agricultural development in the Northern mountainous midland provinces towards Sustainability

The difficulties and challenges mentioned aboves how that if maintaining the agricultural development methods in the Northern mountainous midlands as present, it will certainly bring ser

INTRODUCTION

1- The necessity of this research

The Northern mountainous midlands is the most majestic mountainous region of Vietnam where most of the ethnic minority people reside (35/54 ethnicities) and where exists the longest border land with the People’s Republic of China (over 1500 km) and The People’s Republic and Socialist of Laos (560 km) Therefore, The Northern mountainous midlands plays

a key role in the socio-ecomic development, the environment protection and the country’s defence as well

Acknowledging the important location of the Northern moutainous midland provinces

in the cause of building and protecting the homeland, in the recent years, especially since Đoi moi (Innovation), the Communist Party and the Government of Vietnam have always paid special attention to the comprehensive development of this area Hence, the economy of the whole area has rapidly improved in many aspects like food, housing, transportation, study, electricity, water supply and media ; basically, the security in the area is stable

However, as a mountainous area with poor infrastructure, scattering population and low educational level, the main and important production is agriculture despite the fact that industry, commerce and service have been developed Agriculture, particularly cultivation, livestock and forestry, is the key for job and income; and ensure the lives of the majority of people in the area Currently, agriculture in the Northern mountainous midland provinces is facing serious challenges in its development, which are:

-Firstly, limited land for agriculture, only 1,571,100 ha, accounting for 14.94% of the

total land for nationwide agriculture, but it is located in different levels of terrains; and the quality of the land is poor It is noticeable that the total land area for agriculture has been narrowing down due to the changes in the purposes of land use (for indutrial development, such as hydropower, mining, commerce, services, tourism and urban development) and land erosion because of flood

-Secondly, Northern moutainous midland provinces has the largest forestry area in the

whole country (5,662,700 ha, accounting for 34.79% of the total land for forestry nationwide) Forests in the Northern mountainous midland provinces protect the land and water resources and regulate the climate not only for the area but also for the whole Northern delta However, the forestry area has been quickly decreased over the past years; in Son La province, forest only covers over 10%

-Thirdly, the Northern mountainous midland provinces is the region with rich water

sources (many rivers, streams, ponds and lakes) but due to improper use of water, water resources in the region are increasingly exhausted and polluted, causing difficulties in agricultural production

-Fourthly, due to objective and subjective reasons such as mass development,

short-term benefits, limited understanding in agricultural production, farmers have used chemical fertilizers, pesticides for crops, preventive medicines for cattle and poultry, the chemicals in protection and storage of agricultural products that contaminates and destroys the land and water sources, which has been leaving greatly effects on agricultural production of the region

in the future

- Fifthly, with the poor and backward infrastructure of the whole socio-economic region

in general, the infrastructure for the region's agricultural production in particular, it's very worrying that agricultural production methods extremely is outdated, mainly on household and extensive cultivation

- Then, agricultural activities in the region mainly rely on human labour, but there is a

limited number of qualified employees in all aspects, especially the level of knowledge of agricultural science and technology is limited; income and living standard are better than before but still among of the lowest in the country

-Finally, border with China of over 1,500km, a market with over 1.3 billion people, is a

significant advantage in the consumption of agricultural products However, China is a complex market, their pressure on the agricultural development of the region is quite huge, especially in a complicated relation

The difficulties and challenges mentioned aboves how that if maintaining the agricultural development methods in the Northern mountainous midlands as present, it will certainly bring serious consequences to the region in particular and to the whole country in general in many ways

Accordingly, the researcher selected the topic of "Agricultural Development in the Northern mountainous midland provinces towards Sustainability" to conduct the PhD thesis

Specific objectives:

-To present the theory of agricultural development towards sustainability

-To analyze and assess the current status of agricultural development in the Northern mountainous midland provinces in a sustainable way in the past years

-To propose direction and recommendations to promote the rapid development of sustainable agriculture from now until 2020

3- Research target and scope

The research target of this thesis is sustainable agriculture development, in which, agriculture is defined as cultivation, forestry and fishery However, due to the fact that the Northern mountainous midlands has limited water surface, the position of fishery in agriculture is low, this research thesis mainly focused on cultivation, livestock and forestry Sustainable development includes three aspects: economic, social and environmental However, due tothe limitations of the materials, the social and environmental aspects are addressed at acertain level in this thesis, not strictly following the theory

Location: the researchwas conducted in 14 provinces of the region (with comparison to

Time: study and assess agricultural development in the Northern mountainous midland provinces in the period 2000 to 2012 and propose solutions to improve the sustainability of agriculture in the future period of 2013to 2020

4- Research approaches and methodologies

*Research approach:

To successfully fulfill the set objectives, the researcher has applied the following approaches:

-Firstly, from theory to practice: the thesis followed the concepts, definitions,

evaluation criterria that have been concluded and recognized by the international community for the review and assessment of the current situation of agricultural development industry towards sustainability in the Northern mountainous midland provinces of Vietnam, and for identifying successes and limitations as well as the root causes of this situation From that, the thesis recommended scientific and feasible solutions for the sustainable development of regional agriculture in the coming period

-Secondly,from macro to micro: from the directions and policies of the Communist

Party of Vietnam and the Government of Vietnam in developing a sustainable agriculture in order to analyze and assess the implementation of these directions and policies of the local authorities, production establishment sand people

-Thirdly,from theory to practice, from micro to macro: from the situation of local

agricultural development towards sustainability in The Northern mountainous midlands, the research concluded a number of issues to complement the theory for development of a sustainable agriculture in general, and amendment and improvement of directions and policies of the Party and Government on this issue

- Fourthly,inter-sector and inter-region approach: research on the development of

sustainable agriculture in The Northern mountainous midlands must be done in the context of close relationship with other industries and other sectors in the province, as well as with other regions in the country

- Next, systematic approach: recognized the problem through a systematic and hierarchy

structure, which is a comprehensive and dynamic approach This approach helps to analyze the dialectical relationship between the elements of sustainable development including economic, social and environmental

- Lastly, institutional approach is the approach that enables the analysis of the

implementation of government policies and regulations, from that identifying the solutions that suitable with specific characteristic so The Northern mountainous midlands, creating driving force for the development

*Research methodologies:

The key research methodologies in this research are:

-Data collection:

+ Data collection through reports and documents: Data was collected through statistic

yearbooks, reports from Northern midland provinces and related studies in the area

+ Field research: For a solid basis for the analysis and evaluation of the state of

sustainable in Northern mountainous midland, which may suggest some recommendations

for the development process in the future, the researcher has conducted fieldwork in some areasthat have better agricultural development than other areas in the region

+ Consulting experts:This is a way of data collection through consultation with experts,

scientists, managers who are knowledgeable about the research topic

- Data synthesis and cleaning:

The thesis have summarized theories and researches related to sustainable development and sustainable agricultural development in general, and agricultural development in a sustainable way for The Northern mountainous midlands of Vietnam in particular Synthesis method was also be used in the collection and processing of documentation related to the content of the research thesis

Data synthesis was conducted in following stages:

+ Searched and synthesized the research of international scientists and organizations about sustainable development of a specific country, region, or a specific industry and economic

+ Collected researches of scientists, managers, research institutes, universities in Vietnam about sustainable socio-economic development of the country in general or sustainable development for the region, an industry or a certain sector in particular, that have been published

+ Collected the doctoral and master thesis studied issues related to development of sustainable agriculture in the local Northern mountainous midlands (developed plants crop and livestock, and methods of agricultural production, training to farmers,etc.)

+ Gathered statistics on agricultural development to the country in general and of each province in the Northern mountainous midlands in particular In addition, the researcher also visited some districts in the region to collect data on agricultural development

- Data analysis:

-Dialectic methodology: This method is used throughout the thesis, especially when

analyzing the interaction between socio-economics and environment in sustainable agriculture development, as well asthe impact of investing resources in that development process

-Synthesis methodology: The thesis summarized theories and researches related to

sustainable development in general and agricultural sustainable development in particular, to solve problems in agricultural development towards sustainability in the Northern mountainous midlands of Vietnam Synthesis method was also used in data collection and processing

-Historical comparision methodology: The stability-based process of agriculral

development of the Northern mountainous midland provinces is not only analysed, collated and compared through each developing stages of this area but also compared with other areas over the country

5- Contributions of this research

-This research paper systematizes and clarifies the concepts related to sustainable

agricultural development, especially the concept, definition and evaluation criteria; develops

a theorical framework for studies on sustainable agricultural development in the Northern mountainous midland provinces

-This research paper applies the theorical framework that developed to analyze the situation of sustainable agricultural development in the Northern mountainous midland provinces from 2000 to now

-This research paper provides a system of ideas, orientation and solutions to expedite the process of sustainable agricultural development of the region

6-Structure of the research

Apart from Introduction, Conclusion, Reference and Annexes, this research paper consists of 4 chapters:

Chapter 1: Literature review of related national and international researches

Chapter 2: Theories and practices of the sustainable agricultural development

Chapter 3: Situation of the sustainable agricultural development in the Northern

mountainous midland provinces in the period of 2000-2012

Chapter 4: Recommendations for improvement of the sustainability of agricultural development in the Northern moutainous midlands region until 2020

CHAPTER 1 LITERATURE REVIEW

The thesis mentioned 6 overseas and 21 domestic researches From these researches, a number

of issues are clearly shown, as below:

- Firstly, it is affirmable that researches overseas and domestic have given a clear picture of sustainable development, from definition to content and indicators of evaluation that countries all over the world basically agree with Certainly, depending on the certain context of each country, in each development stage, there is an emphasis on one point or the other

- Secondly, agricultural development towards sustainability has already been mentioned

in a number of researches, however, merely in the range of one or a couple of agricultural products and within a province or a district

- Thirdly, particularly with the Northern mountainous midland region, there have been researches directly or indirectly addressing sustainability-oriented agricultural production development, yet the scopes of these researches are limited at a particular product, in a particular locality There has not been any research project on sustainable agricultural development in the entire region

Provinces located in the Northern mountainous midland region share similarity in their natural, economic and social conditions and have close relation with the Red River Delta, specifically the weather, climate and water sources This region is also important in terms of national defense Therefore, it is needed to develop sustainable agriculture in the whole region so

as to ensure the ecological balance of the region and the Red River Delta This is a gap that has not been tackled by previous researches This thesis will try to fill this gap

There are a large number of researches related to sustainable agricultural development

It must be said that conducted researches in Vietnam and elsewhere have been analysed comprehensively and thoroughly about sustainable development in general and sustainable agricultural development in particular Nevertheless, these researches either discussed on sustainable development generally or sustainable agricultural development specifically at the macro level or at a certain sector or locality; there is yet a research on agricultural development towards sustainability in the Northern mountainous midland provinces, in both theoretical and practical aspects

CHAPTER 2 THEORIES AND PRACTICES OF SUSTAINABLE

AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT

2.1- Perception of sustainable development

The content of sustainable development is defined to comprise three pillars1:

(i) Economic sustainability: Ensuring stable, long-term and efficient economic growth; (ii) Social sustainability: Ensuring social equality and human development;

(iii) Environmental sustainability: Exploiting and utilizing natural resources properly, preserving and continously improving the quality of living environment, ensuring that people enjoy their lives in a clean, healthy and safe environment, which harmonizes the relations between the people, the society and the nature

Figure 2.1: Three pillars of sustainable development

Three pillars of sustainable development mentioned above are targets to achieve in the development process, as well as features of the development process in the modern context

2.2-Sustainable agricultural development

2.2.1.Agriculture and features of agricultural production

Agriculture, in a narrow sense includes cultivation, husbandry and agricultural services (services in agricultural production), while in a broaden sense it also covers forestry and fishery In this thesis, the researcher will study agriculture in its broaden sense

Agricultural production differs from other production, the differences are:

a- If in other economic industries land is only a condition and a basis for production,

business and services, in agricultural production it is the key material for production, a special irreplaceable material

b- In other industries, production time almost coincides with labour time, this is not the

case in agricultural production In agricultural production, especially cultivation, production time and labour time are quite different The reason is beside the time being influenced by human, plants and animals are also effected by other natural factors including physical,

1Assoc Prof Dr Nguyen Ngoc Son, Dr Bui Duc Tuan, Economic Development Textbook, National Economics University, 2012

Sustainable development

Environmental target

Social

target

Economic target

Economy

SD

chemical and biological elements Under these two types of intervention, plants and animals survive, grow and provide valuable products Thus, labour time in agriculture are regularly in turns with production time, this makes labour in agriculture always seasonal

As a result, addressing the seasonal labour in agriculture is a critical requirement of sustainable agricultural development in all countries around the world

c- Objects of production in other industries are lifeless and inanimate things, while

objects of production in agriculture are living plants and animals, having their own rules of growth and development Therefore, understanding these rules and making proper intervention will help them grow well and produce quality products that ensure sustainability,

otherwise human beings will have to face with unexpected consequences

2.2.2- Sustainable agricultural development and indicators for evaluation

Generally, sustainable agricultural development is similar to sustainable economic development in ensuring three pillars: economic sustainability, social sustainability and environment sustainability In 1992, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation

(FAO) defined sustainable agricultural development as: “the management and conservation

of the natural resource base, and the orientation of technological and institutional change in such a manner as to ensure the attainment and continued satisfaction of human needs for present and future generations Such sustainable development (in the agriculture, forestry and fisheries sectors) conserves land, water, plant and animal genetic resources, is environmentally non-degrading, technically appropriate, economically viable and socially acceptable” Nevertheless, due to the characteristics of agricultural production as mentioned

above, sustainability in each aspect has its unique features

Economic sustainability:

In agriculture, economic sustainability is understood as the steady increase of productivity and yield of crops and livestock in each certain stage

To evaluate economic sustainability in agricultural development, many indicators can

be used, however, following are the most important in our opinion:

- Productivity of crops (unit: cwt/ha)

- Productivity of livestock (unit: kg/animal or liter/animal/year as for milk)

- Production value of the entire agriculture sector (in broaden sense) and of each sector (agriculture, forestry, fishery)

sub Growth rate of overall agricultural production, of each individual subsub sector, or of

each specific product (this indicator is calculated in %)

- Production value on each hecta of agriculture land, unit: million VND/ha (given the

features of agricultural production, land used for production is divided into 3 types)

- Production value generated by 1 labour (unit: million VND/1 person) This indicator

can also be used for each sub-sector or each product depending on purpose of calculation

- Proportion of sub-sectors of agricultural production (agriculture, forestry and fisheries)

and proportion of smaller divisions within each sub-sector (in narrow sense of agriculture,

they are cultivation, husbandry and supportive agricultural services) This indicator is calculated in percentage that each sub-sector or division accounts for

- Yield of grain products per capita Unit: kg / person / year

- The average income per household member/ month (unit: 1000 VND/ person/ month)

- The poverty rate (in %)

- Ratio of literacy of adults

Environmental sustainability:

Here are key indicators often used to reflect the environmental sustainability of production development:

- The area of degraded land

- The area of improperly irrigated land

- The forest area and forest coverage rate

- The number of incidents and areas of forest fire and destroyed forest

2.3- Factors influencing sustainable development of agricultural production

There are objective and subjective factors that influence the sustainable development of agricultural production, in summary, there are 3 groups as below:

- First, factors of natural condition: have great impacts to sustainable development of agricultural production

- Second, factors of economic condition: many factors fall in this group, namely infrastructure and facilities for agricultural production, policy system, development

of market system, etc

- Third, factors of social condition: have quite a lot of impacts to agricultural development towards sustainability, noticably education level and population distribution

2.4- Best practice on sustainable agricultural development in other countries and territories

2.4.1- Best practice of the Netherlands

2.4.2 Best practice of South Korea

2.4.3- Best practice of Thailand

2.4.4- Best practice of China

2.4.5- Lessons learnt for Vietnam in general, for Northern mountainous midland provinces in particular in terms of sustainable agricultural development

- First of all, in order to develop agriculture in a sustainable way, the decisive

factor is having strong supports from the State, particularly to difficult areas, ethnic minority

areas, mountainous areas, remoted and distanced areas The State’s supports must be given in various aspects, in a suitable timeframe and ideally through national programmes The State must provide a policy system that actually encourages the mobilization of all economic sectors to actively invest in developing agricultural production in a sustainable way

- Second, in order to develop the agriculture in a sustainable way, it is needed to

follow seriously and efficiently the motto: "coordination of the State and the People” The State plays a very important role, however, the State does not do the work on behalf of farmers The State merely creates a favourable conditions for the farmers to promote their ability in agricultural development, as well as makes an initial push to create a momentum for the farmers to continue their path (certainly, the State shall always supervise and support farmers should they meet difficulties or obstacles) Specifically, the State issues incentive policies for agricultural development, especially land policy, credit policy, science and technology policy, pricing policy, taxation policy, etc., as well as provides partial supports for physical resources (seeds, animal feed and supplies, machinery, equipment, finance, etc.)

to farmers to facilitate the production and business activities

-Third, experiences from other countries have shown that in order to develop agriculture in a sustainable way, the State and the people must focus on addressing

comprehensively various economic, technical and management issues Above all, it is required to rapidly set up modern facilities; to timely apply advanced science and technology

in production and trading; and to quickly train and build capacity of qualified human resource meeting the demand for development

CHAPTER 3 CURRENT SITUATION OF SUSTAINABLEAGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE NORTHERN MOUNTAINOUS

MIDLAND PROVINCES IN THE PERIOD OF 2000 TO 2012 3.1- Natural, social economic features of the Northern mountains midland provinces related to sustainable agricultural development

Forestry land (1.000 ha)

Population in

2012 (1.000 person)

3.1.2- Economic features

Due to the complex terrain and deeply divided, the Northern mountainous midland provinces have the poor economic conditions, including notably:

- Infrastructure development to serve the economic, social and environmental development

of the area was invested by the Communist Party and the Government but still backward

- Despite the region's economy has shifted and developed rapidly in recent years, it has shifted and developed by backward knowledge in limited scale (this is generally in the region also has a number of local qualified relatively well developed as Lao Cai, Lang Son, Thai Nguyen, Phu Tho, Bac Giang)

3.1.3- Social features

The Northern mountainous midland provinces is largely inhabited by ethnic minorities

in our country (more than 30 different ethnic groups), including notably the ethnic Thai, Tay, Nung, Muong, H Mong, Knives, Khomu, Resistance, Giay Unless the Kinh people, the other ethnic groups, the most populous nation and only about 1 million people, and the most

a few tens of thousands of people, even some ethnic people populationis just under 1 thousand

- History and development of The Northern mountainous midland provinces tied to the history and development of the people of Vietnam

- Natural conditions are complex and fragmented, poor infrastructure, underdeveloped economic, ethnic minorities much and lower intellectual level and has brought no less a disadvantage in terms of social opportunity for the region, especially the problem of poverty, the existence of old traditions, social evils, and taking advantage of this weakness to instigate people against the authorities, against the regime of social socialist enemy

3.2- Current stituation of the development of agricultural production of the Northern mountainous midland provinces from 2000 to 2012

3.2.1- Agricultural production growth and stable continuous

From 2000 to 2012, all the three sectors: agriculture, forestry and fisheries of the region had a relatively well developed

Figure 3.2 : The value of Agricultural-Foresty and Aquatic Production in the

Northern mountainous midland provinces 2000 to 2010

Source: GSO, 2005, 2010

3.2.2-Crop industry grows steadily over the years:

Appendix: Productivity and yield of local maize of the Northern mountainous midland

2-Cao Bang

-Productivity 24.1 26.0 27.3 29.3 29.3 29.6 32.5 -Yield 75.8 86.2 96.1 109.1 112.7 113.8 127.7

3-Bac Kan

-Productivity 21.4 26.5 27.3 34.5 35.0 36.7 37.2 -Yield 21.2 35.0 39.8 55.6 58.4 58.3 61.4

4-Tuyen Quang

-Productivity 33.0 37.6 40.7 41.4 41.2 42.3 43.1 -Yield 38.6 53.0 59.9 73.2 66.7 70.2 60.4

5-Lao Cai

-Productivity 17.0 23.3 24.2 28.5 28.0 32.4 34.0 -Yield 38.3 57.3 64.6 75.8 80.7 100.8 114.6

6-Yen Bai

-Productivity 19.7 22.9 23.5 25.3 26.0 28.5 30.6 -Yield 19.5 26.3 33.4 39.9 45.3 64.3 75.5

7-Thai Nguyen

-Productivity 28.8 32.6 34.7 42.0 41.1 42.1 42.2 -Yield 30.8 43.7 55.1 74.8 84.6 75.4 75.5

8-Lang Son

-Productivity 35.3 41.1 43.4 46.6 45.8 47.9 47.8