The transformation of agriculture and rural life downstream of Hanoi

Abstract

This paper discusses the impacts of urbanization and of recent economic reforms on the livelihoods of farmers in Hanoi’s peri-urban areas. Although the proportion of land used for agriculture is declining, agricultural production is intensifying – for instance, with pork, vegetables and fish production increasing and rice production decreasing. The paper looks in some detail at changes in one peri-urban district on Hanoi’s southern outskirts, including the problems that farmers face from losing agricultural land use rights, increased seasonal flooding and water contamination by city wastes. Most farmers have turned to more intensive horticulture and fish farming, in part because these give much higher returns per hectare and usually (but not always) higher returns per hour. Many farming families have some members working in industry or services. Some have built apartments on their house sites and rent these out or sub-divide their residential lot and sell it to urban house seekers. Some farmers leave land fallow, waiting for urban development opportunities. Farmers who lose their land to the city development agency’s residential or commercial developments get compensation, which used to be fixed arbitrarily but is now increasingly up for negotiation, and a few are using this compensation to develop farms further from the city. As in many other cities, the relationship between urban planners, consumers, rural communities and horticultural producers is uneasy and generally not constructive.