The General Statistics Office of Vietnam (GSO) held a press conference in Hanoi on October 9 to announce the Rural, Agricultural and Fishery Census 2016.

Speaking at the event, GSO Deputy Director General Pham Quang Vinh said the survey reflects socio-economic performance in rural areas and agro-forestry-fisheries production 2011-2016 

Nguyen Thi Huong, head of the GSO’s Agricultural, Forestry and Fishery Statistics, said the survey polled nearly 16 million rural and more than 1 million urban households involving in agro-forestry-fisheries in 8,978 communes and 79,898 villages. It also acquired feedback from enterprises and cooperatives in the field. 

During 2011-2016, the rate of communes given access to electricity rose from 99.8 percent in 2011 to 100 percent in 2016. As many as 28 centrally-run cities and provinces nationwide brought electricity to villages. 

Last year, up to 3,210 communes and 19,500 households had wastewater drainage systems, accounting for 35.8 percent of the total communes and 24.4 percent of the total villages. 

As many as 1,806 communes, or 20.1 percent of the total, were home to banks, branches and people’s trust funds. 

Irrigational systems and agro-fisheries encouragement networks were strengthened in localities while traditional markets boosted trade in rural areas. 

In 2016, there were 8.58 million households working in agro-forestry-fisheries, equivalent to 53.7 percent of the total, down 8.5 percentage point from 2011. Meanwhile, 6.4 million households worked in non-agro, forestry and fisheries, or 40 percent of the total and up 6.6 percentage point. 

Vinh said infrastructure and workforce quality in several localities remain poor, particularly in remote and mountainous areas. Technological application and mechanisation are still limited due to small production scale.

VNA