Abstract
Though most reports on Vietnam have emphasized the difference of agricultural types between the Mekong and Red River Deltas, according to our observation since 1995, both of them have manifested a similar tendency toward urbanization of agriculture and decreased communal influence over it. The Red River Delta villages have transformed their closed, subsistence structure under the Socialist village system into agricultural diversification and urbanization of rural labor in 1990s. At the same time, the increase in landless farmers has become the biggest problem in the Mekong Delta, a problem which could not be solved in the Socialist period because of rapid population growth and the less than thorough socialization of landholding since 1975. Migration to the newly developed Dong Thap Muoi area peaked between 1989 and 1994 but decreased thereafter because of a shortage of uncultivated land.
This has also resulted in an increase in small-holdings of less than 5,000 square meters, the development of intensive rice cropping, and the urbanization of village labor. The difference between the two socio-agricultural types has therefore decreased.
