At a press conference in Hanoi on Nov. 9 following a ministerial round-table meeting on rice issues and food security within the framework of the third International Rice Congress, Minister Phat said the common challenges to countries are food security in the context of climate change, increasing population and shrinking areas of productive land. 

Vietnam has more than 9 million hectares of agricultural land, including 4.1 million ha for rice cultivation, said the minister. 

Phat said Vietnam has created a series of solutions to ensure food security by deeply reforming market mechanisms, handing land use rights to farmers and investing in irrigation systems. 

In addition, Vietnam has paid attention to breeding research programmes, to create high-yield varieties, and is developing agricultural services, supplying processing equipment, exporting farm products and renovating cooperatives, he added. 

At the meeting, Asian agriculture ministers focused their discussions on challenges to the development of the rice sector, putting forward measures to handle these challenges in their own countries and promote international cooperation on a global scale. 

Asia is the fastest developing and largest rice production region but has the highest poverty rate.