Fruits and Vegetables in Vietnam - International Food Policy ...

highest concentration of female-headed farmers is higher in the North (11 percent) than in the South (4.5
percent).
The most common level of education for household heads was middle school, with 47 percent of
male heads of household and 58 percent of female heads of household having only completed middle school.
Less than 2 percent of the heads of household have not completed primary school. About one quarter of the
heads of households have at least a secondary school education. There is no significant difference between
the education levels of male- and female-heads.
2.2 Labor use
Labor resources available to producers include labor by family members, permanent employed labor,
temporarily employed labor and in-kind labor 4 . This labor is used for fruit and vegetable production and
other agricultural activities. Section 6.1 analyses the labor use in fruit and vegetable production on an
activity basis for each fruit or vegetable. This section analyzes labor use in terms of labor type on a regional
basis.
The most common type of labor used for agricultural purposes is family labor. Table 3-3 shows that
98 percent of the farms utilized family labor (both male and female) for agricultural production. More than
two-thirds of the grower households used only family labor, while the remaining 31 percent used some hired
labor. Temporary male and female labor were used by 27 and 25 percent of producers, respectively.
However, those farms that do use temporary labor for agricultural production hire, on average, 5.5 temporary
male and 6.7 temporary female laborers for about 40 days each. As a result, temporary workers account for
about half of the workforce and family members the other half. Permanent workers are quite rare, found in
less than 2 percent of the farms. On average, the number of days per worker per year for agricultural labor
is approximately 153 days.
Agricultural wages average VND 20 thousand per day. Female workers appear to earn about 5-10
percent less than similar male workers. There are also large regional gaps in wage rates. Temporary
workers in the North are paid VND 14.5 thousand per day, while those in the south receive VND 25.9
thousand per day. These differences in cash wages may reflect differences in off-farm opportunities,
land/labor ratios, and/or differences in patterns of non-monetary compensation (such as provision of meals).
2.3 Experience with fruits and vegetables
Most fruit and vegetable producers began operations relatively recently. About one-half of the
respondents started growing fruits and vegetables since 1990 and two-thirds since 1986. These figures do
not simply reflect the year the household starting farming. In 1990, 96 percent of the household heads were
at least 18 years old, so in most cases they grew other crops before starting to produce fruits and vegetables.
This suggests that the economic reforms have facilitated the transition from subsistence crop production to
the production of higher-value commercial crops such as fruits and vegetables.
4 No respondents used in-kind labor while only 11 respondents out of 1505 indicated that they hired permanent
workers on their farms (total workforce of 19 males and 22 females with an average of 2.3 workers per farm), and 9
Chapter 3. Commercial growers of fruits and vegetables Page 3-2