Canal Development and Intensification of Rice Cultivation in the Mekong Delta:

A Case Study in Cantho Province, Vietnam

Abstract

The present study described the development process of water management and rice cultivation at a village in the Mekong Delta in the three periods, before the unification of Vietnam in 1975, the socialist economy period and the doi moi period. The inter-dependencies between canal development and intensification of rice cultivation and between agricultural development and institutional setting are found to be driving factors in agricultural development as well as social changes.