VietNamNet Bridge – More and more farmers in the provinces of Hai Duong, Thanh Hoa, Ninh Binh, Nam Dinh and Nghe An have given up farming and given back the land allocated to them.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has sent dispatches to local authorities, requesting to report about the land return in the provinces.

Analysts have warned that this is a growing tendency in many localities. The noteworthy thing is that farmers have given up farming even in the localities with very low average agriculture land per capita.

The ministry has expressed its worry that the tendency has had negative impacts on the agriculture production, while having badly affected farmer’s feelings and caused a big waste in the agriculture land use.

High fees prompt farmers to give up farming

A survey conducted by the Agency of Cooperatives and Rural Development, an arm of MARD, every farming household has to pay 30-40 expense items, worth VND250,000-800,000 a year on average.

In the Red River Delta, farmers have contribute money to 26 funds, about VND350,000-500,000 a year. Meanwhile, the farmer sin the midland and mountainous areas in the north have to pay 28 expense items, worth VND250,000-400,000.

The two biggest expense items they have to pay are the one on building and upgrading the rural roads and schools, about VND672,000-872,000 a year.

Of the 10 items paid for cooperative services, the irrigation service fee accounts for 70 percent of the total fees, estimated at VND380,000.

According to Nguyen Huu Duong, Director of the Hai Duong provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development--the State, in an effort to support the agriculture production, has exempted many expense items. However, while the farmers don’t have to pay charges and fees to the State, they have to pay too much to the local funds or pay for cooperative service fees.

Dr. Dang Kim Son, Head of the Institute for Polices and Strategies for Agriculture and Rural Development, said in other countries, it is quite a normal thing that farmers sell fields to shift to other types of business,

In Vietnam, a lot of farmers have given up farming, or left working in cities, because they don’t need land for cultivation any longer. However, they have been keeping the land, while other people lack land to grow rice.

However, it is quite abnormal that a lot of farmers pay back land at this moment. They do this not because they can earn their living by taking other jobs, but because the rice fields – the main source of their income – has become a burden on their shoulders.

Challenge or opportunity?

Luong Anh Te, Chair of the Hai Duong provincial Fatherland Front’s Committee commented that the farmers’ land returning is a challenge, but it can also bring the opportunity to find out the solutions to the large-scale agriculture production.

Te said that local authorities should think of the land accumulation solutions which allocate larger land areas to the farmers who have sufficient capital and knowledge to make products at the lower production costs.

Meanwhile, some analysts also said that this should not be seen as a “danger,” but as the opportunity for the labor restructuring, because Vietnam should not maintain the high percentage of 70-80 percent of the population earning their living on agriculture production.

TBKTVN