December 19, 2003

Vietnam Sets To Double Agricultural Output Over Next 5 Years

Vietnamese authorities are bidding to improve rural farmers' income by doubling its agricultural output value in the next five years.

According to the Vietnam Agricultural Economics Institute, targeted output is 31 million VND per ha, almost double the current agricultural output of 17 million VND per ha.

To that end, Vietnam has to shift an estimated 23% of tilled land to aquaculture, thus bringing over half of the total area of agricultural land to earn an average of 47 million VND or US$3,000 per ha.

Vietnam's agricultural output value now averages just 17 million VND per ha of land, mostly due to low production values by farms which made a mere 11 million VND per ha a year. Meanwhile, the aquaculture sector can easily earn 70 million VND per ha of water surface per year on that same land.

Once the target is achieved, farmers in the Red River Delta will earn some 40 million VND a household or 10 million VND per person a year. The figures in the Mekong Delta will reach 50 million VND and 12 million VND, respectively.

Meanwhile, annual incomes in the northwestern mountainous region will be estimated at just 20 million VND for a farmer household and 5 million VND per head.

So far, up to 2,300 villages are listed as below the poverty line, where a household lives on just 7-8 million VND a year.