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.