Over recent decades, Vietnam’sagricultural sector has made enormous progress, realizingmajor gains in productivity and output and contributing tonational goals related to food security, poverty reduction,social stability, and trade. Nevertheless, there are growingconcerns related to the quality and sustainability ofVietnam’s agricultural growth and related patterns ofdevelopment. A comparatively low quality of growth ismanifested by low smallholder farmer profitability,considerable under-employment among agricultural workers,mixed or uncertain product quality and food safety, lowvalue addition, and limited technological orinstitutionalinnovation. Some agricultural growth has comeat the expense of the environment in the forms ofdeforestation, biodiversity loss, land degradation, waterpollution, and greenhouse gas emissions. In most locations,agricultural growth has involved an increase in croppingareas or intensities and ever higher uses of inputs andnatural resources. Hence, more output has come from more andmore inputs and increasing environmental costs. Vietnameseagriculture now sits at a turning point. The sector nowfaces growing domestic competition—from cities, industry,and services—for labor, land and water. Rising labor costsare beginning to inhibit the sector’s ability to competeinternationally as a low cost producer of bulkundifferentiated commodities. The country’s ruralyouth haverising aspirations for living standards. Vietnam’s expandingconsumer class and trade partners are expecting higherstandards, both for products and production practices. Goingforward, Vietnam’s agriculture will need to generate ‘morefrom less’. That is, it will need to generate more economicvalue—and farmer and consumer welfare—using less natural andhuman resources and without degrading the environment. Itwill need to rebrand itself and increasingly compete on thebases of innovation, reliable supply, predictable quality,and assured food safety and environmental protection.
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