2018 Volume 37 Issue Special_Issue Pages 209-216
This study is to examine possibility of alternative course of rural development by demonstrating and analyzing field survey results in the rural area of the Red River Delta, Vietnam, with special attention to the bipolarizing trend of farming management entity. The study showed data to capture farmers' pluriactivity in the individual, household, and community levels of five target villages, indicating that 1) profit-seeking farming bodies have emerged recently with significantly larger level of income in comparison with smallholder agriculture, and 2) majority of rural smallholders continue farming even with available non-farming business opportunities. By showing robust existence of smallholders in Vietnam, the paper suggests possibility of alternative rural development in the light of self-provisioning features of smallholder agriculture together with long-lasting community tie to share non-farming job opportunities each other, which enable smallholders to ensure their livelihood and quality-food to be supplied by themselves, reducing dependency on external resources.
