Farmland acquisition and livelihood choices of households in Hanoi’s peri-urban areas

概要

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The relation between land and rural livelihood has been a topic of interest for many researchers and development practitioners. In the context of rising farmland loss due to the escalated urbanization and industrialization in Vietnam’s developed provinces, several researchers have tried to address how farm households respond to farmland loss in peri-urban areas (e.g., Do, 2006 Ngo, 2009 S.V.Nguyen, 2009 Phong, 2007 Vo, 2006).However, no studies have quantified the impacts of farmland loss on peri-urban household’s livelihood choices. Using a dataset collected by the lead author from Hanoi’s peri-urban areas in 2008, this paper is the first attempt to apply econometric methods to quantify effects of farmland loss on household’s activity choices in Hanoi’s peri-urban areas. The results reveal that households have actively adapted to the new context by adopting livelihood strategies based on manual jobs and nonfarm self-employment activities. In addition, although larger owned farmland per adult stimulates household’s to specialize in farming, emerging nonfarm job opportunities make rural young workers less interested in farming activities. The paper concludes with some proposed policy implications that may help peri-urban households to effectively change and diversify their livelihoods.
2011-07-15