Turning land to livelihood : what are the socio-economic and institutional determinations of local land use in Red River Delta region ?

This research analyzes the determinations of household land use strategy in the context of the
rapid rural changes due to the industrialization and urbanization in Vietnam. The mechanism
that turns land to livelihood from both productive and non-productive processes is
investigated to understand the different land use strategies of smallholders in Red River Delta
region. Based on the presence of migrating members, the total selected 191 households in Hai
Duong province were divided into 3 different groups to do the surveys. The research results
show that local land use strategies are various in which 79.06% of surveyed households
maintain the allocated land for agricultural production while 65.97% of households leave
land idly at least once a year. The factors from productive process such as small landholding,
high production cost and overall downward income from agricultural production meantime
the greater opportunities from non-farm jobs are the main socio-economical determinations
of agricultural land abandonment or less effective use. The security questions of shifting
livelihood between farming and non – farming sectors, the inter-household arrangements, the
social supports and the institutional constraints are non-productive elements that make the
exchange and other forms of commercializing agricultural land are less prominent. The
complexity of household land use strategy and its determinations not only reflects the
dynamism and flexibility of peasant’s livelihood adaptation but also explain why the land
concentration does not proceed faster in Red River Delta region of Vietnam.