Abstract

Prior to 1975 the Saigon regime in Vietnam implemented land reforms in the form of private property rights. After 1975, land reform based on an egalitarian approach to land distribution for every household member eliminated both large scale land holdings and landless people. However, land redistribution and the establishment of agricultural cooperatives in South Vietnam was not as effective as the Government would have liked. It is said that methodological shortcomings and the inexperience of the State in implementing agrarian transformation led to the failure of this reform. Since the introduction of the 1993 Land Law and neo-liberalist policies, land has effectively become a commodity distributed through market mechanisms. Therefore, land can now be bought and sold by and to anybody. Commoditization of the land has increased the gap between the rich and the poor. In fact, the neo-liberalist ideology focuses on effectiveness and efficiency but not social security, because the Land Law reforms have introduced competitive power relations and an insecurity of land tenure. Some poor farmers do not have enough capital to invest effectively in agricultural production, leading to the sale of their land and them becoming landless. Therefore, in order to survive, wealthy, medium and poor farmers, as well as landless people, have had to diversify their livelihoods through a combination of on-farm, off-farm and non-farm activities.

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