Abstract
Policy-making and enforcement remains centralized in Vietnam. Policies have been formulated with less scientific and public justification, thus being largely bureaucratic and infeasible, and in many cases, they have created plagues for people at the grass-roots levels. This article focuses on the implementation of policies related to intertidal land-use and supports for clam farming in the Thaibinh province as a case study to explore the impacts of policies on clam farming and farmers. During the period of 2011–2013, provincial policies on intertidal land allocation and technical and financial supports had boosted clam farming development in the province to a surprising extent. Rapid expansion of the clam farming area has created significant consequences for the farming sector, as well as farmer’s lives. However, for the same provincial policies, but with different enforcement, different farming outcomes for clam farmers in the three study communes have resulted. Where farmers had more of a voice and choice in bidding for the intertidal areas they preferred, they faced fewer problems. It is, thus, suggested that a more decentralized policy-making and enforcement are needed, in which more scientific assessment and farmer participation are required to not only make government policy more successful in supporting farmers and achieving their expected outcomes, but also to provide farmers with more room to make their own farming decisions from which farming and marketing risks could be mitigated.
Highlights
The annual average growth rate of aquaculture in Vietnam has remained at over 17% since 2000
The province is endowed with the largest intertidal area for clam farming among coastal provinces in Northern Vietnam [4]
This paper aims to answer two major questions: (1) What were the government policies/interventions regarding land-use in clam farming in the Thaibinh province? (2) What lessons can be learned from the enforcement of these policies/interventions in local conditions?
Summary
The annual average growth rate of aquaculture in Vietnam has remained at over 17% since 2000. Aquaculture has helped reduce the incidence of poverty by 4.3% and decreased the poverty gap and poverty severity indices [2]. The local livelihood system which was traditionally dominated by food crops in coastal areas has been significantly restructured since the 2000s, with increased area being allocated for aquacultural production [3]. Thaibinh is located in the Red River Delta of Vietnam. The province is endowed with the largest intertidal area for clam farming among coastal provinces in Northern Vietnam [4]. In the early 1990s, increased market demand for clams and the reduction in natural clam resources initiated a demand for clam farming in the province, initially with a small area of about 150 ha.
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