Page 74 - Agricultural innovation

5.7. Model of Clubhouses in Dong Thap Province
5.7.1. General information

In recent years, the agricultural and rural areas have made very important contributions to the country’s
economic development and have created livelihoods for nearly 40% of the country’s labor force and more
than 60% of the rural population. However, Vietnam’s agriculture is developed in a small and fragmented
manner with very low labor productivity and added value in production and has not been completely
overcome during the past many years. One of the causes of this limitation is the lack of cohesion and
cooperation in production. The fragmentation and small-scale lead to many consequences such as
unstable production and consumption of goods, high risk of market fluctuations and unsustainability.
The situation of agricultural products “in good season, the price will often be lost”, “rescuing” agricultural
products have become quite common phenomena for many years. The situation of producing goods
that do not meet quality standards, food hygiene and safety is very common, causing distrust among
consumers. Lack of linkages and cooperation restricts the construction of large commodity raw materials
areas, hinders the application of scientific and technological advances to production, makes it difficult
to consume goods, and causes environmental pollution. Lack of links and cooperation in production
hinders the ability to increase labor productivity and reduce costs in production.
Resolution No. 13-NQ/TW of the 5th Plenum of the IX Central Committee on continuing to
innovate, develop and improve the efficiency of the collective economy. The Party and State have
focused on promulgating many mechanisms and policies to remove difficulties to support and
encourage the development of collective economy, but the development process is still quite slow, with
the quality and efficiency of the cooperative economy still has many shortcomings and limitations.
The lack of connection between stages in the production process, as well as between production and
consumption of output products, leads to inefficient production. The mechanism for building trust and
coherence, subordination, interdependence between the parties in the link has not been established.
Many cooperatives in Vietnam still have a lot of internal difficulties such as weakness in both physical
facilities and management capacity, etc. There are many reasons leading to the limitation mentioned
above, but the lack of mutual trust between the parties in the link is considered as the root cause of the
phenomenon of “link” but lack of “link”.
Therefore, the model of clubhouses was formed in some localities such as Gia Lai province (a model
of agricultural association) linking farmers to share and exchange experiences and information on
production and farming techniques, market information, jointly develop the household economy
and the local economy; in An Giang province (agricultural extension coffee model) to create a living
space, connect, share scientific and technical information, production and business experiences and
guidelines, policies, and market prices to farmers; or in Ha Tinh province (Intellectual House model)
community linkage was developed from the community cultural house model to promote the sharing
and learning of knowledge and experiences in different fields of life and/or socio-economic development
and spreading the spirit of solidarity in the community. In particular, the model of clubhouse in Dong
Thap province with a large scale of development has become a movement for agricultural and rural
development to bring agriculture not only to create agricultural products but also to be a connection
environment between farmers with businesses and the government in the process of innovation to
improve economic, cultural and social life.

5.7.2. Model development
Clubhouse was born as a result of searching for new linkage models in agricultural production by
both farmers and all levels and branches in Dong Thap province. The need to link, share experience,
knowledge and find output markets for agricultural production has prompted people to form

Agricultural Innovation Review in CLV Countries 67