Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Box 3.
New urban linkages: Tang My village in Vietnam
Many smallholder farmers in China and Vietnam become trapped in a cycle of ever-higher chemical
input use with lower productivity and profitability and reduced sustainability of the natural resource base.
Tang My village, situated in the Red River Delta in Vietnam, is situated near Hanoi. Various
developments have led to a shift towards a very intensive farming system in which land is used during
three seasons (spring, summer and winter). (i) Construction of the irrigation pumping station in the early
1960s, allowed farmers to cultivate vegetables during the dry winter season; (ii) The policy reforms
during the late 1980s, when the collectivization system was dismantled and replaced by a system with
land use rights for individual households made farmers free in their decision making. There are good
tarmac roads linking the village to the outlet markets. And in a period of forty years the population of the
village increased from 600 to 2,400.
The farmers in Tang My generate their income mainly through agricultural activities and to a smaller
extent through non-farm activities. People on average and poor households engage in non-farm
activities mostly to meet their basic needs. However, in rich and well-off households, the off-farm income
is used to increase savings. All households in the latter groups own land, some have higher quality land,
which they obtained through exchanging land with others. However, the general opinion is that currently,
agricultural land of poor households becomes less fertile, because poor households can not adequately
invest in fertilizer inputs. There is quite some difference in agricultural production between the
household classes distinguished. The rich and well-off invest more in high-value crops such as green
squash, cauliflower, onion and tomato.
In Tang My, 75% of all households can be typified as “pure” agricultural households. Around 20%
can be described as semi-agricultural households, in which one of the household members (e.g. wife
and/or husband) has a permanent non-farm job. The other households specialize in e.g. aquaculture, or
are involved in non-farm employment (and do not cultivate their land, or only to a limited extent).
Source: VEGSYS (www.vegsys.nl)
Access to non-farm employment
The key finding of Table 3 is that location (or relative distance to urban areas) is an
important driving factor for non-farm activities. We, therefore, analysed the role of
location in relation to other factors, such as age or education, in individuals'
engagement in non-farm employment by estimating an econometric model (see
Appendix to this chapter). The results tend to confirm the pattern seen above with
respect to the effect of location. The probability of an individual having some non-
farm employment generally increases with proximity to urban areas, as does the
probability of an individual being employed full-time in non-farm activities.
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