History of rice production in the Mekong Delta

During the years following the application of its economic liberalisation policy, Vietnam experienced a dramatic growth in rice production permitting to reach food self-sufficiency at the national level and also to become a major rice exporting country. This article emphasis the importance of an historical approach to agricultural development to fully understand the rapid and tremendous effects of this relatively recent agricultural policy. A comprehensive study of the long- term evolution of rice production systems in the Mekong Delta, the largest rice bowl of Vietnam, was conducted to differentiate between past and more recent reasons of the rapid growth in rice production. This study which is based on an historical analysis of key agrarian changes that occured during the last century proposes a review of the available literature, especially old reports and monographs, and also relies on original data collected during many semi-structured farmer's interviews carried out in a small region of the central plain of the Mekong Delta, the Omon district. Particularly, the interviews addressed the characterization of major technical, economic, social and institutional changes in the farm environment that occured during the last five decades [Extrait] (Résumé d'auteur