Agriculture in the transition to socialism: the case of South Vietnam

One of the key areas in the strategy of development based on agriculture was the Mekong delta: the largest producer and exporter of rice. There was a fairly egalitarian structure of land tenure by 1975 with the majority of the peasants being placed in the 'middle-sized' category. Here, shortage of labour, due to the war, American modernisation efforts and the increased scope for capital accumulation when land rents had decreased had led to the emergence of dynamic, modernized and partly mechanized agriculture which showed very little interest in collectivization. In the late 1970s, an agricultural production crisis developed. This was the signal for an intensification of collectivization. However, the short term results fell short of what had been expected. In 1979 a new strategy was adopted where direct contracts were signed between the government and individual producers and increasing resort was made to the market mechanism. The short run result of the change in agricultural policy has been an increase in output. Self- sufficiency in food production has been achieved in 1983, for the first time since World War II. -from Editor