Gov’t investment needed to help farmers, agriculture

Appropriation of agricultural land by the State for development has reduced the living standards of many farmers, said Viet Nam Farmers' Association Chairman Nguyen Quoc Cuong.

At a meeting with the Viet Nam Fatherland Front this week, Cuong told representatives that the State had revoked about 72,000 ha of agricultural land since 2000 but that there had been problems with compensation, site clearance and job generation.

In the last five years, around 627,000 households – some 2.5 million people – have had their land repossessed. As a result, some 53 per cent of households are financially worse off, while 34 per cent have seen their living standards drop significantly.

"Farmers have to pay many fees. Farmers have played an important role in the country's revolutionary past, but now they seem to be missing out on [the benefits] of the national industrialisation process," said Cuong.

According to the chairman of the Viet Nam Rural Development Association, Dao The Tuan, agriculture would account for only 9.6 per cent of Viet Nam's GDP by 2020. The number of people working in agriculture is expected to be between 22.6 to 49 per cent of the total labour force, while between 61.3 to 72 per cent of the population will still live in rural parts, he said.

"It's time to ensure food security. The best way of reducing poverty among farmers is to let them move to the cities because each migrant will leave a certain area of land for others to develop," said Tuan.