The thesis will approach the issue of agricultural transformation towards sustainable development in the new perspective, which is set in the context of climate change and industrial re
Trang 1INTRODUCTION
1 Reason to choose the topic
Agriculture is an economic sector that plays a very important role in the
economies of countries, especially developing countries Only a strong and efficient
agricultural sector can ensure food security as the population is growing, create jobs for
rural workers, play an important role in foreign trade for foreign exchange and create solid
facilities for industries (WB, 2008)
After 30 years of renovation, Vietnam's agricultural sector has gained many
achievements: maintaining a stable growth rate, increasing labor productivity, increasing
agricultural export turnover, agricultural transformation in a positive direction, contributing
to increase income for farmers However, Vietnam's agricultural sector is generally not
sustainable, manifested in some ways including the production is still fragmented,
production efficiency is still low, environmental pollution is high, not adapting to climate
change, agricultural transformation is still slow
In order to overcome the limitations in agricultural development over the past time
and achieve the sustainable development goals to 2030, Party and the State have set a
number of requirements to restructure the agricultural sector in the direction of raising high
value-added and sustainable development (Decision 889/QD-Ttg on approving the scheme
of restructuring the agricultural sector in the direction of improving added value and
sustainable development dated June 10, 2013) Accordingly, the objectives of agricultural
transformation are: (i) Improving efficiency (ii) Improving income to improve farmer's life
(iii) Effective using natural resources and environmental protection
The southern coastal provinces of the Red River Delta, including Thai Binh, Nam
Dinh and Ninh Binh, are typical agricultural provinces of the Red River Delta, linked to the
sea potential, with favorable climate, ground and soil conditions, ranked second only after
the Mekong Delta However, agricultural development of these provinces is still
unsustainable: (i) The average growth rate of production value in the period of 2010-2017 is
3.05%/year but not stable; (ii) production scale is still small: the number of farms accounts
for only 15.55% of the farms in the Red River Delta; average farmland area of 4.7 ha/farm
is lower than that of the whole nation; (iii) labor productivity growth is slow, average labor
productivity of 3 provinces in 2017 was only 28.40 million VND, lower than labor
productivity of the Red River Delta (30.04 million VND); (iv) The proportion of households
with the largest income from agriculture accounts for only 31.65% while the number of
households participating in agricultural production is 43.42%, thus the rate of agricultural
income is lower than that of the whole country (49%) (General Statistics Office, 2017) (v)
The amount of chemical fertilizers and pesticides is still abused in the production process
There are many causes for unsustainable agricultural development in the southern coastal provinces of the Red River Delta, including: The spontaneous development from a traditional agriculture, the sea advantages have not been exploited appropriately, big investors have not been attracted to implement the strategies and the planning of agricultural development associated with the sea in the provinces has not yet had a breakthrough to renew agricultural development in terms of products, production processes and application of high and environment-friendly technology or climate change response, etc However, a general and decisive cause that must be mentioned is that the policies to restructure agriculture towards sustainable development has not been deployed and implemented drastically From the perspective
of sustainable development, the structure of the agricultural sector has many shortcomings: (i) The proportion of products with advantages has increased slowly; The sea advantage industries still account for a small proportion in the GDP structure
of agricultural sectors of the provinces (24.73%); (iii) agricultural production proportion following VietGap and high-tech agriculture is still low Cultivating models towards high-tech agriculture and clean agriculture are only pilot models with a production area of only 7.86% (iv) Production has not directed to respond to climate change and eco-environmental protection (Provincial DARDs, 2017)
In the coming time, the strive for the goal of developing the agricultural sector
in the southern Red River Delta provinces towards sustainable development will face many challenges and difficulties due to the process of industrialization and urbanization, especially the forecast of serious impacts of climate change on these provinces such as: 1 meter rise of sea level will flood 50.9% of the area of Thai Binh, Nam Dinh (58%) and Ninh Binh (23.85%); the temperature in the period 2016-2046 is expected to increase by about 0.7-1.6 degrees, making the drought situation become more serious (Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, 2016)
Therefore, it is essential to research, evaluate and find solutions for agricultural transformation in these provinces in the direction of sustainable development…
In terms of theory, the study of agricultural transformation towards sustainable development includes two aspects: (i) whether the process of agricultural transformation is directed to a sustainable structure of agricultural industry or not? (ii) whether the structure of the agricultural sector has a spreading effect to contribute to the sustainability of other pillars or not? In recent years, research on the agricultural transformation towards sustainable development has been studied quite a lot domestically and worldwide However, these studies mainly focus on the first aspect: Is the speed of local agricultural transformation fast or not? Is the transformation trend reasonable and effective or not? How does the agricultural transformation ensure sustainable requirements? These studies have yet to raise questions on the
Trang 2development of the agricultural sector? how does it contribute to the agricultural growth speed?
How does it affect the social aspects of rural areas, and how does it contribute to the sustainable
development of the local whole agricultural sector? Moreover, studies of agricultural
transformation in the southern coastal provinces of the Red River Delta alone are still lacking
when setting it in new contexts such as the impact of industrial revolution 4.0, especially
climate change forecasts with the greatest impact on Vietnam's coastal provinces including the
southern Red River Delta provinces
From the above reasons, the thesis selected the research topic “Agricultural
Transformation in Southern Red River Delta’s Coastal Provinces towards Sustainable
Development” The thesis will approach the issue of agricultural transformation towards
sustainable development in the new perspective, which is set in the context of climate
change and industrial revolution 4.0, in which setting the agricultural transformation in
coastal provinces in the South Red River Delta is both a connotation but also a condition
for the sustainable development of the agricultural sector The content of the thesis will
systematize the theoretical issues of agricultural transformation towards sustainable
development and develop the research framework of the thesis; making comprehensive
and accurate assessment of the results achieved in the agricultural transformation in the
coastal provinces of the South Red River Delta in the past time On that basis, the system
of views, orientations and solutions to promote the agricultural transformation towards
sustainable development will be introduced
2 Research objectives
Overall objective: the thesis aims to contribute to improving the scientific basis
(theory and practice) on agricultural transformation in relation to the development of
agricultural resources for localities (provincial level) With the typical study of the
southern Red River Delta provinces, the thesis aims to point out the inadequacies and
causes of these shortcomings and propose solutions to orient the agricultural
transformation in coastal provinces of the South Red River Delta in the direction of
sustainable development From the above general objective, the specific objectives of the
thesis are as follows:
- In terms of reasoning:
Firstly, systematizing the theory of agricultural transformation towards
sustainable development, then perfecting the approach, connotation of the content of
transforming the local agricultural structure (provincial level) in the relationship with
sustainable development
Secondly, deriving from the requirements of agricultural transformation in the
direction of sustainable development, the thesis presents the trends and criteria for
evaluating the agricultural transformation towards sustainable development
Thirdly, the system of factors affecting the agricultural transformation towards
- In terms of practice:
Firstly, assess the current status of agricultural transformation towards sustainable development of southern coastal provinces of the Red River Delta in the past time On that basis, pointing out the successes and limitations in the process of agricultural transformation in the above provinces in view of sustainable development
Secondly, testing the factors affecting the agricultural transformation in the coastal provinces of the South Red River Delta towards sustainable development, thereby detecting the direct causes of inadequacies in the process of transforming agriculture in these provinces in recent years
Thirdly, proposing views and orientations for agricultural transformation towards the sustainable development of coastal provinces in the South Red River Delta on the basis
of resolving the inadequacies in agricultural transformation of provinces
Fourthly, proposing solutions to restructure agriculture towards sustainable development of coastal provinces in the South Red River Delta from handling the causes of inadequacies of this process over time, in combination with the forecast of new factors affecting agricultural transformation in the coastal provinces of the South Red River Delta
3 Subject and scope of the study
3.1 Research subjects
The subject of the thesis research is agricultural transformation towards sustainable development in the southern coastal provinces of the Red River Delta
3.2 Research scope
a Content scope Firstly, the agricultural sector can be understood in broad and narrow meanings In the thesis, the agricultural sector will be conceived in a broad sense and classified according
to Decision No 10/2007/QD-TTg dated January 23, 2007, specifically, the agricultural sector will have 3 secondary branches: Agriculture, fisheries and forestry
Secondly, the thesis does not set the study of agricultural transformation independently but studying it in relation to development of sustainable agriculture Therefore, the connotation of agricultural transformation is based on the principle of sustainable agriculture development and the objective of transformation is to orient to sustainable agriculture development
Thirdly, research on agricultural transformation on both angles: (i) Results of the transformation (ii) Impacts of agricultural transformation on sustainable agriculture development
b Scope of space and timeline
- Scope of space: the thesis studies the agricultural transformation in the coastal provinces of the South Red River Delta, including the provinces of Thai Binh, Nam Dinh
Trang 3and Ninh Binh The reasons for this study are as follows: (i) Firstly, the Red River Delta has
5 coastal provinces of Thai Binh, Nam Dinh, Ninh Binh, Hai Phong and Quang Ninh, all
provinces researched by the thesis are located in the South of the Red River Delta, so they
share the same characteristics of nature, climate and agricultural development, which is the
basis for proposing solutions that can be applied generally to these localities (ii) In the
master plan for socio-economic development of the Red River Delta region by 2020, the
sub-region of the Southern Red River Delta is prioritized for regional agricultural
development such as: “Developing high quality rice area; raising cattle, poultry and
aquatic products on a large scale; focusing on developing supporting industries for
processing agricultural products and preserving agricultural products after harvesting”
However, in the process of studying, the thesis doesn’t make research and analysis of
the southern Red River Delta coastal area, but it analyzes each province in the Southern Red
River Delta coastal area and sets the research context in the relationship in provinces in the
region and provinces with other provinces in the country
c Time scope
The thesis studies the situation of agricultural transformation in the coastal provinces
of the South Red River Delta in the period of 2010-2017, orientation and solutions to 2030
The thesis selects the milestone until 2030 basing on the vision of the Agricultural
Development Master Plan issued under Decision No 124/QD-TTg dated February 2, 2012
and the National Action Plan to implement the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development
issued under Decision No 622/QD-TTg dated 10/05/2017
4 Research Methodology
4.1 Methodological Approach
The thesis approaches from theory to practice, combining qualitative and quantitative
research to solve problems, specifically:
+ The thesis summarizes the domestic and foreign documents to develop a theoretical
framework for agricultural transformation towards sustainable development Based on that,
analyzing the current status of agricultural transformation in the southern coastal provinces
of the Red River Delta in recent years to draw comments on the success, limitations and
causes of limitations to propose solutions to promote the agricultural transformation towards
sustainable development in the coming time
+ Qualitative approach is used in (i) Identifying criteria to reflect the local
agricultural transformation towards sustainable development (ii) Analyzing the views of
experts as well as managers in the agricultural sector on criteria and factors affecting the
agricultural transformation towards sustainable development
+ Quantitative approach focuses on the following contents: Analyzing agricultural
The thesis also uses the exploratory factor analysis model (EFA) to identify the factors affecting the agricultural transformation towards sustainable development of the coastal southern Red River Delta provinces At the same time, the thesis uses the method of analyzing the proportional restructure of the industry (SSA - Shift Share Analysis) to analyze the impact of agricultural transformation on the productivity growth of the sector
4.2 The research process
To achieve the research objectives, the research will be conducted as follows: (i) Identify research gaps through an overview of the research (ii) Improve the research framework for agricultural transformation in accordance with sustainable development (iii) Collect information of the agricultural transformation within sustainable strategies in coastal provinces in the South Red River Delta Information mentioned on the Thesis was collected from both primary and secondary data sources (iv) Analyze the current status of the agricultural transformation based on sustainable development of coastal provinces in the South of Red River Delta Based on that, the successes and limitations of the agricultural transformation based on sustainable development are recognized (v) Propose ideas, orientations and solutions in promoting agricultural transformation in accordance with sustainable development in coastal provinces in the South of Red River Delta
4.3 Data collection methods
The thesis was written based on both secondary and primary data sources The data collection was conducted as follows:
- Secondary data:
The research was conducted using the methodology of theoretical analysis, data collection based on inheritance method, and the synthesis of the literature review, including the following documents:
These documents are fully cited in the reference list
- Primary data: The primary data were collected from the following sources: (i) Interviewing experts (ii) Interviewing managers (iii) Interviewing farmers
4.2 Methods of data analysis
The methods of data analysis used are: Methods of analysis and synthesis, statistical methods, descriptive methods, data comparison methods and quantitative methods
5 New contributions to the current state of knowledge Contributions of the dissertation to knowledge
To begin with, this dissertation has applied a more comprehensive approach to the nature of agricultural transformation towards sustainable development It is fully reflected in following ways: (i) on the one hand, agricultural transformation towards sustainable development is one of the key points of sustainable agriculture development; (ii) on the
Trang 4positive impacts on other pillars of sustainable agriculture development such as effective
agricultural growth, better coping with social issues in rural areas, environmental pollution
prevention and better adaptation to climate change
Secondly, in line with the above approach, this dissertation has given some
conditions for agricultural transformation towards sustainable development including:
agricultural transformation needs to ensure a sustainable structure of agriculture; (ii)
sustainability of agricultural structure must have positive impacts on sustainable
development of the whole agricultural sector Thus, four possible ways to ensure
agricultural transformation towards sustainable development are comprised of higher
proportion of advantageous sub-sectors; higher level of the contribution of green product
sub-sectors; higher contribution of high-tech agricultural sector; and better
climate-change-adapting sub-sectors
Further, this dissertation has set up 2 groups of criteria that enable the assessment of
agricultural transformation towards sustainable development: (i) first, the criteria for
assessing sustainability of agricultural transformation that emphasize 4 conditions addressed
above The criteria for impact assessment of agricultural transformation on other aspects of
sustainable agricultural development This dissertation suggests the use of SAI (sustainable
agricultural index) for assessment of agricultural transformation on other aspects of
sustainable agricultural development
Contributions of the dissertation to practice
First of all, the dissertation has shed light on a number of weaknesses of agricultural
transformation based on the principles of sustainable agricultural development A new
contribution is that the dissertation successfully addressed agricultural transformation in
three selected provinces only helps boost labor productivity by ‘static’ impact, from the
low-productivity sectors to the high-productivity one, not the shift from the sectors with low
increase in low productivity to the ones with high enlargement of labor productivity
Moreover, previous literature confirmed that weak linkage in agricultural production
is a root cause for slow transformation and off-track direction in agricultural transformation
towards sustainable development Further, these researchers attributed this failure to the
State responsibility This dissertation, however, reveals that the weak linkage is because
agricultural producers are not fully active in putting agricultural production into value chain
and market information So, improvement of this linkage, first and foremost, belongs to the
responsibility of producers and traders Whilst, the State only plays the roles as a catalyst
and copes with the market failures in organizing the linkages
Finally, the last contribution of the dissertation is through proposing 5 groups of
policy implications and 4 directions of agricultural transformation towards sustainable
agricultural transformation towards sustainable development Of which, creation of breakthroughs in agricultural transformation towards sustainable development is through: re-organizing the model of agricultural production towards modernization with the core of cooperatives However, that requires that the viewpoint and modelling of cooperatives need
to be transformed in line with willingness, equal benefit sharing and operation in the style of enterprises
6 Thesis structure:
In addition to the introduction, the list of tables and references, the thesis has the following structure:
Chapter 1: Research overview Chapter 2: Theoretical and practical basis for the local agricultural transformation towards the sustainable development direction
Chapter 3: Current situation of the local agricultural transformation in the Southern Coastal Provinces of the Red River Delta towards the sustainable development direction Chapter 4: Orientation and solutions to promote the agricultural transformation in the Southern Coastal Provinces of the Red River Delta towards the sustainable development direction
CHAPTER 1 OVERVIEW OF THE RESEARCH 1.1 Worldwide Research
With the aim of clarifying research direction, the thesis reviews typical outbound documents in accordance with each of the following issues: Firstly: the internal content of sustainable development of agriculture and the criteria for reflecting the sustainable development of agriculture Secondly, agricultural transformation towards sustainable development includes the following contents: internal content, criteria reflecting and factors affecting agricultural transformation towards the sustainable development direction
1.2 Domestic Research
In recent years, research on local agricultural transformation in the direction of sustainable development has been implemented quite a lot in Vietnam Therefore, the thesis summarizes these documents according to the contents: internal content, criteria reflecting and factors affecting agricultural transformation towards sustainable development direction
1.3 Assessment of research overview and research gap
Based on the overview of research, the thesis draws some comments as follows: Researcher’s main research directions in the overview: (1) Clarify theoretical basis of sustainable agriculture and assessment criteria of sustainable agriculture in different levels from nation, local to farmhouses of countries with different levels of development (2)
Trang 5role of agricultural transformation in the direction of sustainable development (3) Specify
trend of agricultural structuring in each stage of economic development in accordance with
objective factors: market development of input factors, science and technology; food
security, globalization, production of goods and climate change
However, the previous literature has still existed some following problems:
Firstly, the concept of sustainable agriculture is a variable concept, so the factors
contributing to sustainable development today can be changed in the future Nowadays,
agricultural production is facing new challenges such as: price of food will be expected to
be increased in the future, global warming The influences of climate change will compel
farmers to adapt to by changing structure of plants and animals Therefore, indexes reflexing
agricultural transformation must be sensitive to each local condition
Secondly, the research methods of agricultural transformation in the direction of the
sustainable development is only stopped with qualitative analysis, describing the change of
indicators reflecting trends and speed of transformation, there have been no researches
mentioning the quality of agricultural transformation (position and role of each sector)
Besides, there has been no assessment of the effects of agricultural transformation on
sustainable agriculture development (sustainable agriculture index (SAI- sustainable
agriculture index) In addition, with transformation only has comparative analysis of time
series without spatial comparison (between localities) This is the basis for proposing
agricultural transformation trend for later time to improve the sustainable agriculture index
Thirdly, there have been many studies for agricultural transformation in the direction
of sustainable development but there are some drawbacks such as: (i) The studies only
delved into the trend of transformation enhancing value added or emphasize transforming
style that is able to cope with climate change for tending to sustainable development (ii)
The studies mentioned to agricultural transformation in geographic frontier of the locality
having not met the requirement of openness when transformation was related to regional
development
Fourthly, coastal plains have been excluded from studies on the agricultural
transformation in the direction of sustainable development The different characteristics of
coastal plains compared to other types of plains result in the different features of the
agricultural transformation in these areas in respect of the regional comparative advantage
and the impact of climate change on agricultural production This is a factor that plays a
very important role in the implementation of agricultural transformation in the coming time
Fifthly, the factors which have affected agricultural transformation within sustainable
development has only been described, there has been no verification of the impact of these
factors on agricultural transformation
Firstly, improve the research framework of the agricultural transformation tin the direction of the sustainable development in accordance with current circumstances including: The content and implication, requirements, trends, criteria and factors
influencing Secondly, analyze and evaluate comprehensively the current situation of the
agricultural transformation of coastal provinces on the south of Red River Delta in the direction of the sustainable development on the following contents: Trend of transformation and its trend From that, the results and limitations of the process of the agricultural transformation in the coastal provinces on the south of Red River Delta have been drawn Based on the analysis of the causes of limitations, solutions are proposed to promote the agricultural transformation in these provinces towards sustainable development direction
CHAPTER 2 THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL BASIS ON AGRICULTURAL TRANSFORMATION OF LOCAL AUTHORITIES TOWARDS SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT
2.1 Agriculture and sustainable agricultural development
2.1.1 Agriculture
Agriculture is the basic material sector on production of society The traditional agriculture has the following main characteristics: (i) Agriculture has the longest history (ii) The sector uses the most natural resources in the industrial sector (iii) Agricultural production is impacted by natural conditions (iv) The traditional agriculture has labor productivity with the same period and the same level of investment compared to other sectors (v) Seasonal unemployment often occurs in agriculture
2.1.2 Sustainable agricultural development
The perspective of the thesis on sustainable agricultural development: maintaining and enhancing economic efficiency in agricultural production, simultaneously improving farmers’ income to contribute to poverty reduction, reducing income inequality and responding well to the climate change.
From the above perspective, the content and implication of sustainable agricultural development is seen in 2 aspects: (i) Ensure sustainability in the internal agriculture (ii) Have a good spillover effect in society and the environment
2.2 Agricultural structure and agricultural transformation
2.2.1 Agricultural structure
The agricultural structure represents the relationship between sub-sectors in the agricultural sector, indicating the organic relationship of the inter-sub-sectors in terms of both quantity and quality
For convenience in collecting the research data in accordance with the current situation of Vietnam, the thesis will approach the agricultural sub-sectors according to
Trang 6Vietnam standard industrial classification and analyzing the structure based on 3
second-level sectors: Agriculture, aquaculture and forestry
2.2.2 Agricultural transformation
Agricultural transformation is the process of changing agricultural structure from one
form to another, which is more improved, in accordance with the development level
Agricultural transformation is a dynamic process, which is a change in the structure of the
agricultural sector and is indicated: (i) Change in quantity: the proportion of sectors in the
production value, value-added or proportion in labor, capital and land of the sub-sectors in
the agricultural sector; (ii) Location and nature of agricultural sub-sectors (iii) Changes in
the internal structure of each sub-sector in the agricultural sector
Agricultural transformation can be taken place on country, region or locality This
thesis will study in-depth agricultural transformation at the local perspective and the object
is the local agricultural structure
2.3 Research framework of the local agricultural transformation in the
direction of sustainable development
2.3.1 Concept
Based on the concept of sustainable agriculture given in section 2.1.2 and the concept
of agricultural transformation in section 2.2.2, the local agricultural transformation in the
direction of the sustainable development understood as: the change in agricultural structure
from one form to another, which is more improved not only shown in the change in the
number of sub-sectors, the proportion of each sub-sector but also in the nature, location
and relationship between sub-sectors towards the sustainable development agriculture
direction.
From the above perspective, the content and implication of the local agricultural
transformation towards the sustainable development direction is seen in 2 aspects: (i) The
content of the transformation is: (ii) The objective of the transformation
2.3.2 Requirement of Agricultural Transformation
With content and implication of agricultural transformation above, requirements
proposed to local authorities in agricultural transformation in the direction of sustainable
development is suitable for upward tendency and the state of agricultural structure always
fits to the level of economic development, specifically as follows: (i) Agricultural
transformation must tend to an agriculture with high economic efficiency (ii) Agricultural
transformation must tend to an environmentally friendly agriculture (iii) Agricultural
transformation must cope with the effects of climate change (iv) Agricultural
transformation must contribute to farmer incomes, contribute to implement other social
objectives
2.3.3 Logical Agricultural Transformation Trend
To guarantee the requirements of agricultural transformation of local authorities in
are: (i) Increase the proportion of products with local advantages (ii) Increase the proportion of products of green production (iii) Increase the proportion of products of CNC application (iv) Increase the proportion of products which can cope with the effects
of climate change
2.3.4 Criteria for Transformation Assessment
Based on the objective proposed in the thesis, which is agricultural transformation in the direction of sustainable development agriculture, criteria for assessing include 02 groups: (i) Group of criteria for reflexing the result of agricultural transformation process (ii) Group of criteria for assessing the influence of agricultural transformation process on sustainable development agriculture The details of content are reflexed through the following table:
Table 2.2 Criteria which reflex the local agricultural transformation in the
direction of sustainable direction
Trends toward sustainable
1 Reflexing the result of agricultural transformation process
1.1 Transformation trends
Proportion of strong competitive agricultural product Increase Proportion of Green production/ Application of high-tech agricultural
products
Increase
Proportion of agricultural products to cope with the climate change Increase
1.2 Speed of transformation
2 Assessing the influence of agricultural transformation process
Income gap between agricultural income and fee for agriculture Decrease Proportion of land area for agriculture is degraded Decrease
Sustainable Agriculture Index - SAI Increase>0,25
Source: Proposal of PhD candidate
2.3.5 Determinants of Local Agricultural Transformation towards Sustainable development
2.3.5.1 Factors of Local Agricultural Sector
The factors of local agricultural sector may include (i) Natural condition; (ii) Agricultural labor (quantity and quality); (iii) Infrastructure (soft and hard); (iv) Productive linkages
2.3.5.2 Factors of Agriculture Transforming Policies
These factors are composed of (i) Agricultural development planning; (ii) Land policy; (iii) Credit policy; (iv) Others (Infrastructure, vocational training)
Trang 72.3.5.3 Other factors
In addition to above factors, there are some others that may have impact on
agricultural transformation towards sustainable development such as climate change, market
and technology
2.4 Successful Lessons of Local Agricultural Transformation towards
Sustainable Agricultural Development
The great success in transforming agriculture towards sustainable development from
Israel, South Korea and Thailand is considered a series of good examples for Vietnam at
local scale These successful lessons include: (i) Clarifying the role of sustainable
development; (ii) Ensuring a good condition for agricultural transformation, in particular
R&D in agriculture; (iv) Transforming and creating the production model towards
sustainable agriculture that emphasizes product-chain-based linkages
CHAPTER 3 CURRENT SITUATION OF AGRICULTURAL TRANSFORMATION OF
SOUTHERN COASTAL AREAS IN THE RED RIVER DELTA TOWARDS
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT 3.1 Overview of Southern Red River Delta’s Coastal Provinces
3.1.1 Ịntroduction of Southern Red River Delta
The southern coastal area of the Red River Delta includes 3 provinces: Thai Binh,
Nam Dinh and Ninh Binh According to data in the year of 2017, this area has a total natural
area of 4,641.7 km2, accounting for 21.83% of the total area of the Red River Delta The
population size is 4,606.7 thousand people, equal to 21.59% the Red River Delta’s
population, of which the rural population accounts for 57.8%
3.1.2 Agricultural Sector in the Southern Coastal Provinces of the Red River Delta
3.1.2.1 Potential for Agricultural Development
The coastal provinces of the Red River Delta are characterized with a lot of
potentials for agricultural development such as: Geographic location; land and climate,
water resources; labor resources and infrastructure
3.1.2.2 Current Situation of Agricultural Development
The agricultural sector in the coastal provinces of the South Red River Delta has
witnessed continuous increase of gross output with an annual average of 3.05%, higher than
the average growth rate of the whole region (2.93%) and the whole country (2.84%)
The role of the agricultural sector in the localities are presented as (i) The agricultural
sector is still considered a driving force for the local economic growth (ii) job creation and
income generation for farmers
3.2 Current Situation of Agricultural Transformation of the Southern Coastal Provinces of the Red River Delta towards Sustainable Agricultural Development
3.2.1 the Outcome of Agricultural Transformation
3.2.1.1 Internal Agricultural Sector Transforming Propensity Regarding the trend of transformation, the outcome of the agricultural sector has revealed that the structure of the agricultural sector tends to gradually reduce the proportion
of pure agriculture but increase the proportion of fisheries By 2017, the proportion of natural farming still accounts for the highest proportion (74.92%), followed by fisheries (24.73%) and forestry (0.35%) The ratio of the agricultural sector of these provinces is lower than that of the Red River Delta as the whole (79.12%), suggesting the faster intra-agricultural transformation of these provinces
Calculation of Cos∅ coefficient shows that the rate of agricultural transformation is very slow at 10.69% in the period of 2010-2017, in which Nam Dinh is the best one (12.43%), followed by Thai Binh (10.74%) and Ninh Binh (6.71%)
3.2.1.2 Agricultural Sector Transforming Propensity based on Comparative Advantage
The southern coastal provinces of the Red River Delta have advantageous sectors including The amount of seed food, vegetables and crops, pig, livestock, poultry farming and aquaculture In the period of 2010-2016, structural transformation of agriculture is in line with the trend of sustainable development due to the increase in the proportion of advantageous products, especially after implementing the sectoral However, the transforming rate is still very slow For instance, Ninh Binh, Nam Dinh and Thai Binh have experienced moderate rates of 4.32%, 0.73% and 0.05%, respectively
3.2.1.3 Transformation towards Green and High-tech Agriculture Proportion of area for green agricultural production and high-tech agriculture has increase, despite the fact that it is still very small (accounting for 7.86% of total agricultural land area in 2017) In terms of structure of green and high-tech agricultural production, seed food crops accounted for the largest proportion (39.73%) followed by aquaculture (28.25%) and vegetables (27.65%) Among these provinces, Thai Binh has the largest area of green and high-tech agricultural production (16.03%), followed by Nam Dinh (5.08%) and Ninh Binh (2.56%)
As of 2017, the output of green and high-tech agricultural production is minimal (0.75%), in which Thai Binh is still a province with a highest rate (1.03%), followed by Nam Dinh (0.68%) and Ninh Binh (0.51%)
3.2.1.4 the Agricultural Transformation towards Climate Change Adaption
To ensure the transformation towards climate change adaptation, local authorities
Trang 8efficiency and minimize environmental impacts such as: (i) Research and mass production
of adaptive varieties of crops with climate change (ii) Transformation of crop structure and
crop structure on double-crop rice fields into monocrop rice combined with low-lying
aquaculture, single-crop rice combined with two crops of highland vegetables or completely
shifting rice-productive land that is not efficient into the combination of fisheries and
vegetable crops (iii) Research and successful application of solutions to respond and protect
aquatic resources when sea level rises
3.2.2 Impact of Agricultural Transformation in the Southern Coastal Provinces of
the Red River Delta towards Sustainable Development
3.2.2.1 Impact on Efficiency in Agricultural Production
a Agricultural Labor Productivity
The average labor productivity of agriculture in 3 provinces in the period of
2010-2017 tends to increase from 15.61 million VND per capita in 2010 to 28.4 million VND per
capita in 2017 In other words, labor productivity increased by an annual average of 8.9%
Of which, Thai Binh has the highest labor productivity (43.4 million VND/person/year),
1.53 times higher than the average labor productivity of 3 provinces and 2.39 times higher
than that of Nam Dinh (the province with the lowest labor productivity)
The dissertation applies SSA method to assess the impact of agricultural
transformation on the change of labor productivity of each sub-sector in recent years among
southern coastal provinces of the Red River Delta The result reveals that: Firstly, natural
farming has the greatest impact on increasing the overall labor productivity of the entire
agricultural sector Secondly, the "static" impact in the period of 2011-2017 shows that in
all 3 localities, there has been a shift in labor from the sector with low labor productivity to
fishery that has a higher level of labor productivity Third, the ‘dynamic’ impact is given a
minus value for the fisheries and natural farming Thus, there are no labor shifts from the
low-labor-productivity sector to the one which experienced a large increase in labor
productivity Fourthly, the rate of contribution to labor productivity growth of agricultural
transformation tends to increase in Thai Binh and Nam Dinh while decreasing in Ninh Binh
b Impact on VA/GO
In the period of 2010-2017, only the rate of VA/GO of Nam Dinh increased from
48.25% in 2010 (the lowest level among 3 provinces) to 75.11% in 2017 (the highest among
3 provinces) In Thai Binh and Ninh Binh provinces, this rate decreased by 60.66% to
57.64% and 56.28% to 44.12%, respectively
3.2.2.2 the Impact on Income Gap in Agriculture and Non-agriculture
In fact, in the period of 2010-2016, the gap of income in agriculture and
non-agriculture of the provinces has an unclear trend: The income gap of non-agriculture compared
times of non-agricultural income; however, there is a gradual decrease in the period
2012-2016 As of 2016, income from agriculture only accounts for 68% in comparison with non-agricultural income Going into details, considering each province, Nam Dinh has an increasing agricultural income gap compared to non-agriculture while Ninh Binh has a declining income gap
3.2.2.3 Impact on Environmental Protection
a The rate of agricultural land degradation
By 2015, the degraded land area of the three provinces reached 247,280 ha, accounting for 75.37% of the total agricultural land area and accounting for 21.14% of the total degraded land area of the Red River Delta In 3 provinces, Thai Binh has the largest degraded area land, followed by Ninh Binh and Nam Dinh
b Newly planted forest area Thai Binh is the province with the highest average annual plantation area in the period of 2010-2017 (237 ha/year), followed by Ninh Binh (190 ha/year) and Nam Dinh (147 ha/year)
3.2.2.4 Sustainable Agricultural Index (SAI) Building on the criteria framework of sustainable agriculture and Sustainable Agriculture Indicators (SAI) in section 2.3.4 of chapter 2 and actual data of 3 provinces in the period of 2010-2016, the thesis concludes that: Firstly, in the period of 2011-2017, the SAI tends to increase, but the these growth rates are different among selected provinces, in which Thai Binh has the highest average growth rate (9.9%), followed by Ninh Binh (9.48%) and Nam Dinh (5.5%) The SAI in the provinces receives low values Second, agricultural transformation has growing contribution to the SAI
3.3 Factors Affecting Agricultural Transformation in the Southern Red River Delta Coastal Provinces towards Sustainable Development
3.3.1 Application of EFA model in analyzing factors affecting agricultural transformation in the southern Red River Delta coastal provinces towards sustainable development
By using the EFA (exploratory factor analysis) model, the dissertation analyzes data from the 225 farmer households survey in 3 selected provinces and comes to conclude about the determinants of agricultural transformation that: Group 1 – Natural conditions include: The fertility of the land, the decline of agricultural land area, the sea level rises, and the storm surges; Group 2 – Productive linkages: cooperatives or enterprises support the market searching, input supplies and support production process Group 3 – Infrastructure includes: Convenient transportation, adequate water supply and drainage system, electricity system that fully meets requirements, and convenient communication; Group 4 – Supporting
Trang 9supporting the purchase of machinery and equipment for agricultural production; Group 5 –
Labor capabilities include: own knowledge of sustainable agricultural production,
understanding of guidelines and policies of the State, aware of production subjects; Group 6
– Science and technology include: Applications for selecting high quality species, improved
applications in harvesting; Group 7 – Market includes: Changing demand for agricultural
products, near consumer markets; Group 8 – Credit policy includes: Preferential loans for
agricultural production increase, diversified forms of loans
3.3.2 Current situation of factors affecting agricultural transformation in the
southern Red River Delta coastal provinces towards sustainable development
Based on the factor analysis (sub-section 3.2.1), the dissertation analyzes the current
situation of these factors in the coastal provinces of the Southern Red River Delta,
specifically:
3.3.2.1 Natural condition
The declining agricultural land area has created more pressure for provinces to
change their production structure and production methods towards the increase in efficiency
in order to increase output Climate change has greatly influenced agricultural
transformation towards sustainable development: (i) Impacts on crop yields and productivity
decrease (ii) Slowing down the implementation of funding projects on large-scale
agricultural production
3.3.2.2 Productive linkage
The production model of the selected provinces still mainly builds on households
Participation in cooperatives is limited and the role of cooperatives is only presented by
providing input services of the production process, while product consumption, preservation
and support services are under-developed
The linkage in the agricultural value chain is still loose, only started in the field of
cultivation In addition, the link between farmers and scientists is weak, mainly the
agricultural extension workers who are in charge of guiding production Agricultural
production linkage among localities in the Red River Delta is mainly due to the fact that the
companies in the province are committed to production linkage and underwriting, the
participation of companies outside the locality to link production and product underwriting
is weak
3.3.2.3 The infrastructure
The improvement of the rural infrastructure system has better accelerated agricultural
transformation However, the infrastructure system (storage space) is still weak, leading to a
high rate of post-harvest losses, affecting the processing of products and not improving the
value chain in production
Supporting policies of provinces to attract funding to improve agricultural transformation towards sustainable development such as policies to support vocational training, policies to fund procurement of machinery and equipment in agricultural production, preferential policies to attract investment Thereby, the scale of land accumulation in agricultural production is getting greater, creating better conditions for agricultural production due to the application of green and high-tech agriculture In 2017, in
3 provinces accumulated 22,029 ha, accounting for 7.82% of total agricultural land to focus
on agricultural production towards commodity, in particular high-tech agriculture Of Which, Thai Binh has the largest land accumulation rate of 14,929.28 ha (15.93%), followed by Nam Dinh (5.08%) and Ninh Binh (2.56%)
3.3.2.5 Labor qualification Although the qualification of agricultural labor improved, it is still low In 2016, agricultural labors who have not experienced training or but have not been conferred professional certificates still account for a high proportion in which Thai Binh (89.498%), Nam Dinh (94.47%), Ninh Binh (95%) The number of people who have been trained and conferred certificates is only equal to less than 5% of the total agricultural labor force 3.3.2.6 Science and technology
In the 2011-2017 period, the selected provinces focused on researching and applying science and technology into agricultural production However, the result has only been at pilot models, far from being widely applied In addition, the high rate of mechanization is only in soil preparation and seed separation (100% in all provinces), irrigation and drainage reaches 90% - 95% while other stages are still low
3.3.2.7 Market Despite the large market demand and convenient distance to the major market, the market accessibility to agricultural products in the coastal provinces of the Red River Delta
is weak, mainly sold by traders
3.3.2.8 Credit policy Provinces have preferential credit to attract large-scale enterprises that ensure VietGap standards and chain manufacturing However, three selected provinces only have a small number of large projects that focus on the safe and high-tech agriculture
3.4 Evaluate the Agricultural Transformation in the Southern Coastal Provinces of the Red River Delta towards Sustainable Development
3.4.1 Achievements of Agricultural Transformation
Firstly, agricultural transformation has basically met the requirements of sustainable development: (i) Increasing the proportion of high value-added crops and livestock based on advantages of the local authorities (ii) Formation of high-tech and green agricultural
Trang 10output (iii) Agricultural transformation is able to cope with climate change Secondly, the
rate of agricultural transformation in the period after implementing transformation is
improved than the previous period Third, agricultural transformation has boosted the
growth of the agricultural output Fourthly, the spillover effect of agricultural transformation
on sustainable agricultural development is enhanced: (i) The contribution of agricultural
transformation to labor productivity improvement is greater (ii) this transformation has
contributed to increasing farmer’s income (iii) Sustainable agricultural index due to the
impact of agricultural transformation is increasing with a high average growth rate
3.4.2 The limitations of the agricultural transformation
There are some limitations such as: (i) low agricultural transformation towards
sustainable development (ii) The agricultural transformation has not had a positive impact
on the change of VA/ GO (iii), The agricultural transformation has not created a rapid
increase in labor productivity (iv) such transformation has failed to reduce the income gap
between agriculture and non-agriculture (v) Integration of agricultural transformation and
ecological environment protection is weak
3.4.3 Causes of Agricultural Transformation Limitations
On the basis of analyzing the situation of determinants of agricultural transformation
towards sustainable development in section 3.3.2, this thesis has figured out the causes of
the above limitations: Firstly, policies related to promote agricultural transformation
towards sustainable development are not promising: (i) Orientation of agricultural
transformation towards sustainable development is not clearly presented in agricultural
planning and not matched with the real requirements causing a fact that planning
implementation is not beyond the pilot models; (ii) land-accumulating policy that focuses on
expanding farming land has failed to achieved the desired results because it (iii) preferential
policy for the development of green and high-tech agriculture has failed to achieve the
desired results
Secondly, production linkage is weak: (i) lowly improved agricultural production
organization; (ii) weak value chain linkage Third, the level of labor in agriculture is still
low Four, the application of science and technology in agricultural transformation is
limited Finally, the market for agricultural products has not been fully exploited yet
CHAPTER 4 ORIENTATION AND SOLUTIONS TO PROMOTE AGRICULTURAL
TRANSFORMATION IN THE SOUTHERN COASTAL PROVINCES IN THE RED
RIVER TOWARDS SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
4.1 The International and Domestic Contexts Affecting Agricultural
Transformation in the Southern Red River Delta coastal provinces towards
sustainable development
4.1.1 International context
4.1.2 Domestic context
4.2 Opportunities and challenges affecting Agricultural Transformation in the Southern Red River Delta coastal provinces towards sustainable development
4.2.1 Opportunity
4.3 Viewpoints, Orientations and Objectives of Agricultural Transformation in the Southern Red River Delta coastal provinces towards sustainable development
4.3.1 Viewpoint
The thesis proposes general points in the process of agricultural transformation in the Southern Red River Delta coastal provinces towards sustainable development as follows: First, agricultural transformation needs to meet the demand of the general economic restructuring Secondly, agricultural transformation in the Southern Red River Delta coastal provinces towards sustainable development must be improved in order to contribute to the implementation of socio-economic development objectives of the provinces, region and the whole country Thirdly, focusing on changing the form of production organization, considering this is the key to successfully implement agricultural transformation towards sustainable development Fourth, making the most of the achievements of science and technology in agricultural production is the driving force for accelerating the agricultural transformation towards sustainable development Fifth, businesses and farmers play a key role, the State plays a supporting role to promote the agricultural transformation towards sustainable development
4.3.2 Direction
On the basis of the viewpoints on agricultural transformation in section 4.3.1, the thesis proposes the Agricultural Transformation in the Southern Red River Delta coastal provinces towards sustainable development is presented as follows: Firstly, increasing the proportion of local advantageous products towards improving the quality and linking production with processing and market demand Second, expand production area and improve the value of green and high-tech agricultural production Thirdly, strengthen the ability of the agricultural production in adapting to climate change Fourth, strengthen the spillover effects of the socio-economic and environmental transition in three selected provinces
4.4 Solution to Promote Agricultural Transformation in the Southern Red River Delta coastal provinces towards Sustainable Development
4.4.1 Completing the Vision of Agricultural Transformation in the Southern Red River Delta coastal provinces towards sustainable development
In order to overcome the situation of small-scale production, the provinces need to do the following activities in the planning: First, review the local agricultural planning to attract investment in green and high-tech agriculture of the region by 2030, avoiding the attraction at all costs that may reduce the efficiency of investment and unsustainable growth