The damage inflicted by intensive farming on the environment and human health were highlighted at a meeting held in Ho Chi Minh City yesterday.

A farmer uses chemical pesticides on rice fields. Excessive use of pesticides and fertilisers helps raise productivity, but it also harms biological diversity, natural systems and agricultural systems. – VNA/VNS Photo Ngo Lich

Referring to the excessive use of chemical pesticides and fertilisers in order to boost yield, Luong Le Phuong, deputy minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, stressed the importance of ensuring attempts to boost productivity did not compromise food quality and food safety.

"We cannot run after quantity by using crop protection chemicals to produce more food, we must use agents that do not harm consumers\' health," Phuong said at the meeting attended by 300 scientists, agro-chemical experts, policymakers, businesses and farmers.

Dr Nguyen Quang Hieu, vice chairman of the Viet Nam Plant Protection Association (VNPPA), said in order to meet the challenges of increasing population and epidemics, it was imperative that crop protection chemicals "that enable us to produce more food on less land" were used.

However, this had a bearing on sustainable development since using crop protection chemicals would reduce both pests and their natural enemies as well as other useful microorganisms, Hieu said at the meeting.

Dr Nguyen Tho, permanent vice chairman of the VNPPA, said, "The plant protection sector has greatly contributed to the agriculture production in the past years, transforming Viet Nam from a country short of food to a major exporter of many kinds of farm produce, including rice, coffee, cashew, pepper and rubber."

The sector had helped discover invasive alien species that harm biological diversity, natural systems and agricultural systems, he said.

Tho also conceded that the agriculture sector was facing many challenges including crop protection abuse, climate change and unsustainable agricultural production.

Climate change would cause higher temperatures, higher sea levels, increased salt intrusion, drought and new pests and diseases, he said.

To cope with these problems, agricultural mechanisms and crop mechanisms must be changed, Tho said.

"Our agricultural sector in the past years mainly relied on intensive farming techniques which helped raise crop productivity but caused ecological imbalance and made land less fertile," he said.

In addition, land and water environments in rural areas had been seriously polluted due to crop protection abuse, he said, adding that pesticide residues in farm produce was still high.

This raised food hygiene and safety concerns, he added.

To address the critical issue of pesticide abuse, Phuong said farmers should be made aware of biotechnology solutions that help boost productivity in a sustainable manner.

He called on scientists and researchers to conduct more studies and come up with better biological crop protection agents.

"It is important to increase the use of bio-agents and environmental-friendly chemicals to minimise adverse impacts on the environment while ensuring the quality of farm produce," he said.

Phuong called for policy incentives that would encourage small- andmedium-sized enterprises to conduct research and produce biological plant protection agents.

He also wanted inspections strengthened in border areas to prevent the import of dangerous crop protection chemicals as happened recently.

Tho called on scientists and researchers to carry out studies on striking an ecological balance, creating conditions for useful micro-organisms and natural predators to develop so that they can combat pests without the intervention of harmful chemicals.