Agricultural Land Distribution in Vietnam: Emerging Issues and Policy Implications

This paper examines the current distribution of the agricultural land, the issues causing landlessness in Vietnam, assesses present governmental policies and methods and presents key options. The paper relies on the Vietnam Living Household Standard Survey (VHLSS) that were conducted by the General Statistics Office in 2002 and 2004, and qualitative evidence from other studies. It is found that land inequality is increasing. Poor households have small areas of agricultural land and aquacultural water surface, and their lands are also of low quality. Landless poor are dependent on low income and unstable income from labouring in agricultural production. Policies to assist the landless have had limited impact.