Revisiting Vietnam Rice Farming:
Moving Towards Industrialization
La Via Campesina South East Asia
Jakarta - Vietnam 2012
Research Team and Writing Panel
Team Leader
:Achmad Ya’kub
Member
: Elisha Kartini Samon’
Wahyu Agung Perdanan
Irma Yanny
Young Mi
Kayoung Kim
Design & Layout
: Hadiedi Prasaja
Published by:
La Via Campesina 2012
Jalan Mampang Prapatan XIV No.5 Jakarta Selatan 12790
Phone: +62 21 799 1890 Fax : +62 21 799 3426
Website: www.spi.or.id
Foreword from Henry Saragih, Coordinator of La Via Campesina
In 1996, the concept of food sovereignty was launched by La Via Campesina as
an alternative to overcome the food crisis, hunger and environmental degradation.
In practice, food sovereignty is practiced by small family farms in a sustainable a
manner as possible to evidence the benefits of life. The benefits are not only fulfilling
the food needs of the family farm and the wider community, but also save 80 times
as much energy as the industrial agricultural model and provide an opportunity for
the return to agricultural and rural ecosystem recovery.
Asia’s rice-based food is an essential commodity. Therefore, in May 2006, La Via
Campesina held the People’s Conference for the Asia and the Pacific on Rice
and Food Sovereignty. Rice represents culture, life and sovereignty. It was said
at the conference that the position of small farmers is a key achievement of food
sovereignty as required therein should be the issues of lack of access to land, water
and genetic resources and the right of people to determine food policy.
In Southeast Asia and East Asia, in addition to Thailand, Vietnam is the largest
producer of rice exports. Vietnam still continues to enjoy rapid economic growth,
which has comprised the industrialization of agriculture since the early 1980s in
accordance with the strategy of market economy (Doi Moi). As a country, Vietnam
wishes to increase its rice production success. Yet this begs the question of whether
the increase in rice production contributes to the welfare of farmers. Moreover, how
does the state guarantee its food sovereignty? That is why La Via Campesina sent
teams to study and learn from Vietnam in regard to rice production, trade and food
sovereignty as well as to explore the way of life and welfare of small farmers. A La
Via Campesina team came to Nam Dinh and Thai Binh Province.
La Via Campesina team results in both provinces showed that there are some notes
and a challenge for small-scale farmers, communities and countries in Vietnam.
This challenge is structurally very vulnerable where the conversion occurs on a
large-scale industrial level and with agricultural models using large external inputs.
Therefore, our role as small-scale farmers has gained momentum to influence
the policies and practices of food and agricultural policies both nationally and
internationally towards agro-ecological models. An agro-ecological farming model is
expected to be a balance between production, ecosystem sustainability and wellbeing of farmers and the availability of healthy food for every human being.
Lastly, we would like to thank the team at La Via Campesina, Vietnam National
Farmer Union (VNFU), the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development of
Vietnam, and all VNFU leaders in Thai Binh Province and Nam Dinh, as well as all
comrades who have assisted us. Happy reading.
Revisiting Vietnam Rice Farming:
Moving Towards Industrialization
Introduction
Rice is a very important agriculture crop in many Asian countries including
Vietnam, bearing in mind it is the second largest rice exporter countries in
the world. It is not just used as staple food and market commodity but also
take into consideration that it is also part of the culture, pride and the way
of life maintained in farming societies for generations. Therefore, meeting
the needs of rice in some countries is also an indicator of the government’s
success. Furthermore, it is logical that the government should work harder to
meet the demand for rice in the national level.
In light of the increasingly free trade through various mechanisms (bilateral,
regional and multilateral), rice farmers are encouraged to increase the
production. According to Professor Xuan (2005), Vietnamese government
along with numerous development agencies has giving tremendous effort
to uplift the livelihood in rural Vietnam. Nevertheless an increase of farmers’
income has been quite difficult. This brings to the question: With the increase
of production, is it also contributing to the farmers’ welfare? And how to
guarantee country’s food sovereignty.
This paper is written based on interview with Vietnam Farmers’ Union
(VNFU), Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), Ministry of
Industry and Trade, Nam Dinh and Thai Binh Provinces Farmers Union, rice
farmers in Nam Dinh and Thai Binh Provinces, Centre for Community SocioEconomic and Environment Development (CSEED) with some secondary
sources.
1
Revisiting Vietnam Rice Farming: Moving Towards Industrialization
Rice Production in Vietnam
Today Vietnam plays an important role as rice producer and exporter country,
it is the second largest rice exporter in the world. From 90 million people of
Vietnam.
opulation, almost 75 per cent of them are farmer and 60 per cent of it are
rice farmer. This shows how significant rice farming for the livelihood of the
majority of rural population in Vietnam. There are currently 9 million hectares
of agriculture land exists; among this 4 million is used as rice cultivation area.
Nevertheless every year there is a decrease in agriculture land production
area, averagely there is a loss between 50.000 to 70.000 hectare of
agriculture land for industrial purposes, equivalent to 400.000 to 500.000 tons
loss of rice per year.
The situation put the continuation of Vietnam rice producing in question. Rice
is still a very important agriculture product, both for national consumption as
well as source of income from trading. There are three main rice producing
areas in the country:
1. Northern part (Red River Delta), mostly the rice produced here is used for national consumption.
2. Northern Central part
3. Southern part (Mekong River Delta), around 90 percent of rice produced in this area is going to export market.
The average of rice production is 5.3 tons per hectare; it can even reach 7
tons per hectares along the delta of Red and Mekong River, Vietnam able
to produce between 38-42 million tons of rice per year, where 6-7 million
tones of it contribute to global market every year. The high amount of yields
in Mekong Delta because this region is able to produce 3 crops per year
meanwhile Red River Delta and other region are only able to produce 1-2
crops per year. Most of the farmers are small scale farmers with average land
use right 500 m²
2
Revisiting Vietnam Rice Farming: Moving Towards Industrialization
Rice Production Inputs
One important factor that differentiates Vietnam from other rice producing
country in the region is their agriculture land system. Rice farming like other
farming in Vietnam was managed collectively before mid ‘80s. Then in mid
1980s until 1991 the process of dividing the land into family use started,
though the ownership of land is still in the hand of the state and farmers only
have the rights to use it. According to VNFU, the land is distributed based
on commune, the commune authority responsible to collect population and
land statistic ad mapping the area based on good and bad quality of soil and
dividing it after reduced 5% for government purpose.
A report by Tsukada (2005) explain further about the land use transition in
Vietnam, the process of decollectivization of agriculture production started
with the issuing of Resolution No.10/1988 where based on this resolution
land tenure was allocated to households based on family size upon
contracting with agriculture cooperatives. Farmers are permitted to maintain
land use for 15 years for annual crops including rice in this case, the permit
then extended to 20 years in 1993 through Land Law. Nowadays there is
ongoing process to extend this land use rights for 50 years. However due
to the effects of industrialization the numbers of rice farmers is gradually
decline. In order to increase farmers’ interest, another program is currently
undergoing namely land exchange, which aim to give farmers a bigger plot
of land by exchange their scattered plots with nearby plots of the neighboring
3
Revisiting Vietnam Rice Farming: Moving Towards Industrialization
farm. The process is based on negotiations among each farmer to exchange
their plot with the help of farmers’ union and local authority.
The position of Vietnam as important rice exporter country is not developed
until 1989. This condition is very much related also to the evolution of rice
seeds policy within the country which is major input needed in rice farming.
The evolution of seed policy going through 4 phases:
1. The ‘60s-‘70s period: the selection of rice seed was based on outward (physical) aspect of rice plants
2. The ‘80s period: aim on stabilization of productivity using seeds that have high resilient on pests and insects.
3. ‘90s period: development of seed that improving productivity of rice.
4. 2000-2005: combination of improved rice quality and resistant capacity
5. 2005-today: improving the quality of rice.
Before 2005 the focus is to increase rice productivity but since 2005 there is
a growing trend toward the improvement for the quality of rice. Today there
are 3 main varieties of rice seeds used all over the country, i.e:
1. Pure seed: today 60-70% of seed being used are pure line. The seed is produced by seed companies based on certain standard of quality issued by Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), seed which are outside MARD list cannot be traded. This seed can be used 2-3 times by the farmers.
2. Hybrid seed: hybrid seeds used are domestically produced or imported from China, it is the main seeds used before 2005, and it made up to 70 per cent of seeds being used in the fields.
3. Local seed: there are many variety of local seed in Vietnam which diver between north and south part. In northern part of Vietnam local seed such as Tam Xuan Đai, Tam Xoan Thai Binh, Tam Den Hai, Phong, Tam bang Phu Tho, Du Huong starts to losing. Now only around 5 per cent of rice farm which uses local seed.
Regarding the irrigation system on rice field had expanded greatly, in the
mid of 1980s it is around 60 per cent of rice field already receive technical
irrigation. Vietnamese government had been doing a large scale renovation
and rehabilitation of irrigation system across the country. Big investment had
4
Revisiting Vietnam Rice Farming: Moving Towards Industrialization
been put into to establishing modern irrigation system both in Red River and
Mekong River Deltas even before agricultural reform in late 1980s. The ratio
of irrigated rice fields is steadily increase, and today it is over 90 per cent of
rice fields covered by the irrigation system.
Rice in the Economy
The world sees how Vietnam rice slowly but sure taking its place in the
global market. Today it comprises 20 per cent from the total rice being
traded in the global market. The total income from this rice trading at global
market in 2010 is worth 3.194.203.000 USD, it’s account for 26 per cent
from the total balance value of the country export import in 2010 which is
12.121 million USD (UN Comtrade, 2012). But according to Deputy of Rice
Exporter Management, Ministry of Industry and Trade rice exporting turnover
is only 2% of total export values, and give very little contribution to national
budget. One of the main reason for this situation is because all the export
import trading is manage by private companies, state do not intervene in this
case and leave it to market economy. Even though there are few state own
enterprise that involve in rice trading but mostly for domestic use and national
stock. Therefore even though there is a huge profit coming from global rice
trading, only very little goes to national income moreover to support domestic
rice production. Currently there are 150 national exporting companies and 5
foreign companies operating in Vietnam.
The marketing channel and key players of rice trading in Vietnam is
explained below (CSEED, 2012):
5
Revisiting Vietnam Rice Farming: Moving Towards Industrialization
In 2012, China is one of the largest destination country for Vietnam rice which
import 1,5 million tones, another country is Indonesia which recently just
renew the agreement to import rice from Vietnam of 300.000 tones of rice
for 2013. Destination countries for Vietnam rice is not just around Asia, but
it already expand to other region like Europe and America. To maintain the
market and growing demand government tries a new strategies to increase
the quality of rice because right now according to Ministry of Trade and
Commerce, Vietnam has reach the limit of production of rice so it is essential
to improve the quality as well as to build strong export companies with good
capacity storage and technology to preserve high quality rice. The long term
plan is to continue build links among farmers, companies and scientist to
improve both the quantity and quality of production.
6
Revisiting Vietnam Rice Farming: Moving Towards Industrialization
This market economy policy is part of the agriculture reform that happened
in Vietnam in the early 1980s. Before 1981, agriculture system, including rice
farming in Vietnam is based on collectiveness; the southern part started this
collective agriculture a little late compare to the northern part. But at that time
collective agriculture is failed to increase rice production per capita as well as
the farmers’ welfare.
In 1981, Vietnam government launched a series of economic reform, which
is known as Doi Moi, the intention is to transform the overall economy in the
country from centralized towards decentralize market economy. Agriculture
system is also include in this new economic reform, where the renovation
is aim to develop private individual farmers, transition towards decentralize
system base on market competition and to improve foreign relations and
promotion of agriculture exports.1 These principles that play important role
shaping rice economy in Vietnam today.
Rice Production and Trade Policy Objective
Realizing the importance for continuation of rice production, Vietnam
government set up particular agriculture policy to ensure this. The concern
is not only to ensure enough production for the national consumption but
also to stabilize the position of Vietnam as rice exporter in global market.
Nevertheless the objectives are pursued mostly through inputs subsidy and
leave the output into the market mechanism. Quoting Tran Xuan Long from
Export Import Department of Ministry of Industrial and Trade, “government do
not intervene rice market we leave it to market mechanism. We (government)
cannot fix direct subsidy & price, because it against WTO regulation.” It
leads to volatility and unpredictable of the price of rice. Even though on the
other side, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development said that some
government companies will buy rice for domestic use with the price 30 per
cent higher than production cost that the farmers spend.
The price of agriculture products means the value of farmers, Vietnam is
agriculture country and it is important to give a decent price of rice (and other
agriculture products), it means they’ll also value farmers all over the world. By
not setting up the right price, it could lead to the downfall of all rice farmers
1 Tsukada, K. 2011. Vietnam: Food Insecurity in Rice Exporting Country. IDE-JETRO, Chiba
7
Revisiting Vietnam Rice Farming: Moving Towards Industrialization
Photo: Terrace field in Sa Pa, Vietnam (wikipedia)
on the world since Vietnam is such an important rice production countries.
However, besides price regulation government does have other regulations
related to food security and to tackle over export issue. One strategy is to
limit the export amount to only 25 per cent from total production to assure
national consumption, other regulations to manage export companies are:
1. Export companies have to buy rice from the farmers, not allowed having re-export.
2. Export companies have to make sure they have enough rice stock before signing any export contracts
8
Revisiting Vietnam Rice Farming: Moving Towards Industrialization
Box. 1. Agriculture (Rice) Production and Trade Policy
Instruments Applied in Vietnam
Domestic policy instrument
• Seed Subsidy. The subsidy provided for research institute to
develop high yield seed and 25 US$ per hectare for farmer who
cultivate two season per year and 5 US$ per hectare for farmer who
only cultivate 1 season per year.
• Irrigation and Rural Infrastructure. Support for building technical
infrastructure and agriculture warehouse.
• Fix Rice Field Policy today there are 4,1 million ha of rice farm
existing all over Vietnam, due to the high demand of land for industry
the assure rice production government long term plan (2020-2030) is
to keep 3,2 million Ha of two season rice field and 0,6 million Ha of one
season rice field.
• Credit Schemes The credit program is given through farmers union
with collaboration with Agriculture and Rural Development Bank and
Bank of Social Policy, VNFU manage the credit program collectively
at least 20-25 people per group and maximum loan is 25.000 US$ per
person. VNFU also mobilize funds from rich farmers and company
donation for special program for poor farmers, currently exist in 60
districts. The program is aim for health services, loan for building
house, vocational trainings.
• Extension and Training Services trainings are provided to have a
better quality of harvest, pest management
• Harvest Failure Insurance Certain amount is given to farmers suffer
from harvest failure due to natural disaster and/or pest and disease.
• Government Price Policy for national consumption and stock
government buy rice from the farmers at minimum 30 per cent above
production cost. But the situation may vary at provincial level, e.g. in
Thai Binh and Nam Dinh Province, 2 main rice production areas in
Northern part of Vietnam most of the farmers sell it to companies or
individual middlemen.
9
Revisiting Vietnam Rice Farming: Moving Towards Industrialization
How Far Farmers Profited from Rice Economy:
Case Study in Nam Dinh and Thai Binh Province
Nam Dinh Province Overview
Nam Dinh province is located in Red River Delta region of the northern
Vietnam. The area of Nam Dinh is 1.600 km2 with 72 km long of costal area.
The population in Nam Dinh is 1.830.000 people, 80 per cent of them live
in rural area. The province is consisting of 1 city which is Nam Dinh city, 9
district (Giao Thủy, Hải Hậu, Mỹ Lộc, Nam Trực, Nghĩa Hưng, Trực Ninh,
Vụ Bản, Xuân Trường and Ý Yên) and 229 wards, from its 209 wards are
agriculture area. Total agriculture area 115.000 hectares and 80.000 hectares
used for rice production, for long run in 2020 the rice field will be decreased
to 75.000 ha, the other 5.000 ha will be converted for other purpose like aqua
culture. There are 5 main agriculture activities in Nam Dinh, 51 per cent for
cultivation, 30 per cent for husbandry and the rest is for aqua culture, salt and
forestry.
The rice production in Nam Dinh is 2 seasons per year, the spring and winter
crops with 100 per cent production is wet rice. Rice cultivation practices in
this area 90 per cent using transplanting system, but now started to shift into
seedling system. Transplanting system is a system where the seeds are pre
germinated and grown in wet seed-beds for a period around 40-50 days after
sowing, the seedlings are then transplanted.
Rice production from Nam Dinh is used entirely for national consumption
and not for export purposes. Averagely Nam Dinh produce around 1,3 million
tones of rice per year, where they use 930.000-950.000 tones of paddy per
year for domestic consumption within the province and the rest, around
350.000 tones is sell to other provinces.
At provincial level like in Nam Dinh, MARD plays the role in the management
process; they provide advice on strategy and production plan, type of seeds
and planting time and build trial model field and pest management training.
The government of Nam Dinh plan to build new rural areas as rice production
areas in 96 towns and commune by 2015, to make a bigger area of
production, rebuild transportation infrastructure and provide new machinery
10
Revisiting Vietnam Rice Farming: Moving Towards Industrialization
for the farmers. The province expects to finish 70 per cent of land exchange
process among farmers this year.
Role of Nam Dinh Farmers Union
The farmers union in Nam Dinh has members in 1 city, 9 districts and 213
communes of this province. There are 4000 farmers group consists of
360.000 members. Among these members, 265.000 households are rice
producers. VNFU of Nam Dinh plays the role to abridge implementation of
rice producing policies with the farmers. As a union they could borrow money
from Agriculture and Rural Development Bank and Social Policy Bank to
support farmers. Farmers then could borrow money from VNFU with interest
rate of 0.65% for poor farmers’ households and other households could
borrow it with interest rate 0.9%. This loan could be borrowed through various
programs of loan, among others:
1. Poor household program
2. Building houses program
3. Fresh water program
4. Education program
5. Exporting labor program
Nam Dinh farmers’ union currently support 94.953 farmers household
with capital of 24,8 million Dong (1240 US$) from Bank of Agriculture and
Rural Development under that seven loan programs. Beside the support
from government, Nam Dinh farmers’ union also collaborate with fertilizer
companies, from this collaboration the union receive averagely 2500 tones
of fertilizer and pesticide per year from these companies. The members then
can access the fertilizer and pesticide from the union with late payment after
harvest. Some members also join contract with seed companies where they
could buy seeds with late payment.
One of the main programs in every VNFU branches is training class for
agriculture techniques, in Nam Dinh there are 1500 training class held every
year and averagely around 200.000 farmers receive trainings every year.
The union also held trading festival for agriculture products and implement
projects from national level VNFU.
11
Revisiting Vietnam Rice Farming: Moving Towards Industrialization
Box 2. Experience of the Farmer in Nam Dinh Province
Dao Anh Lap – Rice Farmer from Heng Xha Branch,
Yen Phong Commune Farmers’ Union
Dao Anh Lap has been farm for 20 years; he’s the head of the
family of 5 people but only him and his wife and work in the farm.
Mr. Lap farm consist of 4000 m² of land which he uses to grow
rice twice a year. Besides growing rice Mr. Lap also raise 20
pigs and have a fish pond. Averagely per season the farm could
produce around 2 tons of rice. Mr. Lap said that rice farming is not
very benefiting today, the income from rice production could only
cover around 20 per cent of the total family expenses. The biggest
expenses that the family has to spend are for children education
and pay electricity.
One of the main reasons for this low income is the high production
cost that they have to spend each season. The average production
cost is around 15 US$ (300.000 Dong) per 360 m², so for the farm
the production cost per season is around 3.300.000 Dong (165
US$).The biggest portion (70%) of this cost goes to buy seeds and
fertilizer. The farm use 50% of pure seeds and 50% hybrid seeds,
30% of the pure seeds that they use are local varieties. The farm
uses the late payment services for fertilizers that they get from the
union cooperative. The price of paddy that they sell is 6000 Dong
(0,3 US$) per kg, this is not a fix price, the price is negotiable and
fluctuative based on their agreement with the individual traders that
come to the farm.
Mr. Lap does not want his children to become farmer, he said
that being a farmer is very difficult and you only receive very low
income. In the future he hope for a better price of paddy and lower
input cost, this will help to have better income to guarantee the
continuation of farming.
12
Revisiting Vietnam Rice Farming: Moving Towards Industrialization
Thai Binh Province Overview
Thai Binh is located in the southeast area of red river delta, surrounded by
3 big river that makes Thai Binh like one big island. Thai Binh is form from
the alluvial of these 3 rivers, which makes the soil very fertile. The average
temperature is 23-24°C and rain level 1700 ml per year, this makes Thai
Binh area very good for agriculture, even though the humidity is quite high
between 80 to 90 per cent.
Thai Binh province consist of 1 city (Thai Binh) and 7 districts (Ðông Hưng,
Hưng Hà, Kiến Xương, Quỳnh Phụ, Thái Thụy, Tiền Hải, Vũ Thư), the
population in Thai Binh is 1, 7 million people, 90 per cent of it live in rural
areas, and 74 per cent of the working age population work in agriculture. The
total agriculture area is 84.000 hectares, the land area that can be grown
winter crops is 40,000 hectares. Besides for rice, the land is very suitable
to food crop (such as potato, cucumber, salad, onion, groundnut, soybean
and capsicum) and tropical food crops (orange, apple, guava, litchi, longan,
banana).
Rice farming is very important sector for Thai Binh economy, it comprise
around 7 per cent of the province GDP. Thai Binh rice is acknowledged as
the best strain in the North of Vietnam. It is the first province in Vietnam that
reach production of rice up to 5 tons per hectare in 1960. Mostly the rice
produced are wet rice type, and the average production from per year is
between 12,5 to 13 tons per hectares.
The provincial government gives a lot of attention for agriculture, especially
for rice farming. To maintain rice production sustainability, the government
built a lot of infrastructure in rural areas such as technical irrigation and
agriculture machinery. They also allocated the rice field for high quality rice;
the plan is by 2015 area for high quality rice will be 40 per cent of total rice
production area. The province invests a lot of money to develop rice seed
with short cultivation time, high quality, and high yields. The types of seeds
use mostly in Thai Binh Province are CNR 36, TBR 1, and BC 15.
Another midterm program is to have bigger land for rice production
13
Revisiting Vietnam Rice Farming: Moving Towards Industrialization
minimum 5 hectares per plot through land exchange program. They also
starts pilot agricultural insurance against disaster and pest in 3 districts,
and implemented integrated crop management (ICM) and integrated pest
management (IPM) method with the support of farmers’ union.
Role of Thai Binh Farmers Union
As part of VNFU, Thai Binh Farmers Union is also responsible to implement
national program of the union. The union organizes training on technology
transfer for the farmers and held various workshops about rice production,
supply and market for the farmers. The union also set up pilot models of field
where farmers could learn about high quality and high value of rice seeds.
Despite all these programs there are one interesting step that Thai Binh
Farmers Union do, the union is able to build collaboration with seed
companies, one of the seed company that the union work close with named
TSC. TSC is established 40 years ago in 1972, currently it has 9 branches all
over Vietnam, and is a member of Asia Pasific Seed Association (APSA).
TSC build a contract with 10.000 farm households to produce seeds for
the company, TSC provide mother seeds with the price between 15.000
to 30.000 Dong per kg which the contract farmers could receive with late
payment. TSC then buy the seeds from the contract farmers for 16.000 Dong
per kg. The price of rice seeds in the market right now is around 30.000
Dong per kg. Currently there are 3000 hectares of land being used for the
production of rice seeds. The average production of seeds per year is 18.000
tons, and 25 per cent of it used for Thai Binh needs.
TSC do not make direct contract with the farmers but through middlemen
(contractor), after the contract is signed the middlemen who will bring
mother seeds to the farmers. As contract farmers they have the obligation to
cultivate in the whole plot of contracted land using the techniques design by
companies such as time to start cropping, volume and method of fertilizers,
post harvest filter, and have to sell all production to TSC. Besides the
middlemen the agriculture cooperative could also play the role of bridging
between the farmers and seed company. Agriculture cooperative, like in Vu
14
Revisiting Vietnam Rice Farming: Moving Towards Industrialization
Thu District buy paddy from the farmers which then receive a compensation
for collecting the seeds of 400 to 500 Dong (0,02 US$) per kg. Per season
the demand from the company is 70 tons of seeds from one agriculture
cooperative.
Besides collaborating with the farmers, TSC is also working closely with
university and research institutes. Right now they produce 6 new types
of seeds that are climate and pest resilient using genetic modification
techniques (GM seeds). Vietnam has launched a pilot program to develop
GM crops on a large scale, and the trial phase under the control of
Agriculture Ministry is completed in the end of 2011. The country starts
commercializing GM seeds in 2012.2 According to CSEED, there are still
many debates going on in Vietnam about the use of GM seeds, especially for
main food crops like rice.
CSEED do not support the implementation of GM seeds, and said that it is
better not promoting this, especially because there is still no guarantee on
the safety. GM seed is not good for long term use as it could destroy the local
varieties. CSEED believe that there are still better way to increase yields
which are more safety both for human and environment.
The farmers’ union realize that the world today is start to move towards
organic agriculture, nevertheless the union thinks that at the same time the
needs for high yields seeds is still in demand. Nevertheless the union also
tries to use organic method especially for pest management using biological
pesticides.
2. Vietnamnet
Bridge, 2011. Pioneer High Hopes on GM Seeds in Vietnam
15
Revisiting Vietnam Rice Farming: Moving Towards Industrialization
Box 3. Experience of the Farmer in Thai Binh Province
Bui Van Tuyen – Rice Farmer from Vu Thu District
Bui Van Tuyen, a 72 years old rice farmer who belong to poverty
group in Vu Thu District, Thai Binh. Mr. Tuyen and his wife have
2000 m2 of rice field where they grow 2 seasons per year. The rice
production is only 0,62 tons per season.
Mr. Tuyen spends averagely 3 million Dong per season for the
production cost, he has to buy the seeds for 29.500 Dong per kg,
and he needs 5 kg for his farm. He uses hybrid seeds type RPI in the
field. He also has to spend around 800.000 Dong for the fertilizer, but
this he could get with late payment from the farmers’ cooperative.
Since he is old, and nobody else helps in the field accept for his wife
Mr. Tuyen needs to rent harvest machine which he pays 1 million
Dong per season. These are the biggest portion of the production
cost goes to.
The family use most of the harvest for their own consumption, but
they also sell some part of it to cover other needs. They sell the rice
to individual trader for 6300 Dong per kg, which gives them very little
money for daily expenses.
To help with everyday needs, he and his wife also grow vegetables
and raise few chicken for own consumption. Nevertheless averagely
they need around 200.000 to 300.000 Dong (10-15 US$) per month
for household expenditure. Therefore sometimes they borrow money
from the neighbor, because as senior citizen it is difficult for him to
borrow money from the bank.
16
Revisiting Vietnam Rice Farming: Moving Towards Industrialization
Conclusion
Up until now, Vietnam still enjoying the benefit of rapid economic growth
and increase food production. It is the results from the process of agriculture
industrialization since early 1980s along with their socialist-oriented market
economy (Doi Moi) reform.
Nevertheless, like every other country in the world that going through the
same path of industrialized agriculture, Vietnam has build their agriculture
sector in a very vulnerable state. Industrial agriculture has many contradictory
aspects and social tension even for a so-called socialist country like Vietnam.
Testimony of the farmers in the rural2 areas of Northern part of Vietnam shows
structural challenges and possible tension in the near future.
Despite the increasing productivity of rice production, there are two major
challenges that the Vietnamese need to address in the near future. One is
the constant decline of agriculture areas for other purposes even with the
existing regulation that prohibit agriculture land conversion.
Secondly, challenge of the continuation for Vietnamese model of industrial
agriculture. Learning from neighboring countries in the region particularly, the
extensive use of external inputs in the long run will affected the sustainability
of the current level of production especially in the highlight of current climate
crises. The International Panel of Climate Change (IPCC) list Vietnam as
one of the most affected countries by climate change. Furthermore this
model wills also increasing farmers dependency towards agriculture input
producers, as we could see in rice producing provinces like Thai Binh and
Nam Dinh.
We realize that Vietnamese have their own model of agriculture
development, which very much based on agriculture industrialization. There
are three indicators to analyze this, first, it focus more on the production
and productivity rather that the farmers itself. Second, it is applied through
monoculture system, in this case rice crops. And third, it is based on export
orientation and international market demand rather than national need and
consumption.
17
Revisiting Vietnam Rice Farming: Moving Towards Industrialization
Despite various debates on this model, in the long run Vietnamese need to
find new agriculture development strategy that could tackle both the growing
demand to feed the population and fulfill market demand as well as to cope
with climate change, maintain the level of production and further address
socio economic challenge of the diminishing of rural community. It is a difficult
path which is not just a problem for Vietnam, but also a problem faced by
many other countries and rural communities. The multifaceted agriculture
crises which farmers’ organization like La Via Campesina need to effectively
address.
References
CCRD. 2011. Country Report on Vietnam Rice Cultivation. Presented during
Expert Meeting in Bangkok, 2-3 June 2011.
Fortier, F. 2011. Vietnam’s Food Security: A Castle of Card in the Wind of
Climate Change. Kasarinlan: Philippine Journal of Third World Studies.
Interview with Vietnam National Farmers Union (VNFU) officers at national,
provincial and commune level and farmer members of VNFU in Thai Binh
and Nam Dinh Province, November 2012.
La Via Campesina. 2006. Rice and Food Sovereignty in Asia Pacific. Jakarta.
Tsukada, K. 2011. Vietnam: Food Insecurity in Rice Exporting Country. IDEJETRO, Chiba
UN Comtrade. 2012. Vietnam Volume and Value of Rice Trading. www.
uncomtrade.org
Vietnamnet Bridge. 2011. Pioneer High Hopes on GM Seeds in Vietnam
18
La Via Campesina South East Asia
Jakarta - Vietnam 2012