2006 Volume 58 Issue 1 Pages 20-39
Since Vietnam applied the “Doi Moi-Renovation” policy in 1986, and especially in 1988, the contract system between agricultural cooperatives and farmers was applied in agricultural production. Furthermore, the Land Law in 1993 indicates that farmers could use their land for the long-term (from 20 to 50 years). Therefore, land fragmentation in Vietnam has become a common phenomenon in all localities. This paper aims to provide an analysis of land reform and LC processes in Vietnam. In this regard, the study concentrates on the following issues : (1) to trace back former land reform in the period 1945-1953, in order to identify its results and errors ; (2) to analyze contemporary LC in terms of an institutional analysis from the national to the commune level ; (3) to study the procedure of LC in Dong Long Commune, Tien Hai District, Thai Binh Province.
The main results of this research can be summarized as follows :
Firstly, the land reform program carried out in the period 1953-1956 included 3 principal stages. The main objective of the program was to reduce the influence of colonists, feudalists and landlords by redistributing land to the landless peasants and laborers. As a result, over 810,000 hectares of land which belonged to them were confiscated, requisitioned, and purchased by the government. The land was then redistributed to 2,104,138 landless households, including 8,323,636 peasants and laborers.
Secondly, a significant result of the LC process was to reduce by 50% the total number of land parcels in Dong Long Commune. There were two general impacts of this process : (1) farmers were able to shorten the distance from their houses to the land parcels. Therefore, labor costs as well as long-term investment were reduced, resulting in increased benefits from agricultural production. (2) Land management activities at the commune level became much more effective because of the reduction in the number of parcels as a result of combining public land into a bigger area and building up the Land Use Planning Program for long-term development.
