Farm Management and Farming Systems Development in Vietnam

By some significant institutional incentives and technological improvements, agriculture in Vietnam has made a remarkable progress in its intensity and productivity for the last decade. It resulted in a significant change in agricultural production and rural economy. Nowadays, although Vietnam becomes the third largest rice exporting-country in the world, the farmer’s living standards have not much been improved due to the present unfavorable price condition of rice and relatively high price of input materials. Environmental problems also become to be a new issue particularly in the advanced areas in the Mekong delta region where a highly intensive cultivation of rice in continuous triple cropping system has been practiced. Recent researches showed that diversified farming seems to be better for smalllscale farmers, and through integrated farming systems development approaches rice-based agro-ecosystems can be turned to more profitable farming for a sustainable agriculture and rural development. Introduction of appropriate farming practices can make better uses of lands, water and other resources at lower costs and maintain the sustainability of the environment. Integration of non-rice crops, livestock, aquaculture and other activities into rice systems can become a new approach to farmers. The present paper is aimed to review the outlines of the recent activities in research, extension and training for sustainable agriculture and rural development in Vietnam