Huynh Viet Khai

Impact of Industrial Water Pollution on Rice Production in Vietnam

Vietnam has achieved the average GDP growth rate of 6.71% per year. The industrial sector has mainly contributed economic development in Vietnam, with annual growth of 12% during the period of 200-2009. In line with its industrialization and modernization policies, Vietnam has rapidly changed economic structure from agriculture base to industrial economy. The industrial and construction sector only contributed 26 percent of national GDP in 1986, but it rapidly increases to 40.3 percent in 2009.

Productive Efficiency of Soybean Production in the Mekong River Delta of Vietnam

Vietnam was an agricultural importing country during the 1970s. Since reforming its policies in 1986, through the removal of price controls on many goods, decollectivization of land, reduction or removal trade barriers and opening up to foreign direct investment, Vietnam has gradually become one of the biggest agricultural exporting countries in the world. Recently, it has been the world’s leading exporter of cashews, coffee, rubber, and black pepper, and the second biggest rice exporter. Almost all Vietnamese export rice originates from the Mekong River Delta (MRD), an area of around 40,000 km2. More than 18 million tons of rice are produced in the MRD every year, and this comprises half of the total amount of rice produced in Vietnam. In addition, MRD farmers also grow vegetable crops like cassava and maize in paddy fields between two planting seasons of rice to gain extra income and improve soil fertility. Soybeans are one of the most popular vegetable crops in the MRD. This study used primary data on soybean farmers for analyzing productive efficiency in the MRD of Vietnam. Although agriculture plays the most important role in the Vietnamese economy, its contribution to GDP is gradually decreasing every year. The slow rate of agriculture development results in low income, which seriously limits opportunities for savings and investment in rural households. Consequently, the rate of development of nonagricultural sectors is also declining, resulting in a lack of jobs and more serious poverty in rural areas. Some reports have found that low efficiency in agricultural production could damage the environment through deforestation or water pollution (Tewodros, 2001). Most studies agree that economic development strategy for the agricultural sector should be based on the promotion of increasing yields or production amounts, especially for smallscale farmers. Some empirical evidence shows that small-scale farms not only provided jobs to reduce unemployment but also distributed income as well as commodity demand in other economic sectors (Bravo-Ureta & Evenson, 1994). For this reason, researchers and policymakers have paid much attention to the adaptation of new technologies to increase the productivity and income of households. However, in recent decades, the development of technologies in agricultural sectors is already high. This suggests that the increase in productivity originally from the more efficient use of available technologies is vindicated (Bravo-Ureta & Pinheiro, 1997). The term “productive efficiency”, as used in this study, refers to the amount of possible output gain without any additional inputs or new technologies. The measurement of

The Comparative Advantage of Soybean Production in Vietnam: A Policy Analysis Matrix Approach

Vietnam is a country with a long agricultural tradition in which highly-skilled farmers make up 68% of the population. Annually, Vietnam has been exporting a lot of agricultural prod‐ ucts, which contributes a large amount of foreign currency to the governmental budget. Re‐ cently, Vietnam has become the second largest exporter of rice after Thailand, of cashew after Indonesia and of coffee after Brazil. Moreover, Vietnam is one of the top-leading ex‐ porters for rubber, and black pepper.