The State, Businesses and Farmers to Build a Low-Emission Agricultural Value Chain

The PSAV Plenary in 2025 was held under the theme “Promoting Public–Private Partnerships for Low-Emission Agricultural Value Chains and Carbon Market Readiness”

In his opening remarks, Deputy Minister Hoàng Trung emphasized that agriculture continues to play a pillar role in ensuring food security, sustaining the livelihoods of more than 60% of the rural population, and contributing over 15% of GDP.

Despite forecasts of considerable volatility in 2025, the agricultural sector has maintained positive growth. In the third quarter of 2025, value added across the sector increased by 3.74%, while export turnover in the first 11 months reached USD 64.01 billion, up 12.6% year on year.

Alongside these achievements, the sector continues to face major challenges, including climate change, resource depletion, increasingly stringent requirements on traceability, and the small-scale nature of production among more than 9.2 million farming households. Agriculture remains a major source of emissions, with 116.5 million tonnes of CO₂ equivalent in 2020, of which crop production alone accounted for nearly 80%.

The Government of Viet Nam has issued a range of strategic policies to realize its commitment to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050, including the National Climate Change Strategy, the Green Growth Strategy, the Decree on greenhouse gas emission reduction and carbon markets, and the Plan for implementation of the Paris Agreement.

Notably, in 2025, the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment approved the Scheme on Low-Emission Production in the Crop Production Sector for the period 2025–2035. This scheme provides an important foundation for green transformation, standardization of farming practices, application of technology, deployment of MRV systems, and promotion of integration into carbon markets.

“The Ministry of Agriculture and Environment highly appreciates the role of PSAV and commodity-based PPP working groups in promoting sustainable production models, responsible use of agricultural inputs, emission reduction in raw material areas, and stronger value chain linkages. These efforts help expand ecological agriculture models, mobilize social resources, enhance the participation of enterprises and farming households in emission reduction programs, and prepare for domestic and international carbon markets,” Deputy Minister Hoàng Trung added.

Sustainable Farming Models Enhancing Quality and Reducing Emissions

According to Mr. Nguyễn Đỗ Anh Tuấn, Director General of the International Cooperation Department, Ministry of Agriculture and Environment, and Director of the PSAV Secretariat, 2025 has recorded many outstanding results in promoting sustainable farming models, improving agricultural product quality, and supporting farmers’ participation in value chains.

The coffee sector continues to be a bright spot, with the Nescafé Plan and eCoffee projects supplying more than 86.5 million disease-resistant seedlings and providing training for 355,000 farmers, 35% of whom are women. The adoption of new techniques has helped reduce irrigation water use by 40–60%, cut chemical inputs by 20%, and increase farmers’ incomes by 30–100% compared to traditional production.

In the rice sector, low-emission farming models are being implemented in provinces across the Mekong Delta in association with the scheme for one million hectares of high-quality rice. Approximately 5,000 community-based agricultural extension groups and 50,000 members have been trained in technical practices, digital transformation, and product marketing.

The fruit and vegetable sector has established 28 sustainable potato models, expanded cultivation areas to 320 hectares, and operated two learning centers. Cooperation programs with CARE, PepsiCo, and UNIDO have helped develop production–consumption linkages, provide financial support, and improve export quality for products such as pomelo, durian, and passion fruit.

Meanwhile, the agricultural chemicals group has focused on sustainable management of plant protection products. A series of training activities has been implemented, including environmental risk assessment, training on residue limits for ASEAN 2025–2026, and safe use of plant protection products for more than 1,200 dealers and 4,100 farmers.

Overall, the commodity-based PPP groups have expanded sustainable production models, strengthened value chain linkages, promoted digital transformation, and improved quality standards, thereby laying a solid foundation for low-emission goals and enhancing the value of Viet Nam’s agricultural products in the years ahead.

At the conference, Mr. Nguyễn Trường Vương, Head of External Affairs of Bayer Viet Nam Co., Ltd., noted that regardless of which processes or standards are applied, the core objective must be to deliver the greatest benefits and efficiency for farmers while reducing emissions. Corporate models, agricultural extension models, and multi-stakeholder models all aim to apply integrated processes and solutions to increase productivity and quality, reduce input use, enhance farmers’ profits, and ultimately lower emissions.

Ms. Hoàng Thị Liên, Chairwoman of the Viet Nam Pepper and Spice Association, shared that public–private partnerships will connect three key actors—the State, businesses, and farmers—to create effective value chains. In this framework, the State plays the role of issuing policies and standards and undertaking oversight and verification. Businesses support farmers by investing capital to develop raw material areas and then purchasing products.

Farmers, as proactive and committed actors, work alongside exporters and other stakeholders to apply and research technical measures in practice. With stronger support from financial institutions and banks through so-called green finance instruments, additional resources can be mobilized to enable enterprises and exporters, together with the State, to invest and support farmers throughout the cultivation process.