant economic and social efficiency. Along with the development of high-tech agriculture in Vietnam, there has emerged a workforce in the agricultural sector with the characteristics of the working class, with new prominent features in terms of educational level, specialization, skills, methods, discipline, and industrial-style work ethic. They are capable of accessing and mastering advanced science and technology in agricultural production. This workforce is growing increasingly strong and is deeply involved in all aspects of high-tech agriculture.

1. Some theoretical and practical issues about high-tech agricultural workers

Over the past few years, Vietnam has been accelerating the process of renovating its economic growth model based on productivity, scientific and technological progress, innovation, improving the quality of human resources, efficiency, and competitiveness of the economy. In particular, implementing the process of shifting the agricultural economic structure, focusing on promoting the advantages of tropical agricultural economy to produce goods to serve international economic integration, thereby promoting the development of high-tech agriculture.

In fact, a segment of the workforce with the characteristics of the working class has emerged in the field of high-tech agriculture. However, in the Party’s documents and the State’s legal documents, the concept of “high-tech agricultural workers” has not yet been mentioned. In scientific research, this term has only been mentioned in articles and journals, without any in-depth scientific research explaining concept of “high-tech agricultural workers”.

Resolution No. 20-NQ/TW dated January 28, 2008 “on continuing to build the Vietnamese working class in response to the period of intensified industrialization and modernization of the country” clearly states: The Vietnamese working class is a large, growing social force, including manual and intellectual workers, salaried workers in various types of industrial production, business, and services, or industrial production, business and services with industrial characteristics”⁽¹⁾. According to this view, workers must be laborers in forms of production, business, and services of an industrial nature (therefore, workers in the agricultural sector do not belong to the working class).

The resolution of the 13th National Party Congress put forward the viewpoint: “Building a strong, modern working class; Improve political bravery, educational qualifications, expertise, professional skills, industrial work style, and labor discipline to adapt to the Industrial Revolution 4.0”⁽²⁾. Thus, the 13th National Party Congress only mentioned the working class in general and didn’t mention agricultural workers.

Most recently, the 5th Plenum of the 13th Central Committee issued Resolution No. 19-NQ/TW “on agriculture, farmers, and rural areas up to 2030, with a vision towards 2045” which did not yet introduce the concept of “agricultural workers” or “high-tech agricultural workers”.

In theoretical research, determining the characteristics of the working class is usually relies on a number of basic criteria: (1) The working class is associated with industrial labor tools and is highly socialized; (2) They are salary earners (basically have no means of production); (3) They have outstanding socio-political characteristics such as organization, discipline, internationality, radically revolutionary, and so on. In previous periods, workers and farmers were two completely different classes in both economic-technical and socio-political characteristics.

Farmers are people who work in agriculture, live in rural areas, mainly use manual labor tools, with individualized labor methods, and low labor productivity. Due to the development of production, a new social labor force is emerging, working in the agricultural sector but following the processes, associated with industrial labor tools, is highly organized and disciplined.

This workforce differs from the peasant class in that: they are stable laborers, mainly without production means (land), hired by business owners, working in high-tech agricultural models, directly operating and using modern industrial labor tools (various types of machinery, equipment for agricultural production), with socialized labor methods (deep specialization, working in production lines), high labor productivity, skilled labor, industrial work ethic, and strict organization and discipline, mainly producing high-quality agricultural products and so on.

Thus, there is clearly an intersection between workers and farmers, between industry and agriculture, but there are distinct features to differentiate, especially in terms of labor tool usage, the nature of the labor and working style. High-tech agricultural workers are not an independent class, standing outside the working class, but are part of the working class, having the characteristics of the working class but working in the agricultural sector.

Regarding the practical development of high-tech agriculture, by 2020, the country formed about 690 high-tech production areas, concentrated in the Southeast provinces, Lam Dong, the Red River Delta, and some North Central provinces, including 458 cultivation areas (accounting for 66.4%); 135 livestock areas (accounting for 19.6%); 87 fisheries regions (accounting for 12.6%) and 10 forestry regions (accounting for 1.4%)⁽³⁾. The area of greenhouses, net houses, and membrane houses for high-tech cultivating of vegetables is 38,400 hectares, accounting for 68.59% of the total area of greenhouses, net houses, and membrane houses in rural areas nationwide and 17.94 times higher than that in 2016; The flower cultivation area is 4,990 hectares, accounting for 8.91% and 4.71 times higher; the area for plant seedling cultivation is 5,600 hectares, accounting for 10% and 15.15 times higher; The aquaculture area is 7,000 hectares, accounting for 12.50% and 29.17 times higher. Lam Dong province is a typical locality with 18,590 hectares of land for growing vegetables and 1,000 hectares for growing flowers and ornamental plants in greenhouses, net houses, and membrane houses⁽⁴⁾.

Several large companies and corporations have invested in high-tech applications in vegetables, tubers, fruit tree cultivation, raising dairy cows, pigs, poultry, and aquaculture such as TH True Milk Food Chain Joint Stock Company, Vietnam Dairy Products Joint Stock Company (Vinamilk), VinEco Agricultural Production Development Investment Company, Hoang Anh Gia Lai International Agricultural Joint Stock Company, Lam Son Sugarcane Joint Stock Company, Vietnam Seed Joint Stock Company (Vinaseed), Mekong Fisheries Joint Stock Company (Mekongfish), and so on.

The main high technologies currently used in agricultural management and production today include IoT sensor technology, information technology for agricultural calendar management and traceability, soilless technology, industrial-scale plant cell culture technology, aviation technology in plant disease prevention, artificial insemination technology, seeding separation technology, environmental treatment technology (biogas tank, bedding, biological products), biofloc technology in aquaculture, and so on.

The application of advanced technology and expansion of agricultural production areas has brought positive changes in the process of shifting the labor force, from traditional agricultural workers to high-tech agricultural workers, mastering scientific and technical knowledge, having high levels of workmanship, skills, productivity, working on production lines, creating ecological, organic agricultural products of high quality and superior economic value. At the same time, this process promotes a rapid increase in quantity and changes in structure and composition of workers in fields such as breed selection, cultivation, raising livestock, harvesting, preservation, processing agricultural products, and so on.

The above theoretical and practical bases show that, although it is still in the process of formation and development, the high-tech agricultural workforce in our country is gradually becoming an important part of the Vietnamese working class during the era of industrialization, modernization, and international integration. That workforce consists of laborers producing in advanced agriculture, applying modern science and technology, strictly complying with technical processes, production procedures, and possessing industrial work styles, to produce high-quality agricultural products.

From the Party’s general perspective on building and developing the Vietnamese working class in the period of accelerating industrialization and modernization of the country, and at the same time stemming from the practical requirements of high-tech agricultural development, it is possible to identify and develop a team of high-tech agricultural workers that are especially important in promoting industrialization and modernization of agriculture and rural areas.

2. Issues raised in the development of high-tech agricultural workers in Vietnam today

Firstly, issues raised regarding perspectives, mechanisms, and policies for agricultural workers and agricultural enterprises applying high technology

One, regarding the historical mission of agricultural workers. Resolution 20-NQ/TW dated January 28, 2008 “on continuing to build the Vietnamese working class to meet the needs of the period of accelerated industrialization and modernization of the country” affirms, the working class’s historical mission: “as the leading class of the revolution through the vanguard of the Communist Party of Vietnam; the class representing advanced methods of production; The pioneering class in the cause of building socialism, the leading force in the industrialization and modernization cause of the country for the goal of a rich people, strong country, equitable, democratic, civilized society, the core force in the alliance of the working class with the peasantry and the intellectuals”⁽⁵⁾. So, since agricultural workers are the embodiment of workers and farmers, what will be their core role in the alliance? These are big theoretical questions that need to be further researched and clarified.

Two, regarding mechanisms and policies for agricultural workers. Like workers in other industries and fields, the rights, benefits, and obligations of agricultural workers need to be specifically regulated in the following policies: (1) Policies on wages, bonuses, and working conditions; (2) Policies on social insurance, health insurance, unemployment insurance; (3) Policies on vocational training and vocational training support; (4) Policy on housing support.

Since there is currently no consensus on the concept of agricultural workers, in addition to general policies for regular workers, there are no specific regulations for this group. For example, workers have the right to join trade unions at production and business establishments. However, currently, many workers are agricultural workers but are mainly trained by Farmers’ Associations, agricultural extension centers and participate in Farmers’ Associations at all levels, but do not join trade unions.

Three, preferential policies for businesses employing agricultural workers. Labor restructuring is a major policy of our Party and State to contribute to economic restructuring towards industrialization and modernization. However, the system of legal documents currently lacks uniformity and has not kept up with the development of practice. The Law on High Technology was promulgated in 2008. After 15 years of implementation, some shortcomings have arisen but the Law have not been amended or supplemented. There is still a lack of guiding documents under the Law with high legality such as decrees, which are mainly decisions made by the Prime Minister; There is no guidance and specific preferential policy mechanisms for high-tech agricultural zones established by localities and businesses from local budget sources, socialized resources, and so on.

At the local level, there is a lack of appropriate mechanisms and policies to encourage businesses to invest and apply high technology in agricultural production. Therefore, building a system of appropriate preferential policies on land, credit, corporate income tax, value added tax, etc., for high-tech agricultural enterprises are issues that need to be given priority, in order to develop businesses, create more jobs for workers, especially developing a team of high-tech agricultural workers, contributing to labor restructuring and economic restructuring in the right direction.

Secondly, the shortcomings in building high-tech agriculture and modern rural areas with the development of agricultural workers

In Vietnam, agriculture, farmers, and rural areas are three elements that are closely related and inseparable. In which, farmers are the subject, agriculture is the foundation, and rural areas are the locality. In the process of promoting the industrialization and modernization of the country, the industrialization and modernization of agriculture and rural areas is a task of great interest to our Party and State. However, considering current conditions, developing an agricultural workforce to meet the requirements of high-tech agriculture and aiming at building modern rural areas still face some of the following issues:

One, to develop agricultural workers, it is necessary to have modern agriculture, applying high technology. This required investment in scientific and technological research and development, from basic science, applied science, science and technology transfer, training of technology users, etc. This process requires serious, long-term investment in both financial and human resources. However, due to many different factors, investment in science and technology, especially modern technology for agriculture and rural areas in our country, is still limited.

Currently, our agriculture is still mainly cultivated using traditional methods, with spontaneous, small-scale production and outdated technology. Although it is of interest to many localities, the number of enterprises recognized as high-tech application enterprises is small, so the number of agricultural workers applying high technology is still few. Outdated levels of science and technology have led to low social labor productivity, poor competitiveness, and failure to attract highly skilled workers.

Two, to develop agricultural workers, there must be businesses investing in the agricultural sector. This is a necessary condition, because only in the business-employee relationship can there be employees and salary earners, i.e., workers. If agriculture is only carried out at the level of households, cooperative groups, and cooperatives, there cannot be a workforce of agricultural workers. However, currently, the number of businesses investing in agriculture is still small and scale of the business is still modest.

By the end of 2020, there were only 290 agricultural enterprises nationwide applying high technology out of a total of 10,670 enterprises investing in agricultural production, accounting for only 2.71%. Of which, the cultivation sector has 126 enterprises, accounting for 43.5%; The livestock sector has 88 enterprises, accounting for 30.3%; The fisheries sector has 68 enterprises, accounting for 23.5% and the forestry sector has 8 enterprises, accounting for 2.7%⁽⁶⁾. The main form of production organization is still households, small-scale, lacking links between stages, sectors, and so on. This issue was pointed out in the Status Report on High-tech agricultural development for the period 2011-2020: “The model of applying high technology in agricultural production is still small, fragmented, not oriented, the production scale is not large enough to create concentrated commodity areas, causing difficulties in investment and management”⁽⁷⁾.

There are several reasons leading to the above situation such as (1) High-tech agriculture requires large investment capital compared to the traditional agriculture. A high-tech agricultural project may require an investment hundreds of times larger than the traditional agriculture. High investment rates also put great pressure on agricultural production efficiency⁽⁸⁾. (2) Our country’s rural areas are in the process of urbanization, the land area and space for agricultural development is increasingly shrinking. Therefore, businesses are not willing to invest in. (3) Agriculture is a low profit, but high-risk field, dependent on weather, nature, and the market, while preferential policies on finance, taxes, land, etc., are not attractive enough for businesses to invest in. For example, based on Article 129 of the 2013 Land Law, the limit for allocation of annual cropland, aquaculture land, and salt production land to each household and individual directly engaging in production in the Red River Delta is no more than 02 hectares of each type. With such an area, it is difficult to develop a large-scale enterprise.

Three, the workforce trained to become agricultural workers is still limited in both quantity and quality. A recent general assessment of the quality of agricultural and rural labor in Vietnam shows that workers with technical and professional qualifications made up a low proportion, accounting for only 4.21% of the total agricultural labor force in 2017, accounting for 4.01% in 2018, and in accounting for 11.3% in 2020⁽⁹⁾. The majority of agricultural workers come from farmers, their sense of discipline, political enlightenment, and professionalism are still not high, and some only work part-time. Therefore, “This is the biggest technical barrier when deploying advanced applications. Manufacturers can easily transfer hardware but will encounter many problems in operating that technology”⁽¹⁰⁾.

Vocational training policies for farmers participating in high-tech agriculture is not yet in line with practical requirements. Meanwhile, those with basic training and qualifications from high school or higher levels often tend to leave rural areas to find jobs in urban areas and industrial zones. This leads to a shortage of skilled labors to develop high-tech agriculture in rural areas. The migration of labor from rural areas to urban areas and industrial zones is increasingly common. In 2020, the number of people aged 15 and older migrating to urban areas was 877.8 thousand people. Meanwhile, rural infrastructure is still relatively backward and not attractive enough to attract intellectuals to live and work in rural areas⁽¹¹⁾.

Thirdly, inadequacies in training and fostering high-tech agricultural workers

One, dispersed training entities. The training of workers working in agricultural companies and enterprises currently involves participation by the following main subjects: 1) Training facilities in the national education system, including universities, colleges, vocational schools, and vocational training programs for students in high schools. 2) Training facilities of socio-political organizations such as the Training School for Farmers’ Union officials. 3) Training, fostering, and coaching of agricultural extension agencies at all levels. 4) Offline training at the enterprise premise. 5) Employees self-train through accumulating experience and learning from their predecessors.

The involvement of so many subjects participating in vocational training for agricultural workers but lacking a focal point of command, communication, and connection with one another, leads to everyone doing their own thing, and the training does not meet the requirements of the labor market.

Two, the training content lacks linkage between workers and farmers, industry and agriculture. High-tech agricultural workers are those working in the field of high-tech agriculture, paid wages, and enjoy workers’ policies, such as social insurance, health insurance, unemployment insurance, participation in trade unions, and so on. To achieve this, the content and curriculum of training agricultural workers must meet both the requirements of professionalism and labor discipline awareness.

Currently, there is no specific training program used for high-tech agricultural workers. The main content training of agricultural vocational colleges is rather general and in-depth knowledge in the fields of animal husbandry, cultivation, aquaculture, pests on crops, pesticides, animal and plant physiology, techniques for raising and preventing diseases of livestock, poultry, and aquaculture, and so on. At the university level, training content includes general and specialized knowledge in common fields such as cultivation, animal husbandry, fisheries, agricultural mechanization, preservation, agricultural product processing, production, and business management. The current training program mainly provides specialized agricultural knowledge to learners but does not really aim to build a workforce of high-tech agricultural. Training agricultural workers not only requires professionalism but also requires a sense of organization and discipline. In today’s worker training facilities, they mainly train workers to serve the industrial sector, with very few training facilities for agricultural workers.

To have a professional agricultural workforce requires standard training content, programs, and training facilities. Training must pay attention to both professional and social skills. Meanwhile, currently, training is mainly spontaneous, with on-the-job training methods at enterprises. With that approach, it is difficult to have a modern agricultural workforce.

Besides, the psychology of a part of young people today is that they do not want to study and work in the agricultural field. According to statistics, in the period of 2015-2020, universities and agricultural research institutes enrolled 10,883 postgraduate students, including 420 graduate students, 10,463 Master students, however only 3,040 students (28%) chose the major of agriculture, while 7,843 (72%) studied other fields. At the university level, there are 52,208 students enrolled, of which 18,800 choose agriculture (36%), and 33,400 study other fields (64%). At the intermediate level, there are 90,582 students enrolled, of which 14,475 people choose agriculture (accounting for 16%), 76,107 people choose other fields (accounting for 84%)⁽¹²⁾. Thus, the lack of highly qualified and trained labor is a major barrier in building a high-tech agricultural workforce today.

3. Some solutions to develop high-tech agricultural workers to meet the requirements of industrialization and modernization of agriculture and rural areas

Firstly, promptly develop and promulgate guidelines and policies to develop high-tech agricultural workers

Developing a high-tech agricultural workforce is an objective and inevitable trend in the current context of the economic restructuring of agriculture in line with the needs of modern society. Industrialization and modernization of agriculture and rural areas require appropriate guidelines and policies for developing high-tech agriculture with an adequate workforce to improve production efficiency.

It is crucial to raise the awareness of leaders and managers teams at all levels about the urgency and importance of developing a high-tech agricultural workforce. In the process of formulating and promulgating agricultural development guidelines and policies, it is necessary to focus on policies that improve the quality of human resources - a core factor that helps improve the effectiveness of the application of science and technology to agricultural production.

There needs to be close coordination among party committees, local authorities, and entities in the field of high-tech agriculture to build appropriate policies for developing high-tech agricultural workers.

It is required to meet the practical requirements of businesses and localities such as training, fostering, recruitment, coaching, knowledge transfer policies, and so on. It is necessary to grasp and resolve problems and inadequacies related to the material and spiritual lives of workers, pay attention to creating jobs, increasing income, stabilizing life, and ensuring social welfare such as social insurance, health insurance, labor contracts, collective labor agreements, housing, schools, hospitals, cultural activities, etc.

Secondly, developing high-tech agricultural workers is conjunction with building modern agriculture and civilized rural areas

The solution to link the building of modern agriculture and civilized rural areas with the development of high-tech agricultural workers is currently part of the country’s general development policy. In transforming the country’s economic structure, building modern agriculture and civilized rural areas is the foundation that contributes to the formation of a more advanced and modern workforce in the agricultural sector.

To build this cohesion, it is necessary to research and form production relationships that meet the requirements of developing commodity agriculture under the new mechanism. Promotion is required for renovation in agriculture towards the goal of restructuring the agricultural sector, developing the rural economy, associated with building new rural areas around three pillars: “Ecological agriculture”, “Modern countryside”, “Smart farmers”. The agricultural sector also needs to shift from “production thinking” to “economic thinking”, towards “green values” created from “green transformation, green consumption, green economy” to break through the bottlenecks in the development of current agricultural and rural areas.

Thirdly, intensify training and fostering to comprehensively develop high-tech agricultural workers

The work of training, and developing a high-tech agricultural workforce should be carried out comprehensively in terms of scale, structure, and composition, in order to build a workforce with in-depth knowledge in specialties, skills, and qualities, with the capacity to organize and manage production and business activities.

Priority should be given to rapid development in quantity, coupled with improving quality. In terms of quantity, it is necessary to ensure that it meets the requirements of high-tech agricultural projects in each locality throughout the country, gradually diversifying the structure of workers in the production fields and developing a harmonious and reasonable structure in terms of age and gender among workers.

In addition to training and improving educational and professional qualifications, it is necessary to raise agricultural workers’ political awareness, ethics, and lifestyle. Priority should be given to training in skills and behavior for workers in the new production labor environment to create a generation of modern agricultural workers, with the capacity to perform renovation, and meet the requirements of high-tech agriculture, ecology, environmental protection, and so on.

For training entities, it is necessary to encourage domestic and foreign organizations, businesses, and individuals to establish vocational training establishments and implement training cooperation programs in high-tech agricultural zones and regions to train and coach workers and technicians. In the long term, it is necessary to strengthen the training of young workers, especially rural youths in localities.

It is necessary to take advantage of the strengths of the regions with many universities, academies, research institutes, and colleges, especially educational institutions specializing in agricultural research and training. Businesses need to coordinate with these training facilities to develop appropriate training programs and plans to develop a high-tech agricultural workforce as per set goals.

Developing high-tech agricultural workers is a relatively new issue in our country. Therefore, it is necessary to continue to both theoretically and practically research and clarify this workforce, thereby contributing to the success of the process of promoting industrialization and modernization of agriculture and rural areas.

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Received: May 25, 2023; Revised: July 7, 2023; Approved for publication: July 24, 2023.

Endnotes:

(1), (5) CPV: Documents of the 6th Conference of the 10th Central Executive Committee, National Political Publishing House, Hanoi, 2008, pp.43, 44.

(2) CPV: Documents of the 13th National Congress, vol.I, National Political Publishing House, Hanoi, 2021, p.166.

(3), (6), (7) Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development: Report on the current situation of high-tech agricultural development in the period of 2011-2020.

(4) General Statistics Office: Mid-term rural and agricultural survey 2020, Statistics Publishing House, Hanoi, 2021.

(8) Investment in high-tech agriculture not only requires capital, https://vneconomy.vn.

(9), (12) Human resource development, vocational training associated with job creation, restructuring rural labor in Vietnam, http://hdll.vn.

(10) Hanoi’s high-tech agriculture: Solutions to attract investment, http://vjst.vn.

(11) General Statistics Office: Labor and employment survey report in 2020.