On January 12, 2026, a consultation workshop titled "Strengthening Human Capital and Organization for Rice and Fruit Business Development in the Mekong Delta" was held at the Mekong Institute Hall, Can Tho University.

The workshop was attended by over 50 guests, including representatives from academic institutions, research institutes, and universities; scientists; leaders from provincial departments and government management agencies; representatives from agricultural enterprises, cooperatives, and farmers in the Mekong Delta; and leadership and staff from the Mekong Institute.

🎯 The workshop aimed to:

Discuss with stakeholders the status of human resources and business organization in the rice and fruit sectors of the Mekong Delta amidst agricultural-rural economic transformation and adaptation to change.

Identify key opportunities, challenges, and constraints hindering the transformation process.

Recognize solutions and stakeholder actions to accelerate transformation, contributing to the strategic goals and development planning of the Mekong Delta region and its provinces towards 2030, with a vision to 2050.

In their opening remarks, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Van Pham Dang Tri, Director of the Mekong Institute, and Mr. Li Guo, World Bank Representative, emphasized the pivotal role of human capital, production organization, and value chain linkages in the region's sustainable agricultural transformation. They also shared practical perspectives on the need for innovative development models in response to current economic and environmental fluctuations.

👉 The working program focused on key pillars through in-depth exchange and discussion sessions:

Overview of the current state and the need for agricultural transformation in the Mekong Delta: Objectives, methods, and expected outcomes of the workshop – presented by Dr. Dang Kieu Nhan, Mekong Institute, Can Tho University.

In-depth thematic group discussions moderated by experts in three main groups:

Group 1: Rice and fruit farmers – moderated by Dr. Nguyen Thanh Tam, Mekong Institute.

Group 2: Collaborative groups, cooperatives, and small businesses/households – moderated by Dr. Vo Van Tuan, Mekong Institute, Can Tho University.

Group 3: Representatives from management agencies and agricultural extension services – moderated by Dr. Nguyen Hong Tin, Mekong Institute, Can Tho University.

💬 Through the group discussions, guests exchanged practical experiences and identified favorable conditions, challenges, and bottlenecks regarding human resources, production organization, and business models for rice and fruit in the Mekong Delta. Based on these insights, the groups proposed priority solutions and actions to enhance organizational capacity, promote value chain linkages, and support a more efficient, sustainable, and adaptive agricultural transformation.

🌤 The afternoon session began with a report by Dr. Le Nguyen Que Huong, representative of the Mekong Development Research Institute (MDRI), who shared research findings and provided a comprehensive overview of production organization in the region. This opened a strategic dialogue on human capital and new agricultural mindsets. Dr. Steven Jaffee from the University of Maryland (USA), along with experts from the World Bank and the Mekong Institute, dissected the "bottleneck" of an aging farming population and the "brain drain" as rural youth migrate to urban areas. In this context, mechanization and automation were discussed as inevitable solutions. However, Dr. Dang Kieu Nhan and other guests emphasized that challenges lie not only in technology but also in scalability and the building of trust within cooperative linkages.

The workshop reached a consensus on the urgent need to redefine the roles of government management and agricultural extension, shifting from purely technical support to skills in coordination, facilitation, and problem-solving.

Concluding the workshop, stakeholders reaffirmed that transitioning from a "production-based" to an "agribusiness" mindset, coupled with policies to attract the "next generation of farmers," is the key to realizing the sustainable development roadmap for the Mekong Delta's rice and fruit industries towards 2030 and a vision to 2050.

#MekongInstitute #CTU #MekongDelta #AgriculturalTransformation #Rice #Fruit #SustainableDevelopment