A socio-economic analysis of rice production systems in the uplands of northern Vietnam

A socio-economic analysis of rice production

systems in the uplands of northern Vietnam

Sushil Pandeya,*, Dang van Minhb

a Social Sciences Division, International Rice Research Institute, P.O. Box 933, Manila, Philippinesb College of Agriculture and Forestry, Thai Nguyen University, Thai Nguyen City, Vietnam

Received 19 August 1997; accepted 23 June 1998

Abstract

Production of upland rice under shifting cultivation system is an important economic activity in the mountainous areas of

northern Vietnam. A comparative study of two districts with differential market access and population pressure was conducted

to highlight the effect of these variables on upland rice systems in northern Vietnam. Farmers in the district with a greater

population pressure have a shorter cropping and a shorter fallowing cycle than in the district with lower population pressure.

Farmers reported a high incidence of food shortage in both districts. Income from livestock and wages are important for food

purchases, especially in the district with a better access to market. Even in these upland districts, access to lowland ®elds is a

critical determinant of food security. # 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Upland rice; Slash-and-burn; Food security; Market access; Population pressure; Northern Vietnam

1. Introduction

Upland rice is a major food crop in the humid areas

of the forest zone of Vietnam. In 1991, the area under

upland rice was 0.5 million ha comprising eight

percent of the total area planted to rice in Vietnam.

Upland rice is a major subsistence crop of about 52

ethnic minority groups in Vietnam. Most upland rice

farmers practice shifting cultivation based on slash-

and-burn. The actual area under upland rice is much

larger because a part of the land remains as fallow. The

broader characteristics of the upland production sys-

tems in Vietnam are discussed elsewhere (Hong et al.,

1996; Sam, 1996; Cuc, 1996).

Upland systems in Vietnam as well as in other

countries of south-east Asia are undergoing major

changes with an increase in population pressure and

improved market access (Pandey, 1996). When popu-

lation pressure is low and market access is poor, an

extensive land use strategy is generally adopted. Shift-

ing cultivation based on slash-and-burn and long

fallow (fallow period of more than 20 years) is such

a strategy. Traditional slash-and-burn systems are

considered to be sustainable as the land is fallowed

for a long period after 1 or 2 years of cropping. The

fallow period helps restore the productivity of land.

With the closure of the land frontier in recent years and

continuing increase in population pressure, farmers

are forced to intensify land use by reducing the fallow

period. As a result, crop yields have declined provid-

ing incentives for further encroachment of forested

Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 70 (1998) 249±258

*Corresponding author. Tel.: +63-2-845-0563; fax: +63-2-891-

1292; e-mail: [email protected]

0167-8809/98/$ ± see front matter # 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

P I I : S 0 1 6 7 - 8 8 0 9 ( 9 8 ) 0 0 1 5 2 - 2

areas. A cycle of intensi®ed land use and resource

degradation has thus ensued. Although shifting culti-

vation may be an ef®cient system of land use under

low population density, the practice is unlikely to be

sustainable in the face of increased population pres-

sure. The long-term effect of population pressure on

land use intensity has been well documented

(Boserup, 1965, 1981; Harwood, 1996; Giampietro,

1997).

Market access is another major determinant of land

use pattern. Limited access to market restricts inter-

action between upland and lowland economies in two

ways. Firstly, upland farmers cannot access food from

the lowland because of high costs of transport. This

forces upland farmers to grow subsistence crops even

though they may have a comparative advantage in

producing cash crops. Secondly, high transportation

costs also limit opportunities for enhancing income by

growing cash crops which are in demand in the low-

lands. With improved market access, upland farmers

are able to generate income from the production and

sale of cash crops such as vegetables and fruits which

is then used for purchasing food crops from the low-

land. In both the Philippines and Thailand, the area

under upland rice declined dramatically over the last

three decades as farmers switched to the production of

annual and perennial cash crops to exploit the oppor-

tunities provided by improved market access (Pandey,

1996). The effects of such changes in land use on food

security and environmental degradation depend on the

policy and institutional arrangements that are in place.

The objective in this paper is to document the nature

of the upland rice production system in the mountai-

nous areas of northern Vietnam as well as to assess the

nature of changes occurring in these systems in

response to increased population pressure and

improved access to market. Technological, policy

and institutional interventions to improve the sustain-

ability of upland systems are likely to be successful if

they are based on good understanding of the structure

of the upland economy and the likely pattern of its

change.

2. Study design and sampling

The study of transitions in production systems

ideally requires temporal data over a long period.

As such data are rarely available, a comparative

analysis of production systems subject to different

types and degrees of exogenous in¯uences is often

used to study the likely patterns of changes. The

present study employs this method.

Cao Bang province in northern Vietnam was

selected for studying the upland rice systems in the

northeast mountainous zone. Nguyen Binh and Ngan

Son1 districts of Cao Bang were selected for the study

in consultation with the provincial agricultural of®-

cers. Only those communities within the districts

where the production of upland rice is a major activity

were selected. Farmers in both districts practice `com-

posite swiddening' (Rambo, 1996) involving shifting

cultivation in the uplands and wet rice cultivation in

the lowlands. Although both districts are far from the

provincial town, the market access and the extent of

forest coverage are somewhat different in these dis-

tricts. Ngan Son has a better market access2 as it is

well-connected by a major road to the lowlands of

Thai Nguyen province. The extent of deforestation,

which can be considered as a proxy for land scarcity3,

is also higher in Ngan Son. Thus, Ngan Son could be

considered as the district with a better access to market

and a higher degree of deforestation with Nguyen

Binh having a poorer access to market and a lower

degree of deforestation. The comparative study will,

hence, be based on these two districts representing

different levels of market access and extent of defor-

estation.

1Recently, Ngan Son has been included in the newly-created

province Bac Kan.2The access to market can be variously measured by the physical

distance, the travel time, the cost of transportation, the size of the

market and the marketing margin. Here, the simple measure of the

physical distance from the district headquarter to the main highway

linking the province to Thai Nguyen is used.3The extent of deforestation, defined as the removal of forest

cover, depends on many factors such as logging concessions and

forest management policies in addition to population pressure. As

the two study districts are adjacent to each other, the effects of

logging and forest management policies on the extent of

deforestation are unlikely to be too different. The observed

difference in forest availability could hence be attributed mainly

to the utilization of forest for production of upland crops. As the

techniques for producing upland crops are generally invariant

across farmers in the surveyed districts, the extent of deforestation

could be considered to be a reasonable proxy for population

pressure.

250 S. Pandey, D. van Minh / Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 70 (1998) 249±258

The selection of the respondents was done in two

stages. Firstly, from among the `bans' where upland

rice is grown under shifting cultivation, a limited

number with differential degrees of access were

selected for the study4. Altogether ten `bans' from

Nguyen Binh and six `bans' from Ngan Son were

included in the survey. Secondly, households were

randomly selected from the `bans' selected in the ®rst

step. Altogether, 39 and 31 farmers were interviewed

from Nguyen Binh and Ngan Son, respectively.

The interviewer team consisted of four persons with

good knowledge of the farming systems in mountai-

nous areas of northern Vietnam. In addition, two or

three local people were also included to serve as

guides and interpreters for translating local dialect

into Vietnamese. Interview schedules were pre-tested

before the survey began.

3. Results and discussions

3.1. A brief characterization of Cao Bang

The provincial centre of Cao Bang province is about

300 km north of Hanoi. The provincial population of

0.6 million consists of various ethnic minority groups

of which Tay, Nung, Dzao are the main groups (83%).

The population density is 72 person/km2. In terms of

agro-ecosystems, the province can be divided into two

sub-regions, viz., northeast rocky mountain area and

southwest acidic soil area. Corn is mostly grown in

northeast rocky mountains and upland rice is concen-

trated in the ®ve southwest districts of Bao Lac,

Nguyen Binh, Ngan Son, Babe and Thach An. Cao

Bang is one of the typical northern upland rice areas

with approximately 5000 households practising shift-

ing cultivation. Although upland rice area has declined

since 1990, some 3000 ha were grown in 1995

(Fig. 1). The province belongs to the monsoon tropical

climate region. The winter season (November to

March) is cold and mostly dry. The rainy season (April

to October) is hot. The average annual rainfall is

1700 mm.

3.2. Demographic information in surveyed

area

The inhabitants of the surveyed villages are

the ethnic minority Dzao, consisting of the Dzao

Do and the Dzao Tien sub-ethnic groups. The Dzao,

like the Hmong, practice shifting cultivation. As

opposed to the practice of shifting homestead as well

as ®elds which was common several years ago, the

Dzaos now are mostly sedentary and have swidden

®elds which are cropped on a rotational basis (Cuc,

1996).

The average household consists of 7.2 persons, with

43 percent being in the age group of 15 to 50 years

(Table 1). The ratio of adult (age group 15 to 50) to

children (less than 15 years of age) is almost 1:1. The

elderly comprise nearly 12 percent of the sampled

population.

Fig. 1. Area and yield of upland rice in Cao Bang province.

Table 1

Population distribution by age (number per farm household)

Age group Nguyen Binh Ngan Son Both

(Years)Number % Number % Number %

Less than 5 1.6 21 1.0 15 1.3 18

5 to 15 1.7 23 2.2 32 1.9 26

15 to 50 3.1 42 3.0 45 3.1 43

More than 50 1.0 14 0.5 8 0.8 11

Total 7.5 100 6.8 100 7.2 100

Average family size 7.5 6.8 7.2

4The village here is called `ban' in local language. `Ban' is the

smallest administrative unit that belongs to a commune. The

number of `bans' in each commune ranges from 10 to 15. The

number of households in each `ban' varies from 8 to 25.

S. Pandey, D. van Minh / Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 70 (1998) 249±258 251

3.3. Land characteristics

Although the upland `bans' were selected for the

study, farmers in these `bans' do have some lowland

®elds in the lower part of the toposequence. Lowlands

comprise almost a quarter of the average holding

per household of 0.79 ha in Nguyen Binh. The pro-

portion of lowland is lower in Ngan Son at 15 percent

of the total area per household of 0.82 ha. The avail-

ability of lowland ®elds among upland farmers

comes mainly from government policy which

favoured the distribution of lowlands to each farm

household, wherever possible, in order to enhance

food security.

The land holding is not only small but is also

fragmented. On the average, each household has three

upland parcels and about one lowland parcel. Some

upland parcels are as small as 0.01 ha (Table 2). Most

upland parcels have very steep slopes. The slope of a

parcel was estimated by asking farmers to compare

various degrees of slope drawn on plain paper with the

slope of their ®elds. To verify the accuracy of this

method, farmer estimates of slope for ten farmers were

compared with the slope estimated by interviewer

using a slope meter. The correspondence between

the two estimates was quite good. Overall, more than

50 percent of the upland ®elds in both districts have

slopes in excess of 308.

3.4. Cropping pattern

In upland ®elds, a range of crops such as upland

rice, cassava, corn and sweet potato are grown

(Table 3). Rice is generally the ®rst crop grown after

slash-and-burn. Farmers prefer to grow corn or cas-

sava after growing upland rice for 1 or 2 years.

Generally, parcels having `good' soil (`smooth' soil

and ®elds not rocky) and located nearer to the house

are considered more suitable for upland rice. Corn is

mostly grown in rocky parcels. In the lowland, only

one crop of rice per year is taken and ®elds are

fallowed. As farmers grow wet rice in lowlands and

dry rice in uplands under shifting cultivation, the

farming practice is called composite swiddening

(Rambo, 1996). Upland rice and corn are the major

crops, occupying over 90 percent of the upland

area.

3.5. Rice production practices

In the case of lowland rice, seedlings are trans-

planted in puddled ®elds. The use of inorganic ferti-

lizers is minimal. However, farmers apply up to 4±5 t

of organic manure per ha5. The yield of lowland rice

for 1995 was 3 t/ha in Nguyen Binh and 2 t/ha in Ngan

Son (Table 4).

The labour input for upland rice production is very

high at around 3000 h/ha (Table 5). The time required

Table 2

Range and average area of parcels by land type

Land

type

Nguyen

Binh

Ngan

Son

Both

Lowland

Number of parcels/household 1.15 0.80 1

Range of number of

parcels/household

0±4 0±2 0±4

Average area of parcel (ha) 0.16 0.15 0.15

Range of area of parcel (ha) 0.03±0.45 0.03±0.40 0.03±0.45

Upland

Number of parcels/household 4.08 3.26 3.71

Range of number of

parcels/household

1±7 2±5 1±7

Average area of parcel (ha) 0.15 0.21 0.17

Range of area of parcel (ha) 0.01±0.55 0.01±0.80 0.01±0.80

Table 3

Percentage area under different upland crops

Crop pattern Nguyen

Binh

Ngan

Son

Both

(%) (%)

Corn-sweet potato/soybean 0.42 0 0.20

Fallow-upland rice 81.30 70.74 76.15

Cassava 4.24 5.35 4.78

Fallow-sweet potato 0.21 0.09 0.16

Fallow-corn 13.62 24.15 18.59

Fallow-taro 0.19 0 0.10

Total 100 100 100

5The figures reported by farmers are on fresh weight basis. It is

not possible to provide precise estimates on dry weight basis as the

moisture content varies widely depending on how the manure is

kept.


to walk from the house to the ®eld is included in this

estimate6. The travel time from home to the ®eld of 30

to 60 min is very common (Fig. 2) with the maximum

time reported being 3 h. The practice of using

exchange labour is common for land preparation,

sowing and harvesting. Depending on the size of

the parcel as many as 40 farmers may work on one

®eld before moving to another ®eld.

Labour input for land preparation and weeding

account for two-thirds of the total labour use for

upland rice production. Land preparation is done by

using hoes. Farmers reported that without land pre-

paration, rice yields will be very low because of

hardness of soils and weed problems. Rice seeds

are broadcast and covered by using hoes. This appears

to be normal practice among the Dzao (Cuc, 1996).

Farmers in the study area as do not use dibbling

stick which is common in other slash-and-burn sys-

tems in Laos. This practice may have evolved in

response to increased intensity of land use for crop-

ping which necessitates tillage for breaking com-

pacted top soil as well as for removing weeds

before the crop is planted.

Weeding is done two to three times. Farmers con-

sidered weeding to be one of the most dif®cult tasks

for upland rice production. Reduced fallow period

may have led to increased labour intensity for weed-

ing. This observation is supported by data from Laos

which indicate that the number of weedings increases

very rapidly with a reduction in the fallow period

(Roder et al., 1995). The yield of upland rice in 1995

was around 1.4 t/ha (Table 4).

Most upland rice is harvested by panicle and

bundled. In most cases, bundles are carried to the

house for storage and are threshed only when rice is

needed for food preparation or for sowing. However,

for some varieties prone to shattering, threshing is

done in the ®eld and the grains are carried in bamboo

baskets.

Table 4

Area, yield and production of major food crops

Variable Nguyen

Binh

Ngan

Son

Both

Lowland rice

Area/household (ha) 0.18 0.12 0.15

Yield (kg/ha) 2960 2160 2658

Production (kg/household) 529 268 391

Upland rice


Yield (kg/ha) 1442 1327 1392


Corn


Yield (kg/ha) 1370 1388 1381


Table 5

Seed and labour input use for upland rice

Input Nguyen Binh Ngan Son

Seed (kg/ha) 106 97

Labour (h/ha)

Land preparation 1208 (35) 968 (32)

Sowing 456 (13) 368 (12)

Weeding 1096 (33) 1112 (37)

Harvest 656 (19) 584 (19)

Total labour 3416 (100) 3112 (100)

Note: figures in parentheses are percentages.

Fig. 2. Percentage of parcels by distance from house (in minutes).

6It was not possible to separate the travel time from actual time

worked in the fields as farmers sometimes stayed in the field hut

until a particular operation is completed but at other times they

returned home on a daily basis. Methods other than the memory

recall method used in the survey would be required to obtain the

required resolution. However, the key-informant survey indicated

that the travel time averages around 10±15 percent of the total time

estimated for each activity.


De®ning a variety as the crop population that farm-

ers recognize and name as distinct units7, 30 upland

rice varieties and six lowland rice varieties were grown

in 1995 by the farmers surveyed. All upland rice

varieties are traditional but lowland rice varieties

are both improved and traditional. In addition, lowland

varieties are all non-sticky. Although most farmers

keep their own seeds for the next cropping season, the

practice of exchanging seeds among farmers is com-

mon.

Most households grew three or four varieties. Farm-

ers gave several reasons for growing multiple vari-

eties. Firstly, farmers believed that the risk of total

crop failure by drought and insect attack is reduced by

growing varieties with different characteristics. Sec-

ondly, farmers attempt to match the varieties to the

environmental niches. Different varieties are planted

in ®elds with different soil types. For example, `khau

mo' is mostly planted in parcels where soil is of poorer

quality but `khau lum pua' is only planted in good soil

in the ®rst year after slash-and-burn. Thirdly, output

characteristics also differ by varieties. For example,

every farmer grew at least one sticky rice and one non-

sticky rice variety. Non-sticky rice is consumed more

regularly and sticky rice is consumed in smaller

quantities occasionally and is also used for special

products such as rice cakes. Finally, growing rice

varieties with different phenologies helps stagger

labour demand for weeding and harvesting.

3.6. Fallowing

Fig. 3 presents the frequency distribution of parcels

by fallow period. Overall, the average fallow period in

Nguyen Binh is longer than in Ngan Son. Almost 40

percent of the parcels in Nguyen Binh have fallow

periods in excess of 15 years. In the case of Ngan Son,

more than 70 percent of the parcels have fallow

periods of less than 12 years with almost a quarter

having fallow periods of 4±6 years.

Fields are cropped for several years before being

fallowed again. In Ngan Son, almost 50 percent of the

parcels are cropped only once after slash-and-burn. In

Nguyen Binh, the number of cropping years is longer

with almost 60 percent of the parcels being cropped

for 2±3 years. Theoretically, the number of years of

cropping can be expected to depend on the relative

scarcity of land for new openings and the economic

trade-off between the additional labour required for

new opening versus the magnitude of yield reduction

in previously cropped ®elds. If the length of the fallow

period is used as an indicator of the relative scarcity of

land, a longer cropping cycle in Ngan Son could be

expected. However, most ®elds in Ngan Son are

cropped only once or twice. Perhaps the fallow length

in Ngan Son is not enough to build soil quality

suf®ciently to support more than one or two cropping

cycles. Thus land scarcity may lead to shorter fallow

periods as well as shorter cropping periods. The fallow

in Ngan Son appears to be more degraded as 58

percent of the fallow consists of bush and grass as

opposed to only 40 percent of such fallow in Nguyen

Binh. Thus Ngan Son shifting cultivators seem to be

driven by land scarcity towards a path of shortening

fallow cycle and a more rapid decline in land and

labour productivity. Such a pattern of land use is

clearly unsustainable.

Fig. 3. Percentage of parcels by fallow period.

7Clearly, this is an incomplete view of within-crop diversity

because it does not take into account the allelic or genotypic

diversity present in these varieties. Farmers may give the same

name to genetically distinct populations or different names to the

population with the same genetic makeup. Farmers' nomenclature

of rice varieties is based on salient features. For example, `khau

mo' means tolerant to drought, `khau nua' refers to sticky rice,

`khau thep' refers to non-sticky rice, or `khau lum pua' means very

good taste of cooked rice, `soam doang' means seed has awn, `khau

chet' means July rice, `khau pet' means August rice, etc.


Is there a correlation between length of the cropping

cycle and the slope of the parcel? A higher rate of land

degradation from erosion in ®elds with greater slope

may reduce the number of years of cropping that can

be supported. In a regression of the number years of

cropping on the ®eld slope, the coef®cient associated

with the ®eld slope was positive and statistically

signi®cant ± thus, supporting this hypothesis. The

absolute value of the coef®cient associated with slope

was higher in Ngan Son than in Nguyen Binh indicat-

ing that for a given slope, ®elds in Ngan Son support a

shorter cropping cycle than in Nguyen Binh. This

again provides support to the earlier hypothesis of a

more degraded fallow in Ngan Son.

3.7. Food shortage

Most of the households in the study area reported

that they were unable to meet the family food require-

ment from their own production. More than 15 percent

of the farmers had food shortage8 in all of the past 10

years. The incidence of food shortage seems to depend

critically on the per capita availability of lowlands.

Households who reported food shortage in more than 8

years out of the last 10 years have half the size of

lowland ®elds in comparison with those who suffered

food shortage in none of the years or in only 1 year

during the past 10 years (Table 6).

The incidence of food shortage in any particular

year depends on three factors. Firstly, production may

not be adequate in years with adverse weather condi-

tions. Secondly, the incidence of food shortage

depends on the family size which determines both

the demand for food as well as the labour supplying

capacity. The demand for food grain depends on the

total family size whereas the labour supplying capa-

city depends on the number of adult family members.

Thus the incidence of food shortage is likely to be

higher among households which have a lower propor-

tion of adults. Thirdly, the area of land operated and

soil quality determine the production potential. Farm-

ers with smaller areas or poorer soils are more likely to

suffer from food shortage.

A regression model was used to determine the

relative importance of these factors in explaining

the variation in the level of food availability per

household which was measured by the total quantity

of crops such as rice, cassava, corn, sweet potato and

other root crops produced. Both the farm size and

family size have positive and statistically signi®cant

coef®cients (Table 7). A higher coef®cient associated

Table 6

Land holding of farmers facing food shortages of selected frequencies in the past 10 years

Number of years of shortage Number of farmers Average size of lowland

holding per capita (m2)

Average size of upland

holding per capita (m2)

9 or 10 years 18 154 934

1 year or none 17 309 1056

Table 7

Factors explaining food consumption

Independent variable Coefficient

Nguyen Binh district

Area of lowland 1422.30a

Area of upland 588.88c

Family size 96.22b

Income 26.98

Ngan Son district

Area of lowland 1627.29c

Area of upland 1347.22a

Family size 159.89a

Income ÿ53.57

Both districts

Area of lowland 1491.25a

Area of upland 1056.76a

Family size 109.88a

Income 23.92

a, b, cDenote statistical significance at the 1%, 5% and 10% levels,

respectively.

Definition of variable: Dependent variable ± food consumption per

household (in kg). Independent variable: area of lowland ± area per

family in ha, area of upland ± area per family in ha, income ± cash

income from all sources in million VND (VND 11 000�US$1).

8Shortage is defined as a situation when consumption require-

ment during the year cannot be met from produce from the farm so

that produce has to be bought or borrowed. Thus food shortage

does not necessarily mean consumption shortfall.


with the size of lowland holdings compared with that

of upland holdings re¯ects the higher productivity of

the lowlands in food production. The effect of labour

supply in food production is captured by the family

size. The level of cash income does not have a

statistically signi®cant effect on food availability. In

a subsistence-oriented production system, cash

incomes are generally low and may not greatly affect

the family food supply.

Nearly 68 percent of households reported food

shortage in 1995. About 20 percent of the households

had food shortages for 4±6 months. Food shortages are

felt usually from June to September during which the

food stock from the previous harvest is almost

exhausted. During these lean months, food is either

borrowed from neighbours or purchased using income

generated mainly from labour work and from selling

animals and forest products (Table 8). Purchased rice

is mostly lowland varieties which are brought by local

traders from the lowland and hence are more easily

available than the upland rice. Fig. 4 indicates that the

incidence of food shortage is correlated more closely

with the average size of lowland ®eld per capita than

with the size of the upland ®elds. The quantity of rice

purchased to meet the shortage in production was

found to be positively correlated with the non-farm

income.

3.8. Household incomes

The average cash and non-cash income9 per house-

hold for 1995 was about US$550 (Table 9). At the

average family size of seven persons, this amounts to

about US$78 per capita. More than 60 percent of the

total income is non-cash with the value of rice

accounting for about half the total income. The share

of rice is higher in Nguyen Binh because farmers in

this district have slightly more lowland area. The share

of upland rice in the value of total rice output is 57

percent and 70 percent in Nguyen Binh and Ngan Son,

Table 8

Relative importance of alternative sources of income for buying

food

Source of income for buying food Percentage

response

Selling fruits 1

Selling forest products (wood, fuel wood,

mushroom, bamboo shoot)

20

Labour (gold mine diggers, sawyer wood,

carrying goods)

39

Selling animal (cattle, bufallo, pigs, chicken) 33

Salary 5

Grocery shop in village/wine processing 2

Total 100

Fig. 4. Relationship between the number of reported months of

food shortage in 1995 and the average size of land holding per

capita of the households reporting food shortage.

Table 9

Average annual income by sources (US$/household)

Source of income Nguyen

Binh

Ngan

Son

Both

Cash income

Selling animals 30.21 121.11 70.46

Garden product 2.80 0.44 1.75

Forest product 23.17 19.17 22.56

Wage labour 79.78 65.75 73.56

Selling rice 3.07 2.75 2.92

Sub-total 139.02 209.22 171.27

Non-cash income

Rice for consumption 281.59 206.59 248.18

Other product

(corn, cassava, poultry)

74.73 109.14 89.41

Sub-total 356.32 315.73 337.59

Total income 495.34 524.95 508.86

Note: VND 11 000�US$1.

9Non-cash income is calculated as the imputed value of farm-

produced goods consumed by the household. Market price was

used for imputation.


respectively. Thus rice is still a major income-gener-

ating activity in upland systems although its impor-

tance may have declined over time with gains in

lowland rice productivity. Rice is also the major food

produced and consumed by the farm households

(Table 10).

Major sources of cash income are labour work, and

sale of livestock and forest products. Livestock pro-

duction is a major source of cash income in Ngan Son

as the conditions are more favourable for production

and marketing of livestock in this district. Ngan Son

has a large pastoral area used for raising cattle and

buffaloes. In addition, Ngan Son has good access to

the livestock market of Bac Thai province. Substan-

tially higher cash income from livestock has helped

Ngan Son farmers maintain their annual income at a

par with farmers in Nguyen Binh despite the fact that

the value of rice production in Ngan Son is 35 percent

lower.

Income from forest products include selling of fuel

woods, mushrooms, bamboo products and, to a limited

extent, timber. The relative importance of these indi-

vidual forest products depends on the proximity to a

road. Selling of fuel wood is more common among

farmers located closer to a road. Farmers felt that the

importance of these forest products as a source of wild

food as well as cash income has declined over time

because of deforestation.

Labour income is generated by working on a range

of activities such as carrying goods, working in gold

mines and retailing consumer goods. Most of these

activities are done within the locality. Overall, the

contribution of labour income to cash income is more

than one-third and together with income from live-

stock plays a critical role in enhancing the food

security of upland farmers.

3.9. Concluding remarks

The upland rice production systems of northern

Vietnam have low productivity despite a high level

of labour use. Farmers are extremely poor and face

food shortages of varying intensity. Despite the highly

mountainous terrain of the study area, farmers do have

lowland ®elds where the staple rice crop is grown.

Although most of the rice is produced in upland ®elds

under a slash-and-burn system, farmers rely on low-

land ®elds to augment food supply even in these

remote areas. Hence, an increase in the productivity

of lowland rice may enhance the food security of

farmers in upland areas directly. An improvement

in the productivity of lowland rice can also indirectly

bene®t upland farmers because they mostly purchase

lowland rice in de®cit years. Although not every

farmer in the upland may have access to lowland

®elds, the potential role of lowland rice in enhancing

food security should be recognized by agricultural

researchers and policy makers. In fact, an improve-

ment in lowland rice productivity following de-col-

lectivisation of rice production in 1988 has already

helped to improve the food security of upland farmers

and reduce the upland rice area in recent years.

Farmers generate substantial income from forest

products and labour work in upland areas. The con-

tribution of these sources of income is likely to be

higher among the smaller farmers. The extraction of

forest products is often a major source of cash for

women. Rural development policies which limit

access to forests without providing alternative sources

of cash income can, therefore, undermine the welfare

of the poorer and disadvantaged segments of upland

societies.

The comparison of the nature of production systems

of districts with differential access to market and

forest indicates that access to market plays an impor-

tant role in enhancing income and food security of

upland farmers. Farmers in the Ngan Son district,

which is characterized as having better access to

market, were able to maintain their income at par

Table 10

Average production and consumption of different commodities (kg/

household)

Nguyen Binh Ngan Son Both

Production

Rice 1262 899 1101

Corn 108 230 162

Cassava 18 24 22

Other root crops 19 0 11

Consumption

Rice

Self-produced 1244 1111 1185

Purchased 133 163 147

Cassava 204 244 222

Sweet potato 127 222 169

Corn 14 16 15


with farmers in Nguyen Binh by relying on livestock

production despite a lower productivity of their rice

®elds. Ngan Son farmers were able to exploit the

existence of large pastoral ®elds for grazing cattle

and buffaloes which are sold in a nearby town. The

pastoral ®elds are normally classi®ed as barren land

implying low economic value of such land. The results

of this study show that such lands can have quite a

large economic value, provided access to markets can

be developed. Policies which seek to limit access to

such land of®cially classi®ed as barren land or to

convert it to other uses can thus adversely affect

farmers' welfare.

In comparison with Nguyen Binh, farmers in Ngan

Son are forced to reduce the fallow length and reduce

the number of crops in each cropping phase because of

a relative scarcity of productive land. A similar pattern

of reduced fallow might emerge in Nguyen Binh as

population pressure increases in the future. If access to

markets could be improved, farmers in Nguyen Binh

could similarly bene®t from interaction with the low-

land economy through livestock production. In upland

areas where farmers have a limited resource base

for food production, diversi®cation of economic

activity based on improved linkages with the lowland

systems can be a successful strategy for enhancing

food security.

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the support of the Thai

Nguyen University in conducting this study. The

assistance of Mr Hoang van Phu, Thai Nguyen Uni-

versity, was instrumental in the initial planning of the

study. The authors also thank anonymous referees and

an Editor-in-chief for improvements to our earlier

version of this paper.

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A socio-economic analysis of rice production systems in the uplands of northern Vietnam

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