Want to develop agriculture, must concentrate land?

Fragmented land, lagging labor productivity

According to Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Que, Director of the Agricultural Policy Consulting Center, land is an important resource for the country in the process of socio-economic development; for households, in the process of ensuring food security and sustainable livelihoods. Changing the access, management and use of land is an important part of the process of economic development and reform.

In more specific analysis, Dr. Nguyen Trung Kien, Center for Agricultural Policy Consulting, cited: In our country, land use rights are an important asset in creating jobs, income and ensuring livelihoods for 70% of the population living in rural areas, and over 50% of the workforce whose livelihoods depend on agricultural activities, in which land is the main production factor.

Meanwhile, the average agricultural land area per capita in Vietnam is 1,560.4 m2, less than 1/3 of that of Thailand and Cambodia (World Bank survey, 2009). According to the results of the Vietnam Living Standards Survey (VHLSS, 2010), 70% of rural households have an agricultural land area of ​​less than 0.5 ha. The number of households with an area of ​​over 3 ha accounts for a very small proportion.

On the morning of November 9, Oxfam coordinated with the Agricultural Policy Advisory Center under the Institute of Policy and Strategy for Agriculture and Rural Development (CAP/IPSARD) to organize a workshop on "Land concentration for the poor in Vietnam".

In addition to the small scale, the level of land fragmentation in Vietnam is very high. On average, a household owns 5-7 different plots of land, the total distance from the place of residence to the fields of households is about 4.7 km (VARHS, 2010). The level of land fragmentation and dispersion varies between regions due to the characteristics of terrain conditions, population density, land allocation, cultural and historical factors.

Fragmented land is the main reason why Vietnam's labor productivity lags behind other countries in the region (CAP research, 2013). Vietnam's agricultural labor productivity has always been the lowest compared to other countries in the region and has increased very slowly, especially lagging behind other countries in the region since 2005. Currently, Vietnam's agricultural added value per worker in 2011 reached less than 400 USD/person, lower than both Laos and Cambodia.

Concentrating land to increase productivity and income for farmers

Many experts agree that, for the poor in remote areas, livelihoods often depend significantly on the benefits of land through production or other uses, including transfer of land use rights. In the context of development, especially agricultural development, land consolidation is necessary to contribute to increasing productivity and income for farmers, provided that land consolidation is carried out in a way that can expand people's options to improve their well-being.

In that context, Professor Dang Hung Vo emphasized: “To develop, we must concentrate land, because we cannot let each household have 1 sao of land and say that Vietnamese agriculture will modernize. But the problem is how to reduce loss and increase benefits for people when implementing land concentration.”

Dr. Vo Tri Thanh, Deputy Director of the Central Institute for Economic Management, also agreed that land concentration is needed, but he also noted: To develop agriculture, to solve the root problems of agriculture, rural areas and farmers, it is necessary to build an institution for it. That institution must support the connection of advantages in terms of land size with production and market. At the same time, production must follow the value chain. Along with that, there must be a way for land to absorb capital and technology for development. Moreover, this institution must create a way for land development and accumulation to be linked to political characteristics and social traditions, especially the rights of farmers.

Choosing a land concentration model must have the consensus of the participating parties.

Dr. Nguyen Trung Kien also pointed out a reality: Land concentration (LDC) is a major policy set forth in the Resolution of the 6th Conference of the Party Central Committee (11th term) and the 7th Central Resolution on the issue of agriculture - farmers - rural areas (Tam Nong) to move towards a modern agricultural production.

However, land policies and strategies are currently contradictory between, on the one hand, groups of policies that facilitate the land reform process, aiming to increase economic efficiency, and on the other hand, groups of policies that aim to ensure fairness, social stability, and avoid polarization between rich and poor.

Furthermore, "the process of implementing TTĐĐ policies in practice encounters many difficulties and challenges, making these policies difficult to apply, or if they do, they can easily lead to conflicts and social instability" - Dr. Kien emphasized.

Therefore, on behalf of the research team of the Agricultural Policy Consulting Center, Dr. Kien proposed the solution that land use planning must be based on the viewpoint: The land use planning process must be associated with fairness, sustainability and efficiency. The goal of land use planning must be to improve farmers' lives, access to land, and resolve land-related conflicts;

Policies to promote agricultural production need to be comprehensive, synchronous, and linked to the goal of sustainable national development; The selection of agricultural production models needs to be linked to the specific conditions of each locality, crop type, input and output markets, decided by the community and achieving high consensus among the participating parties./.

According to VOV