FAMILY FARMING POLICY SUPPORT REVIEW: LESSONS FROM VIETNAM

Vietnamese agriculture reforms were embedded into general economic reforms (Doi Moi) in 1986, enabling the country’s transition toward a market economy. Since 1988, they were implemented incrementally together with complementary instruments such as agricultural market liberalization and new economic incentives. Firstly, the de-collectivization of socialist producer cooperatives and assigning land use rights to its former members, developing and adapting a Land Law, and enhancing tenure security through gender-balanced inheritable land certificates. In addition to promoting individualized rights, recognized household economics (Family farming), successive reforms have contributed to accelerating the agricultural transformation process by encouraging perennial crop and forestry systems, and allowing rural land rentals and land sales markets to re-emerge. Vietnam’s success in smallholder rice productivity and intensification are a source of learning experiences for many developing countries. The lessons learnt from government support policy for a success story of small farm development in Vietnam for 30 years will be presented in this article.