Challenges to Rural Poverty Reduction in Viet Nam - Oxfam Blogs

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Participatory poverty monitoring in rural communities in Viet Nam 90 to prices in the Chinese market. By October 2011 the price of cassava was 1,500VND/kg - only 7% higher than October 2010, compared to a 30% increase in the price of rice. The price of cassava continued to decline to only 800 VND/kg in late 2011 and early 2012. Pig farmers earned unstable incomes as a result of volatile prices. In March and April 2011 in Thuan Hoa-Tra Vinh, the price of live pork increased, encouraging farmers to invest in pig farming. However, the price then fell from the middle of 2011 while the price of feed, rice and piglets continued to increase. FIGURE 4.2. Accounting of pig farming for 100kg of live pork in Thuan Hoa - Tra Vinh SOURCE: Statistics provided by people in Thuan Hoa commune-TV, Oct. 2011 In real terms the purchasing power of most farmers declined. In Thanh Xuong- Dien Bien both incomes and the price of rice rose by 30% between 2010 and 2011. Maize, cassava and pig farmers in most monitoring sites saw total incomes rise less than the rice price. The price of meat also increased significantly in 2011. The poor are sensitive to higher input prices and benefit little from increasing agricultural prices. The poor have little cash, and normally they use little fertilizer and other commercial supplies. Due to low risk coping capacities, the poor further reduce the use of fertilizer and commercial supplies when their price increases, leading to low crop yield. Moreover, the poor often have small-scale production (little land area under commodity crops). All of these factors make the poor having less product for sale, together with their weak market positions, thus enjoying little from the increasing price of agricultural produce. Impacts on production modes Toward a low-investment model. In response to the rising price of agricultural supplies farmers reduced fertilizer costs by using manure and turning to locally sourced seeds. In Cu Hue-Dak Lak, poor Ede households moved from maize and coffee to cassava or intercropped taro, saffron and young coffee trees to increase incomes. Diversifying livelihoods, relying more on nature. In mountainous ethnic minority areas, the poor turn to fishing and gathering in response to rising food prices. As natural resources become more scarce, people have to travel further. Others turn to local casual jobs or migrant labour. The average daily wage in 2011 was 100,000 VND/day,
Five-year Synthesis Report Part 2: Challenges to Rural Poverty Reduction in Viet Nam an increase of 20-30% over 2010 (70-80,000 VND/day). Unfortunately, local casual jobs are few and unstable. Ede women in Cu Hue-Dak Lak make use of their leisure time by doing low paid (about 20-30,000 VND/day) casual work such as peeling cashew nuts. 91 Reducing intensive pig farming. High prices for piglets and feed, volatile prices for live pork and frequent epidemics and disease has forced a reduction in intensive pig farming. In Cu Hue-Dak Lak for instance, the number of pigs farmed fell from 8,000 to 5,000 between 2010 and 2011. In many mountainous areas farmers began to breed local pigs (“black pigs”) rather than hybrid pigs (“white pigs”). Extensive local breed pig farming can make use of locally available products such as maize and cassava without the need for expensive commercial feeds. Local pigs grow slowly but can be sold at higher prices than hybrid pigs. In Duc Huong-Ha Tinh, some households have shifted over to raise dogs as puppy breeders instead of pigs. Farmers sometimes react too quickly to changing prices. Farmers tend to expand the production of crops with rising prices such as cassava, coffee and pepper. In Cu Hue-Dak Lak, for example, following a year on year increase of 40% in the price of cassava at the beginning of 2011 many Ede households grew more cassava. However, once the price fell in the middle of 2011 many farmers found themselves in financial difficulty. This is a common problem across the monitoring sites, and as well as financial losses results in inefficiency of land use. To reduce costs in the face of rising prices people exchange labour (such as in cassava harvesting in Xy-Quang Tri, in rice harvesting in Thuan Hoa-Ha Giang and Phuoc Dai-Ninh Thuan, tea tending and harvesting in Ban Lien-Lao Cai...), and share transport (in Cu Hue-Dak Lak, Ede villagers are travelling to upland fields). Price rises have increased awareness of the importance of quality. Traders are now more demanding. In Xy-Quang Tri, the practise of labour exchange helped farmers harvest their cassava quickly in order to prevent a reduction in the quality of starch. Similarly, in Ban Lien-Lao Cai, labour exchange in harvesting tea in time to achieve the standard of “1 bud 2 leaves”. In Cu Hue-Dak Lak, farmers are more aware of the importance of harvesting ripe coffee beans and processing maize so that it is cleaner and drier and so commands a higher price. Impacts on consumption The common coping measure of the poor is saving expenses in the context of inflation. Changes in consumption at the monitoring points in 2011 are as follows: Rice. Rice is important to household life. Although the price of rice increased in 2011, few households were short of rice . Where farmers face difficult conditions (Luong Minh-Nghe An, Xy-Quang Tri, Phuoc Dai and Phuoc Thanh-Ninh Thuan), the poor tend to be short of food in immediately prior to harvests. Following the rise in the price of rice local residents purchased poor quality rice, borrowed money from shops, gathered bamboo shoots and firewood for sale or took waged employment. Some poor households mixed rice with cassava and maize for their meals. Meat, fish. All of the poor at the monitoring points consumed less meat and fish, turning nstead to cheaper protein foods such as eggs, soy bean curds and dried fish. In some communes, poor households added to their food sources by trapping wild animals in forests or fishing in rivers and streams.
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PARTICIPATORY POVERTY MONITORING IN
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PREFACE 1 7 In early 2007, Viet Nam
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ABBREVIATIONS AND TERMS 10 ActionAi
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12 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The last five
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14 and improve monitoring and evalu
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16 TABLE 1. The monitoring points C
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18 transparency, and accountability
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20 TABLE 2. Characteristics of the
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Part 1 Poverty Trends and Key Theme
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Participatory poverty monitoring in
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