Abstract

Vietnamese agriculture has undergone many changes in modern time connected to politics, social structures and a globalised economy. Looking at statistics rice production seems to be the key to understand the situation of a Mekong Delta farmer, which was the objective of this study. In reality though the farming systems of high yield rice production are starting to fail and are rapidly being supplemented by new systems. Because of a quick increase in infrastructural quality and foreign investments it is possible to redirect the production towards vegetables which need a higher level of industrialisation. The individual farmers are struggling to keep up with “the new times” as governmental policies are often confusing and somewhat contradictory. Since there are no subsidies and no social safety-net farmers are not to keen on doing rapid changes that may not give any profit in the end, and would rather than stick to what has “always” worked. The different organisations such as village committees, women union, farmer cooperatives and banks create a complex web of economic and social aspects which must be considered when thinking of what affects a household in the region. What is clear is that the region, and probably the whole country is facing a new era in agriculture history.

Keywords

Vietnam; Agriculture

Published in

Rapporter Institutionen för stad och land
2008,
ISBN: 978-91-85735-09-9
Publisher: Institutionen för stad och land, Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/126058