Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
which was a bold move toward a more market-economy-like approach. One of
the major policies enacted was Resolution 10 of 1988, Agricultural Economic
Management Reform, which recognized the farm household as the basic unit
of agricultural production, and farmers were allowed to buy, own, and sell agri-
cultural inputs.
The effect of this policy on the rice sector was dramatic. Within only a year
after implementing Resolution 10, rice production jumped to 19 million tons,
turning the country from being in chronic deficit to being a rice exporter. Both
yield rate and area under rice cultivation increased, which in turn contributed
to rising rice production. Since 1989, food output has increased by 1 million
tons per year, and rice output grew at more than 7 percent during 1989-93 (Fig-
ure 8.1). The average rice yield increased by 3.65 percent per year during
1980-2002. In 2002, rice yield and production were estimated at 4.5 tons per
hectare and 33 million tons, respectively—more than twice the averages in
1980. There is a consensus that this remarkable success can be attributed to land
distribution policies, stimulated production, and enhanced investment in infra-
structure and applied new technologies, among other things.
Toward the end of the 1990s, it became apparent that growth from the rice
sector was slowing down, farmers were switching their rice land to other crops
(Table 8.1), and common-variety rice was fetching lower prices in the interna-
tional market. A clear response to this trend was to diversify agriculture, which is
FIGURE 8.1
Vietnam rice output and yield, 1980-2002
Output (thousands of tons)
Yield (quital/hectare)
40,000
50
Output
Yield
35,000
45
30,000
40
25,000
20,000
35
15,000
30
10,000
25
5,000
0
20
1980
1982
1984
1986
1988
1990
1992
1994
1996
1998
2000
2002