The Red River Delta, Vietnam: How does industrialization change the use of labor in agricultural production at farm households?

In this paper, we analyzed the change in labor use for agricultural production at farm
households in the Red River Delta, Vietnam under the context of industrialization. By using
primary data collected from 130 farm households and 60 exchanged/hired laborers in Bac
Ninh, Hai Duong and Thai Binh provinces, we fnd that family farm laborers popularly have
age range from 45 to 54 years old and female laborers in agricultural production are accounted
for higher proportion than male laborers. This is because of the fact that industrialization
process makes men take advantage in terms of health and skill to seek for off-farm jobs.
Also, industrialization in the Red River Delta creates the wave of migration to urban/abroad
regions both for male and female labor. Consequently, the shortage of labor supply in farm
households is substituted by exchanging and renting laborers, especially in peaking seasons.
Based on the sample of 130 farm households, we estimate a multinomial logistic model to
quantify the impact of industrialization represented by farmland area, number of migrant
laborers, number of family laborers and household income on household’s choice in labor use
for agriculture. With one more migrant laborer, a household tends to exchange labor with 2.3
times higher than using family labor only, and it likely hire labor with 2.9 times higher than
using family labor only. Therefore, creating off-farm jobs in rural areas is an appropriate
policy to absorb laborers and to prevent them from migrating far away their home.