Farmers’ Decision-Making in Relation to Rice-Based Farming Systems in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta

Rice-based farming systems have changed in recent years in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta through an increase in crop intensity (more crops each year) and higher quality varieties than a decade ago. Although a range of policies relating to food security contributed to increasing rice productivity, it has still had a range of climatic and non-climatic constraints and threats occur in relation to how farmers decide about their rice-based farming systems. This study investigates the major decisions that farmers have to make about their rice-based farming systems through case studies from three provinces, An Giang, Can Tho and Bac Lieu in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta. The four main questions were: 1. What are the major decisions that farmers have to make about their rice-based farming systems that they wish to implement each year? 2. Which factors influence farmers’ decision-making for rice-based farming systems, and how will these factors influence them? 3. How have farmers made collective and individual decisions for their rice-based farming systems? 4. What are the consequences of the major decisions about rice-based farming systems and household livelihoods? The conceptual framework of this thesis was built around a household livelihood framework. A wide range of quantitative and qualitative data were collected, including 319 household surveys, 47 in-depth interviews and 18 focus group discussions across the six communes. The study found that in An Giang and Can Tho provinces the majority of farmers chose to implement a system of three rice crops a year with their decisions influenced by the need to retain a portion of the crop for household consumption, market price, and through agreements with neighbours regarding the flooding and draining of shared compounds within dykes. In those two provinces farmers tended to favour collective decision-making in relation to dyke construction and the drainage of their paddy fields, for deciding the seasonal calendar for planting and harvesting and for the selection of seed varieties. However, in many cases cooperation took the form of working together in time and place but did not extend to sharing economic costs and benefits. In Bac Lieu province the majority of farmers chose to implement integrated rice-shrimp systems because of saline water. In this province the pattern of individual and collective decision-making was similar to the other two provinces but there was a greater tendency to combine for the purposes of marketing because fewer rice traders were operating in Bac Lieu. In all three provinces collective decisions through farmer organisations had declined because of increasing conflict between members and declining government support for collective organisations