Income Diversification and Poverty Income Diversification and Poverty

Chapter 3. Patterns and trends in diversification
Because non-crop agricultural production (livestock, aquaculture, and forestry) and non-farm
income tend to be more commercial, the marketed share of agricultural output and total income is
almost always greater than the marketed share of crop output. Thus, about half the agricultural output
of the rural Northern Uplands is marketed and over two-thirds of total income is in the form of cash,
according to the 2002 VHLSS. The southern regions tend to be even more commercially oriented.
About 85 percent of the agricultural output of the Southeast and Mekong Delta is marketed, as is 90
percent of the income in these regions.
In general, rural households are becoming more commercialized over time. For example, the
marketed share of crop production in the rural Northern Uplands has increased from 22 percent in
1993 to 34 percent in 2002 (though most of this increase occurred in the 1993-98 period). For the
country as a whole, the share rose from 40 percent in 1993 to 61 percent in 2002. The fact that the
marketed share of crop output in the Central Highlands fell between 1998 and 2002 may reflect the
drop in the world prices of coffee, reducing the value of sales relative to subsistence food crop
production (see Table 3-18 and Figure 3-1).
Table 3-18. Measures of commercialization by region in 1993, 1998 and 2002
Year and Region
Share of output that is sold
Crop Agricultural Total
output output income
(percent) (percent) (percent)
1993
Northern Uplands 22 36 68
Red River Delta 23 39 81
North Central Coast 22 37 74
South Central Coast 23 39 85
Central Highlands 78 77 92
Southeast 65 69 93
Mekong River Delta 56 59 88
Total 40 48 84
1998
Northern Uplands 33 44 75
Red River Delta 29 45 88
North Central Coast 30 44 80
South Central Coast 46 55 86
Central Highlands 78 78 88
Southeast 77 79 95
Mekong River Delta 74 74 91
Total 54 59 87
2002
Northern Uplands 34 52 71
Red River Delta 34 61 83
North Central Coast 38 63 82
South Central Coast 53 73 91
Central Highlands 74 74 80
Southeast 88 84 89
Mekong River Delta 84 85 91
Total 61 70 84
Source: Analysis of the 1993 and 1998 VLSS and the 2002 VHLSS.
percentages, the marketed share is smaller. For example, the marketed share of crop production in Vietnam in
2002 would be 43 percent using this method of calculation, rather than 61 percent as reported in the table.
Page 59