The costs of obtaining food security in Vietnam
Ho Chi Minh City Open University Journal of science- No. 1(1) 2011
27
ThE COSTS OF OBTAININg FOOd SECURITY IN vIETNAm
By Nguyen Van Ngai1
Global food crisis happened in 2008, supply and thus allocates a lot of resources
all countries in the world must pay attention for food production, rice in particular, it may
on food security. Although Vietnam is a food result in negative impacts on agricultural
export country, food security is targeted development and the economy as a whole.
as a priority in the process of economic Vice versa, if the country sets priority
development. Obtaining food security will to agricultural development in terms of
gain political and social stabilities, but it agricultural growth rate and economic
may create negative impacts on agricultural growth, it may result in high risk in
development and economic development obtaining food security. This study reviews
as a whole. This paper overviews some policies related to food security in Vietnam,
key policies on food security, analyses the analyses current food supply and demand
current food security, projects food security and projection until 2020, identifies trade-
in Vietnam until 2020, investigates the costs offs between food security and agricultural
of obtaining food security and draws policy and economic development and draws
recommendations.
policy recommendations.
I. Introduction
II. Review of Food Security policies
in vietnam
In recent decades, food security has
been an important ‘organizing principle’
Even though Vietnam is a food
in development. There are a number of export country, Vietnamese Government
researches, aid agencies, and programmes of and Vietnamese Communist Party always
actions have been carried out in an attempt set food security as a priority in making
to ensure food security. The concept of ‘food policies during the process of economic
security’ has developed over the past three development. The Tenth Congress of
decades. Four components of food security Vietnamese Communist Party agreed that
is widely accepted that are availability, Vietnam must plan the area for growing
accessibility, sustainability and safety rice in order to get stable rice production
at different levels such as international, and obtaining food security. The policies
regional, national and household levels. supporting food security include policies
Although Vietnam is the second leading related to rice growing such as land
rice exporting country, food security is still policy, investments and trade policy. In
an issue that need to be considered, not terms of land policy, in 1993 the land law
only at national level but also household was issued allowing rice farmers to have
and individual levels. At the national level, more autonomy in making production
Vietnam has been trying to develop its decisions. However, in order to obtain food
agriculture to meet the objective of food security, the government issued Decisive
security since food security is recognized as No. 68/2001/ND-CP on 1st October 2001
an important issue in terms of economics, that attempted to control paddy land by
politics and society as a whole. Moreover, limiting farmers to convert their paddy
in 2008 global food crisis make Vietnam land to other crops or other uses. In 2006,
worried more about food security. If the Vietnamese Assembly issued Decisive No.
countryworriestoomuchaboutfoodsecurity, 57/2006/NQ-QH11 that strictly controlled
it gives priority on food production for self- converting from paddy land into other
1 Nong Lam University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Email: nvngai@hcmuaf..edu.vn, nguyen_van_ngai@yahoo.com
28
Ho Chi Minh City Open University Journal of science- No. 1(1) 2011
using purposes. Moreover, farmers were stop signing rice export contracts between
also exempted from agricultural land tax. Vietnamese export companies and their
On 18 April 2008, Prime Minister signed rice export partners. Moreover, some
Decisive 391/2008/QĐ-TTg to check the policies supporting rice production such as
implementation of agricultural land use research and applying new rice varieties,
plan, rice land in particular.
technological trainings, exemption of
irrigation fees and encouraging rice farmers
doing contract farming have been applied.
Vietnamese Government has also
supported food security by providing public
investments in agriculture, especially in
building irrigation system for areas growing
rice. About 80% of irrigation investments
has been contributed to rice production.
Moreover, on 22 October 2004, Prime
Minister signed Decisive, No. 184/2004/
QĐ-TTg, to improve the irrigation system
connecting to farmer land and rural
transportation system. Trade policy is the
other tool that Vietnamese Government
applied to obtain food security at national
level. In general, the restrictions of rice
export such as export taxes or export quotas
have been removed, but the government still
has a role in management of food security
by controlling rice export contracts based
on the balance of domestic demand and
supply. For example, in March 2008, when
food price in the world sharply increased
III. Current Food Security in vietnam
3.1. Food supply
Food includes staple food (rice,
cassava, sweet potato, maize, etc.) and food
stuffs (meat, vegetable, egg, milk, etc.).
This study focuses on staple food, rice in
particular since it is a leading staple food
in Vietnam. Staple food in Vietnam has
significantly increased over the period of
1986-2007 after the ‘renovation program’
started in 1986 that conducted a transitional
phase from the centrally-planned economy
to a market oriented economy. As a result
of that program, Vietnam became the third
largest rice exporter in the world in 1989,
behind Thailand and USA. Since 1989,
Vietnamhasfirmlyobtaineditsfoodsecurity
at the nationallevel.The productionofstaple
due to high international demand for food, foods has continuously increased during the
Prime Minister announced the regulation to
2000s (see Figure 1).
Figure 1 : Production of Some Staple Foods, Vietnam, 2000-2007, 1000 tones
40000
35000
30000
Sweet potato
Cassava
25000
20000
15000
Paddy
Maize
10000
5000
0
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
Source : GSO, 2008.
Ho Chi Minh City Open University Journal of science- No. 1(1) 2011
29
Table 1
Cultivated Area, production, Yield of paddy, vietnam, 1990-2007
Cultivated
Annual
production
(1000 tones)
Annual
Yield (tone/
Annual
growth rate
area
growth rate
growth rate
ha)
*(1000ha)
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
6042.8
6302.8
6475.3
6559.4
6598.6
6765.6
7003.8
7099.7
7362.7
7653.6
7666.3
7492.7
7504.3
7452.2
7445.3
7329.2
7324.8
7201.0
-
19225.1
19621.9
21590.4
22836.5
23528.2
24963.7
26396.7
27523.9
29145.5
31393.8
32529.5
32108.4
34447.2
34568.8
36148.9
35832.9
35849.5
35867.5
-
3.18
3.11
3.33
3.48
3.57
3.69
3.77
3.88
3.96
4.10
4.24
4.29
4.59
4.64
4.86
4.89
4.89
4.98
-
4.3%
2.7%
1.3%
0.6%
2.5%
3.5%
1.4%
3.7%
4.0%
0.2%
-2.3%
0.2%
-0.7%
-0.1%
-1.6%
-0.1%
-1.7%
2.1%
10.0%
5.8%
3.0%
6.1%
5.7%
4.3%
5.9%
7.7%
3.6%
-1.3%
7.3%
0.4%
4.6%
-0.9%
0.0%
0.1%
-2.1%
7.1%
4.4%
2.4%
3.5%
2.1%
2.9%
2.1%
3.6%
3.4%
1.0%
7.1%
1.1%
4.7%
0.7%
0.1%
1.8%
Average
(1990-2007)
Average
7071.1
7427.0
1.1%
29087.7
34669.1
3.8%
1.7%
4.10
4.7
2.7%
2.5%
-0.8%
(2000-7)
Source : GSO, 2008.
Note : * Cultivated area equals planted area times the number of crops per year.
Reduction in cultivated paddy area
during the year 2000s
Paddy production nearly doubled over
the period of 1990-2007, 19 million tones
in 1990 and 36 million tones in 2007 (see
Table 1). The annual growth rate of paddy
production was about 3.8% as a result of
1.1% increase in cultivated area and 2.7%
increase in yield.
However, during the year 2000s, paddy
production continued increasing at slower
growth rates, (1.7% annual growth rate). The
slowdownofthegrowthratecanbeexplained
by some pressures in the economy that
reduced land areas for paddy production (see
Figure 2), even though the yield remained at
more than 2% increase per year.
Figure 2: Areas Growing Staple Foods, Vietnam, 2000-2007, 1000 ha
1000 ha
9000
8000
7000
6000
5000
4000
3000
2000
1000
Sweet potato
Cassava
Rice
Maize
0
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
Source : GSO, 2008.
30
Ho Chi Minh City Open University Journal of science- No. 1(1) 2011
Table 2
Changes in Agricultural Land in 2006 compared with 2001, 1000 ha
Year
2001
Changes
1000 ha
2006
24696.0
9436.16
6348.15
4130.94
3088.01
14514.23
715.11
%
16.35
6.27
Total
21224.45
8879.06
6064.34
4337.75
2814.72
11822.99
503.47
3471.15
557.1
Agricultural land
Annual crops
Paddy rice
238.81
-206.81
237.29
2691.24
211.64
4.68
-4.77
9.71
Perennual tree
Forestry
22.76
42.04
Fishery
Source : GSO, 2007.
Figures in Table 2 show that during non-paddy annual crops and for perennial
the 2000s planted paddy area was reduced trees also increased during that period of
about 1% a year in average, 4.3 million time. Low incomes in paddy production is
ha for paddy production in 2001 and 4.1 the reason that farmers change their crops
million ha in 2006. Farmers converted their to get higher incomes. They also use paddy
rice land into other crops (sugarcane, fruits) land to build ponds for producing shrimp
or fishery (shrimp and fish). The land for or fishes which can export to gain much
fishery increased from 0.5 million ha in higher incomes.
2001 to 0.7 million ha in 2006. Land for
Table 3
Cultivated paddy Area by Regions of vietnam, 2000-2007, 1000 ha
Red
North-
east
North-
West
Central
North
Central
South
High-
land
South-
east
Mekong
Delta
Year
2000
Country
River
Delta
2121
7666.3
7504.3
7445.3
7329.4
7021.0
550
562
557
553
553
136
140
151
154
158
695
700
685
683
683
422
399
401
392
376
176
186
198
208
205
526
484
475
435
432
3945
3834
3816
3773
3684
2002
2004
2006
2007
1196
1161
1124
1111
Change
2007/2000
- 645.3
-101
+3
+22
-12
-46
-29
-94
-261
Source : GSO, 2008.
It is noted that the reduction of of economic development. Losing paddy
cultivated paddy land in Vietnam during land for that objective may be appropriate.
the 2000s happened in two important paddy However, the problem is that approximately
production regions in Vietnam, Red River 50% of land in industrial parks has not
Delta (decreasing 101 thousands ha) (see been leased by investors. Climate change is
Table 3) and Mekong Delta (decreasing 261 another pressure that affects the paddy land
thousands ha). The reduction of paddy area area, particularly in the two deltas. Vietnam
in these regions is due to the urbanization, is in the top five countries vulnerable to
the government established
many climate changes. If the sea level rises by
industrial parks on the paddy land. Farmers 1 meter, Vietnam will lose 5% land, in
have to return their land-use right to the which, Thai Binh, Hai Phong, An Giang,
government and get some compensations. Dong Thap, Tien Giang, Vinh Long and Ca
Industrialization is one of key objectives Mau provinces will seriously be affected.
of Vietnamese Government in the process Vietnam paddy production will be reduced
Ho Chi Minh City Open University Journal of science- No. 1(1) 2011
31
by 5 million tones per year due to climate paddy yield during the 2000s is 2.5 percent
changes. (Vietnam Media, 2008).
per annual, the law of diminishing marginal
product in paddy production is rather clear
over the period of 2000-2007, the yield
increased at the diminishing growth rates.
Improving technology and investments are
considered as main reasons for achievement
Achievement in high paddy yield
As above discussed, even though
paddy land area has been decreasing but
paddy production still keeps increasing, the
achievement in high paddy yield is a reason in high paddy yield.
for that. The average annual growth rate of
Figure 3: Yield of Paddy and Maize, Vietnam, 2000-2007, 100kg/ha
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Rice
Maize
2000
2002
2004
2006
2007
Source : GSO, 2008.
Growing paddy in the Red River lower, 5.06 tones per ha in 2007 (see Table
Delta results in highest yield in Vietnam, 4). Therefore, increasing paddy production
5.67 tones per ha in 2007, while Mekong in Vietnam by improving yield in Mekong
Delta is a leading region for growing Delta is very potential.
paddy in Vietnam but the yield is still
Table 4
paddy Yield by Regions of vietnam, 2000-2007, tones/ha
Red
River
Delta
North-
east
North-
west
Central
North
Central
South
High-
land
South-
east
Mekong
Delta
Year
Average
2000
2002
2004
2006
2007
4.24
4.59
4.86
4.89
4.98
5.43
5.64
5.78
5.81
5.67
4.00
4.22
4.47
4.54
4.56
2.95
3.27
3.63
3.80
3.64
4.06
4.51
4.93
5.10
4.74
3.98
4.28
4.71
4.91
5.09
3.32
3.25
3.95
4.29
4.19
3.19
3.47
3.75
3.91
4.24
4.23
4.62
4.87
3.91
5.06
Source : GSO, 2008.
3.2. Food demand
feed, processing for food and reserves to
stabilize the market fluctuation as needed.
Of which, seed, human consumption and
animal feed are considered as necessary
demands that cannot be missed. The foreign
Demand for food includes domestic
demand and foreign demand. Domestic
demands consists of demand for seeds for
reproduction, human consumption, animal
32
Ho Chi Minh City Open University Journal of science- No. 1(1) 2011
demand refers to exports to the world security. However, Vietnam is a low income
markets for foreign exchange earnings. A country, an increase in incomes leads to
country just exports food as there is food changesin componentsofdailydietthatshift
surplus after meeting domestic demands.
to consume more food stuffs and less staple
food, rice in particular. Rice consumption
per head reduced from 156 kg/person/year in
1992 to 120 kg/person/year in 2006 (GSO,
2009). In average, the rice consumption
decreases about 1.7% per annual as a
result of increase in incomes that eases the
pressure on food demand due to population
growth. People will consumption more
food stuff, meat in particular. According to
the study of Pham Thi Lan Anh, Pham Van
Hoan and Nguyen Duc Minh (2009), meat
consumption per head increased 5 times
over the period of 1985-2005 or about 24%
increase per annual (see Figure 5) and 4.5%
over the period of 2000-2005. If the demand
for meat continues increasing, the supply of
meat must increase to meet increasing meat
demand, and therefore, as a consequence
the demand for rice to produce animal feed
Domestic food demands
Human consumption and animal feed
are two main sources of rice consumption in
Vietnam, 66.4% and 24.3%, respectively. As
manyAsian countries, rice is a daily food for
Vietnamese people. Since 1989, domestic
rice production has met human consumption
in Viet Nam. Vietnamese people just
consume about 54% of total rice production.
Thus, Vietnam has firmly obtained its food
security at the national level.
Rice consumption in Vietnam depends
on population and components of daily diet.
Population growth in Vietnam was about
1.6% per annual, average in 1986-2005
(GSO, 2008), thus, rice consumption must
be increased by the same percentage if there
is no change in the components of daily diet.
Population growth imposes the pressure on
human rice consumption and thus on food must be higher.
Figure 4: population,vietnam, 1988 – 2007, million people
90.00
80.00
70.00
60.00
50.00
40.00
30.00
20.00
10.00
0.00
1988 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002
Source : GSO, 2008.
2004 2006
Ho Chi Minh City Open University Journal of science- No. 1(1) 2011
33
Figure 5: Changes in Consumption of food - stuffs, vietnam
1985 - 2005,(Kg/person/year)
Vegetables
Fish
Meat
Egg and milk
250
200
150
100
50
203
214
171
180
69.9
62.8
30.2
52
51
50
40.1
13.7
10.3
13.6
0
2.9
1.7
1985
1990
2000
2005
Source : Vietnamese Institute of Nutrition
Source : Pham Thi Lan Anh, Pham Van Hoan and Nguyen Duc Minh, 2009
Exports
the growth rate of rice supply, the volume
of rice exports has been increasing over
years (see Figure 6). Asian countries such
as Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia are
Vietnam has become a food export
country since 1988, just after two years
implementing the ‘renovation program’.
Because the domestic demands have the main rice importers of Vietnam.
increased at the slower rate compared to
Figure 6: Rice Export, vietnam, 1986 – 2007, 1000 tones
6000
5000
4000
3000
2000
1000
0
1988 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006
Source : GSO, 2008.
Iv. projection of Food Security in
vietnam Until 2020
as the average rate during the period of
2000-2007. The number of crop per year
is expected to be unchanged, 1.8 crops per
year. In order to meet increasing demand
with decreasing paddy cultivated area, the
yield must be raised. Keeping 2.5% yield
increase per annual until 2020 is proposed.
Inthedemandside, threenecessarydomestic
demands, which are seed, animal feed and
In order to understand how food
security in Vietnam until 2020, some
assumptions of rice supply and rice demand
must be proposed. In the supply side, planted
paddy area are expected to decrease 1%
per annual with the assumption that land
for producing paddy continues decreasing
34
Ho Chi Minh City Open University Journal of science- No. 1(1) 2011
human consumption, must be projected. projected to increase by 4.5% per annual.
Paddy demand for seed is based on the In 2020, Vietnam will need 11 million tones
projected cultivated area and the unchanged of paddy for animal feed that is about a half
amount of paddy seed per cultivated ha. The of human consumption. In conclusion, the
projected human consumption is based on necessary demands (seed, animal feed and
the forecasted population growth and rice human consumption) in 2020 will be about
consumption per person per year that is 31 million tones, if there is no change in
expected to be 1.7% decrease per year. The supply (35.8 million tones in 2007), there
amount of paddy for human consumption are only 4 million tones left for the other
in 2020 will be about 20 million tones. In demands such as reserve, processing and
order to project the amount of paddy for exports) in 2020. If taking above projected
animal feed, over the period of 2000-2005, paddy supply and necessary demands
the meat consumption increased by 4.5% together, Vietnam will have 11.71 million
per annual in average as studied by the tones left for reserve, processing and
Vietnamese Institute of Nutrition. Thus exports in 2020.
the demand of paddy for animal feed is
Table 5
Balancing paddy demand and Supply, 2020
2007*
85.2
4.10
7.20
4.98
35.8
2010
88.5
3.98
7.16
5.35
38.32
2015
93.6
3.78
6.80
6.02
40.96
2020
Assumptions
1. Population (million people)*
2. Planted paddy area (million ha)
3. Cultivated paddy area (million ha)
4. Yield (tone/ha/crop)
98.6
3.59 1% decrease per annual
6.46 1.8 crops per year, unchanged
6.78 2.5 % increase per annual
43.77
5. Supply (million tones)
6. Necessary Demands (million tones)
- Seed
1.10
6.4
1.09
7.26
1.04
8.90
0.99
- Animal feed
10.90 4.5% increase per annual
1.7% decrease in rice consumption per
person per annual
-Human consumption
19.97
8.33
19.79
10.17
20.02
11.00
20.17
7. Balance (million tones)
(Reserve, process and exports)
11.71
Source : Estiamted
Note : * Adapted from Chu Tien Quang, 2008.
The projection of paddy production 2020, Vietnam will have only 0.11 million
in 2020 must depend on the assumption of tones of paddy for reserve, processing
2.5% increase in paddy yield per annual and exports in 2020. Vietnam will face
that is the average rate over the period of with the food insecurity at the national
2000-2007. However, in order to achieve level. Therefore, under the pressure of the
that assumed rate is not easy that depends decreasing paddy area, in order to obtain
on many factors. Figures in Table 6 provide food security, Vietnam must look for
the projection of necessary demands, supply strategies to increase the paddy yield.
and balance by different scenarios of yield,
2.5%, 2%, 1.5%, 1%, 0.5% and 0% increase in vietnam
per annual. The important signal is that if
the paddy yield is unchanged from now to region, rice in daily diet is a Vietnamese
v. Costs of Obtaining Food Security
Like several Asian countries in the
Ho Chi Minh City Open University Journal of science- No. 1(1) 2011
35
Table 6
Supply, demand and balance of paddy by yield assumptions,
vietnam, until 2020, (million tones)
Assumption
increase in yield
of
2007
35.80
2010
38.32
2015
40.96
2020
43.77
Supply
2.5% per annual
2.0% per annual
1.5% per annual
1.0% per annual
Demand (seed, animal feed and human)
Balance (reserve, exports, processing)
Supply
27.47
8.33
28.15
10.17
37.79
28.15
9.64
29.96
11.00
39.49
29.96
9.53
32.06
11.71
41.27
32.06
9.20
35.80
27.47
8.33
Demand (seed, animal feed and human)
Balance (reserve, exports, processing)
Supply
35.80
27.47
8.33
37.25
28.15
9.10
38.05
29.96
8.09
38.85
32.06
6.79
Demand (seed, animal feed and human)
Balance (reserve, exports, processing)
Supply
35.80
27.47
8.33
36.72
28.15
8.57
36.63
29.96
6.67
36.54
32.06
4.47
Demand (seed, animal feed and human)
Balance (reserve, exports, processing)
Supply
35.80
27.47
8.33
36.18
28.15
8.03
35.23
29.96
5.28
34.31
32.06
2.25
0.5% per annual
0.0% per annual
Demand (seed, animal feed and human)
Balance (reserve, exports, processing)
Supply
35.80
27.47
8.33
35.65
28.15
7.50
33.87
29.96
3.91
32.17
32.06
0.11
Demand (seed, animal feed and human)
Balance (reserve, exports, processing)
Source : Estimated.
tradition, after any generous meal without impose some costs in terms of economic
rice, Vietnamese people feels that they have development in Vietnam. Agricultural
not finished the meal. Rice is a staple food growth, industrial growth and household
that cannot be substituted. If food security
is a problem in the world, rice security is an
Vietnamese issue. Obtaining rice security
must be considered as a first priority for
political and social gains, and in turn
economic stability. As discussed above, in
order to meet the objective of food security,
Vietnam must focus on the supply side since
the increasing demand cannot be reduced.
There are two options for increasing paddy
production that are the expansion of paddy
incomes may be negatively affected by the
obtaining food security.
The option that increases the paddy
yield is rather difficult since the yield in
Vietnam is currently high. There are some
constraints in increasing the yield including
technological and economic constraints.
The rice production is, of course,
characterized by the law of diminishing
marginal product. Getting higher rice yield
needs high level of inputs and investments
land areas and improving yield. Those that may not be efficient.
36
Ho Chi Minh City Open University Journal of science- No. 1(1) 2011
Table 7
Comparison of staple food production with the others
(million vNd/ha, constant prices in 1994)
vegetables,
Staple Food
Fruits
Fishery
beans
8.14
8.71
9.19
9.62
9.67
10.39
9.28
1.30
2000
6.57
6.69
7.16
7.29
7.54
7.61
7.14
1
10.81
10.50
10.17
9.69
33.93
33.58
34.60
35.27
37.43
40.51
35.89
5.02
2001
2002
2003
2004
9.85
2005
10.44
10.24
1.43
Average
Index, staple food=1
Source: Estimated by using data of GSO (2006 and 2008)
Reserve or expansion of land for agricultural uses such as building industrial
paddy growing to meet the objective of food parks, golf and etc. has been criticized by
security may lower the agricultural growth. many people. If because of worrying rice
In general, land productivity of rice is much security, the government stops that land
smaller than that of other crops. Based on the converting, the cost is too high. It will
official data of GSO, it is estimated that one affect the process of industrialization and
hectare of land for producing vegetables, slowdown positive structural change and
sugar and beans, for fruits and for fishery thus economic growth.
is equal to 1.30, 1.43 and 5.02 times as that
for paddy production, respectively (see
Table 7). Thus, shifting land from non-
paddy production to paddy production
will result in lower land productivity and
smaller agricultural production. Over the
period of 1990-2007, the average growth
rate of agricultural sector was about 4%
per annual, while the average growth rate
of paddy production was 1.1%, particularly
it became negative for the period of 2000-
2007 (-0.8%). Moreover, if the government
prohibits farmers to change their crops from
paddy to other crops to reserve paddy land
for the purpose of rice security, the value
of agricultural production is difficult to
For an exported food country like
Vietnam, obtaining food security by
restricting exports in order to maintain
domestic consumption will result in lost
export revenue and foreign exchange
earnings (FAO, 2008) that happened in
Vietnam in the first months of 2008 as the
global food crisis occurred. It is also noted
that although Vietnam is enjoyable with
its rice exports but the contribution of rice
exports to total exports is still limited. The
agricultural exports contributed about 15%
of total exports, but exports of commercial
crops such as rubber, coffee, pepper and
cashew nut play crucial role. Fishery
exports have been playing important
increase and in turn, the agricultural growth role in recent years, if the government
attempts to keep paddy land that may lead
to negative impacts on fishery exports and
thus on total exports.
is negatively affected.
The strategy to meet the objective
of food security creates negative impacts
not only on agricultural growth but also
on economic growth in general. The
The other negative impact of rice
security at national level may be food
problem of converting paddy land to non- insecurity at the household level. Small
Ho Chi Minh City Open University Journal of science- No. 1(1) 2011
37
farm households keeping their small rice animal feed and middle-quality varieties
farm may not lead them to a low income with middle-yield should be grown for
family who cannot access to food and thus human consumption.
the food insecurity at household level.
Global food crisis generates more
vI. Conclusions and policy benefits than harms for Vietnamese
Recommendations
agricultural sector and economy. Because
Vietnam has been a net food export country,
it benefits from high international food
price as a result of global food crisis. Food
insecurity in the world is an opportunity
for Vietnam obtaining food security at both
national and household levels. Vietnamese
rice farmers get benefits from higher price
and thus they do more investments and get
higher yield that results in more supply
and positive impacts on food security at
national level. Poor rice farmers now get
There is a trade-off between obtaining
food security and economic development in
Vietnam. The increase in food demand as
population pressure is unavoidable. In order
to meet increasing demand, rice supply must
beincreasing. Inordertoincreasericesupply
to obtain food security, political and social
stability can be achieved, but some negative
impacts on economic development occur.
Keeping or expansion of paddy land for food
securitywilldampenagriculturalgrowthand
thus economic growth as a whole, because of more incomes from their small amount of
forgone high land productivity of the other
crops. Lower land productivity for paddy
production cannot improve incomes of poor
rice farmers that result in food insecurity
at the household level. Because of food
security, preventing from the using paddy
land for the purpose of industrialization
may harm the industrial development and
thus economic development as a whole.
rice selling. Higher international rice price
will bring more foreign exchanges from
the some volume of rice exports. However,
high prices of food my lead to difficulties
in macroeconomic management that affects
economic growth in the short run and in the
long run. Higher prices of food significantly
influence consumer price index (CPI)
because food expenditures share about 47%
of Vietnamese consumers’basket. High CPI
leads to inflation that may be a problem for
macroeconomics.
Regarding to the issue of food security
in Vietnam, this study recommends some
policies as follows. The government should
set a priority on increasing the paddy yield
rather than regulating changes of land areas.
If the paddy yield is not increased, the food
security may achieve until 2020, however,
the problem will become serious after
2020. Increasing paddy yield is not simple,
it requires a lot of investments. Improving
technology must be considered as a decisive
strategy, biotechnology in particular.
vII. References
Chu Tien Quang, 2008, San Xuat Lua Gao
va Van De An Ninh Luong Thuc o Viet
Nam [Rice Production and Problems
of Food Security in Vietnam], Bao
cao Hoi Nghi Khoa Hoc Kinh Te, 27-
28/11/2008, Hanoi.
FAO, 2008. The state of food insecurity
icatalog/ inter-e.htm
General Statistical Office (GSO), 2007.
Statistical Yearbook 2006, Statistical
Publishing House, Hanoi.
General Statistical Office (GSO), 2008.
Statistical Yearbook 2007, Statistical
Publishing House, Hanoi.
Since there are different types of
demand for rice, the strategy of variety
selection becomes important issue. In
general, a high-yield variety usually results
in low quality and vice versa. High-quality
varieties must be applied for rice exports,
while high-yield varieties are grown for
38
Ho Chi Minh City Open University Journal of science- No. 1(1) 2011
GSO, 2009. ‘Consumption expenditure and
consumption expenditure for living’,
extracted from Vietnam Household
gso.org.vn
Nguyen T. Song An and others, 2001.
Household Food Security in the Tu
Giac Long Xuyen. Research Project,
Code: B99-22-50.
cao%20tham%20luan%20Bo%20
Y%20te%20(Mr.Hoan).doc
Trang Thu Huy Nhat and Tran Quang
Van, 2008. ‘Food security and rural
development’ in Bases for Territory-
based Rural Development in the
Southeast Region, Vietnam, Nguyen
Van Ngai and Le Thanh Loan
(eds.),VNU-HCM Publisher, Ho Chi
Minh City.
Nguyen Van Sanh (2005) ‘Food Security,
Livelihood and Rural Development’, TrungTamTin vaTu lieu, CIEM, 2008. Dam
A Report at a Workshop on Food
Security in Vietnam in Nong Lam
University, October 2005.
Bao An Ninh Luong Thuc The Gioi va
Viet Nam [Obtaining Food Secrity in
ciem.org.vn/home/vn/home/InfoList.
jsp?area=1&cat=124:bang
Pham Thi Lan Anh, Pham Van Hoan and
Nguyen Duc Minh, 2009. ‘Nguy Co
Mat An Ninh Thuc Pham do Bien Vietnam Media, 2008. ‘Vietnam co nguy co
Dong ve Tu Nhien va Kinh Te Xa
Hoi [Risk of losing foodstuff security
due to Natural and Socio-economic
vn/Information%20Service/Report/
Plenary%20Meeting%20Report%20
17-11-2008/Group%203/Bao%20
mat 5 trieu tan thoc do bien doi khi hau,
[Vietnam can lose 5 million tomes of
paddy per year due climate changes]’,
12 trang
3620
Bạn đang xem tài liệu "The costs of obtaining food security in Vietnam", để tải tài liệu gốc về máy hãy click vào nút Download ở trên
File đính kèm:
- the_costs_of_obtaining_food_security_in_vietnam.pdf
