HOW TO INCREASE PROFIT FOR FARMERS IN VIETNAM

Both my aunt and my uncle are farmers. They work really hard on their farm, however they don’t earn much money. As well as my relatives, many other farmers work on their field whole year, but they don’t make as much profit as they should have got. There is a reality is almost farmers in Vietnam are poor, low income and less education. Many of them think that they make profit by working hard; they don’t have knowledge about market, or how to do marketing for their products to get higher benefits. Despite how hard they work, they just earn very little profit in comparison with intermediate wholesalers who do business by buying agricultural products from farmers to sell to consumers, retailers. You will be surprised by the big differences between price that wholesalers buy from farmers and the price when they sell to retailer. For example, a kilogram watermelon that a wholesaler buy at the farm will be 500 – 1,000 VND, however, when they sell to retailers, it will be around 6,000 – 8,000 VND. And when that watermelon comes to consumers, it is around 10,000 -12,000 VND per kilogram. There is a huge difference in price, and a very difference in profit among farmers, wholesalers and retailers.

In the story above, farmers are the hardest workers; nevertheless, they earn the least. There is unfair in allocating surplus in society in Vietnam, and that is one of the reasons why the distance between the rich and the poor is getting larger and larger. In 2010, there was a story about a group of 4 students who come from Ben Tre province, where is famous for milk fruit, they saw the inequity their parents and other farmers from Ben Tre received, so they decided they would found the market for milk fruit without selling through wholesalers. Their story was on newspapers at that time, moreover, in 2011, there was a film made from that story. Instead of selling milk fruits through intermediate wholesalers, they connected directly with the retailers in Ho Chi Minh City, where is the main market for milk fruits. They also found the purchasing department of supermarkets to offer good price for providing milk fruit.  By those ways, they helped their parents and farmers increase their profit a lot.

Connecting directly with retailers is a way to raise profit for farmers. However, it doesn’t always works efficiently in case farmers just have small amount of agricultural product, so the cost to find their own market will high. In this situation, the authority at that local should protect farmers by having an organization to buy these products and sell to factories, retailers or to export. On the other hand, to avoid farmers from producing too much that organization can’t solve an enormous amount, the authority should have an announcement to farmers how much they will buy from each farmer base on the area that farmer has. Besides, the government should also have policies to help farmers by subsidy of setting minimum prices. 

LAND ALLOCATION IN AGRICULTURE

Recently, Vietnam transfers from an agricultural economy to an industrialization country, so land spends on agriculture reducing for residential areas. Base on the purposes of using, land is divided into 5 categories: agricultural land, forestry land, land for residential areas, specialized land and unused land. Along with the renovation of economy in 1986 was known as “Doi Moi”, the structure of the economy has changed, so the allocation of land has changed. More details, in 1986, 34% GDP of Vietnam’s economies came from agriculture, but it decreased less than 20% in 2013. In the same period, industry increased from 17% to 42% in total of GDP, became the main sector of economy. Agricultural products such as: rice, coffee, rubber, tea, pepper, soybeans are the main goods for export. Vietnam is ranked to be the second country in South East Asia export rice. Red Delta River and Cuu Long Delta River are two areas for agriculture. However, those two areas have been affected by the industrialization. Agricultural land areas are narrowing for expanding the residential areas and industrial zones. For example, in 2009, Ha Noi capital expanded it scale by merger Ha Tay province, one part of Vinh Phuc province and 4 villages belong to Hoa Binh province.  This expansion has decreased the area for agriculture, moreover, land near these areas become more expensive because the farmers change to residential land instead of agricultural land. One more example is Can Tho province, which belongs to Cuu Long Delta River, is known as main rice supplying for export. However, its major strategy at present is focusing on developing industry and services sectors. More and more factories are built in Can Tho; more and more businesses are established here; labor force transfers from agriculture to industry and services, those are the reasons that make the agriculture land are narrowing in Can Tho.

We can see these changes apparently in Ho Chi Minh City, the biggest city in Vietnam, where this change has occurred sustainably, and we can consider the most obviously how this process affect to the reallocation of land purposes. In 1990, the land in Ho Chi Minh was very cheap; both land in the center and suburban. Most of the land located in suburban areas used to be used for planting. Nevertheless, Ho Chi Minh City has rapidly urbanized from the renovation of Vietnam in 1896, almost the suburban are used as residential land now.

Industrialization and modernization are two main focus of Vietnam to develop as same as other developing country. Vietnam shifts from an agricultural country to an industrial country, a long target that Vietnam is approaching. Due to that development, narrowing agricultural land for industrial purposes is necessary, however, we should consider how to reallocate land in a reasonable way. There are some project still be considered about expanding 4 biggest city in Vietnam are: Ha Noi Capital, Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang City and Can Tho City. The common feature of these projects is transferring agricultural land to residential land.  If these projects are accepted, a huge amount land using for planting will decrease. Vietnam might be no longer has enough agricultural products for export. Therefore, my main focus is how to balance these needs of land.

DO YOU FACE ANY DIFFICULTIES TO FIND A NEW JOB?

I will start my article with a real story about my friend.  She graduated in 2012, and she found a job in a small company after that. However, the benefits for staffs at that company are not good, for example low salary, no insurance. After one and a half year worked there to get experience, she decided to find a new job. She applied for many companies, and she had many interviews. But, when recruiters ask her about her status, they refused to hire her when they know she just got marriage with the reason was: she could be pregnancy in a short time work for them, and they had to fine someone to replace her. Even though she promised that she wouldn't be pregnancy in two years if they accepted her, she still couldn't find a new job. That is one of many cases that women face when they are looking for a new job in Vietnam.

There are many reasons that prevent women from having a job. Some others are: low education, women have to spend more time for family; some jobs are priority for man such as sales, marketing researchers, politicians.  Moreover, in developing countries, they still think that women have to take care family; working is men task, so there is a big gap between man and women in labor force. For example, there are not many women hold position in government; women rarely hold high positions in businesses; women barely get high education.  There is only one professor is women among 20 professors at my university. The point here is, the higher you learn the harder you get marriage. That is the reason why there are not many woman do post graduate program.

Thus, we need solutions to solve this problem in developing countries. There are some solutions below that can help women have more choices in looking for a satisfied job, and have more open door to enter the labor force.

One of solution that can help balance labor force in developing countries is encouraging men share housework with women. By this way, women have more time spending on their job. Focusing more in their job, they have more chance to get higher promotion. There will be more women hold high position in government, in businesses.

The second solution is stimulating women get higher education. When they have higher degrees and higher skill levels, there are more opportunities for them to find good jobs.

The third solution is that the government should have law to protect women in labor force. Especially, we should have law to protect women from losing their job during the time pregnancy.