As workers move away to find work, farmlands lay fallow.
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| More and more farmers across the country are migrating to urban centres in the hope of a better future. — VNS Photo Doan Tung |
NINH BINH — Watching her 17-year-old son leaving home to earn a living in a far off place, Vu Thi Thay could not help but cry as she held onto her other son. She did not want him to go but life gave them no other choices.
Thay’s son left Kim Dong Village in Ninh Binh Provice, 90 km south of Ha Noi, for Binh Duong Province, next to HCM City, to become more independent and help his mother raise his two younger siblings. His father’s death last April left the family strapped for cash.
After her son was gone, Thay did not have much time to wallow in her sorrow, and went back to the pressing needs of her daily life. Thay and her nine year old daughter have been going to the beach from dawn until dusk to catch fish for more than four years now. She only manages catches small fish that can be sold for about VND20,000 (US$1.20).
Up until four years ago, farmers in Kim Dong Village mainly grew rice. However, wanting to develop an aquaculture industry, village authorities tapped salt water into the fields. The plan was a fiasco due to careless management. Farmers lost out.
“I spent VND10 million on the pond, and netted only VND2 million,” said Thay. “The more money I put in, the less I get back. So I quit for good.”
“We all took loans from banks, but now we all go catching snails and crabs to make a living,” she said. “Almost all the men go out to urban areas. Only women and children are left in the village.”
The story is similar in the neighbouring village Con Thoi. More than 760 people out of 8,000 left for the South to find jobs. Local priest Antoine Doan Minh Hai said that many migrants earn only VND700,000 to VND1.2 million a month (US$42 to $73).
“But that’s still much more than people who stay and farm at home,” he said.
Collectively, the village has taken out VND25 billion (US$151.5 million) in loans to develop aquaculture. Some households even owe as much as VND300 million (US$18,000), according to Hai.
“Generally, men and people of working age eventually leave the village to look for a job in the South, leaving the land in their hometown fallow,” he said. “The migration has been going on since 2005, but has been a lot more noticeable recently.”
Ha Tay Province, especially Chuong My Village in Phu Xuyen District, has also seen its fair share of farmers heading for the city. Of the 5,000 working age people there, 2,000 have left for urban areas.
“The truth is that these people can become richer than those that stay, so they can build or renovate their houses when they come back,” said Nguyen Dac Hai, a labour hero in the village.
The village has 40 households with 5 to 30 hectares of fruit orchards and livestock farms. Their lives become the same as people without land when the avian flu first came to the village in 2002. Farmers lost 10,000 ducks.
“It took us five to six years to recover the loss. Many households are now afraid of reinvesting in the business,” said Hai.
According to a survey conducted by the Institute of Policy and Strategy for Agricultural Research and Development (IPSARD), Institute for Labour Science and Social Affairs (ILSSA) and Central Institute of Economic Management (CIEM), the country had 9.74 million agricultural households in 2006, a decrease of 95.3 thousand households or 8.9 per cent in comparison to 2001 figures. The number of farming households decreases every year by 1.9 per cent.
The Red River Delta lost 24.5 per cent of its farming households and the Southern Central Coast lost 11 per cent over the past five years.
Out of 2,324 households surveyed, 13 per cent lost land due to Government land clearance plans in the last five years, said Dang Kim Son, head of IPSARD. Land clearance has affected 627,500 households with 2.5 million people and 950,000 labourers. In the same period, the country’s rice farms have shrunk to 302,500 ha.
Son worries that the trend of so many people giving up their farms will have unforeseen repercussions in the future. —
