VietNamNet Bridge - Local authorities throughout the country have been moving ahead with land accumulation models. However, the concentrated land areas remain modest compared with the localities’ potential and needs.

As a business providing hi-tech agriculture solutions to farmers in the north, Nang Tam Gia Tri Viet Company has fallen into a dilemma when developing large farms.

Nghiem Xuan Toan, president and CEO of the company, said he had met every farmer who has land plots in the company’s projected area, provided information, and gave explanation about the production chain to be implemented in cooperation by the company and farmers. 

However, because of old production habits, many landlords still have separated areas and the company cannot obtain land big enough for large-scale production.

Vo Tri Hao from the HCMC Economics University noted that many problems have arisen in the land accumulation process. The land concentration is built on the base of contractual relationships between enterprises and farmers, and therefore, there are many latent risks.

To organize large-scale production, investors need to have large land areas. And in order to have land, they have to negotiate with a lot of farmers and face the risk that farmers may break land leasing contracts. 

Also, many problems remain unclear. Suppose that investors successfully grow crops on the rented land area and build farm produce brands. Who will the brands belong to?

There are four types of land accumulation. First, farmers lease land to enterprises. Second, farmers contribute capital to businesses with their land plots. Third, the state takes back land from farmers and lease the land to enterprises. And fourth, farmers sell land to enterprises. 

Of the four types, leasing land remains the one chosen by most farmers, because they don’t want to sell land definitely, but want to keep their ownership over the land.

According to Tran Du Lich, a renowned economist, in North European countries, 70 percent of area of large farms is land leased from farmers, while farmers work as hired workers on their land.

As such, farmers have income from their daily work and when they get old and cannot work anymore, they will still have the land rental to live on. 

Provincial authorities all say that land concentration is the optimal solution to untie the knot for investors to develop agricultural projects.

In Ha Nam province, for example, four agricultural production zones, totaling 500 hectares, have set up in accordance with the land accumulation model. These zones have helped the province attract a lot of agricultural projects, including those of An Phu Hung JSC and its Japanese partner, Vineco, and the Ha Nam Hi-tech Agriculture Development JSC.

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