Vietnam's Agrarian Reform, Rural Livelihood and Policy ... - Rimisp

Figure 4: Recent Trend of Declining Agricultural GrowthSource: Dang, K.S., 2009.Stagnation of agricultural innovation has threatened performance of agricultural growth recently (seeFigure 4). Following a period of rapid growth, the sector has started to slow down remarkably. Thegrowth of agricultural GDP has fallen from 4.9 percent 1996-2000 to 3.7 percent 2001-2005, to 2.8percent in 2006 and to only 2.3 percent in 2007. Meanwhile, contribution by inputs has declinedremarkably. Much of the young and strong labor force has been withdrawn from rural areas;agricultural land has shrunk; the use of fertilizers has increased while fertilizer costs have also gone upand there has been little progress in addressing such constraints as land fragmentation and capitalshortage that discourage farmers to invest in farming machinery. As a result, technology innovationwill be the major force for further agricultural growth in the future.In the long run, in order to sustain agricultural growth, it is necessary to develop a new policy system.Labor will continue to decline and land be limited. To promote further contribution of machinery andequipment there needs to be a way to expand household-level production scale and at the same timebuild farmers’ capacity to invest more in these facilities. Science and technology is seen as the onlysustainable and expandable means to achieve this into the future. Such a means is a joint result ofvarious activities including scientific research, agricultural extension, skilled labor, acquisition of12