The Transformation of Agriculture and Rural Life Downstream of Hanoi

AGRICULTURAL TRANSFORMATIONS The transformation of agriculture and rural life downstream of Hanoi

L M van den Berg, M S van Wijk and Pham Van Hoi

Leo van den Berg is a social SUMMARY: This paper discusses the impacts of urbanization and of recent geographer and senior economic reforms on the livelihoods of farmers in Hanoi’s peri-urban areas. scientist at ALTERRA Green World Research at Although the proportion of land used for agriculture is declining, agricultural Wageningen University and production is intensifying – for instance, with pork, vegetables and fish produc- Research Centre. For many tion increasing and rice production decreasing. The paper looks in some detail at years, his field has been the processes at the rural–urban changes in one peri-urban district on Hanoi’s southern outskirts, including the interface, including those in problems that farmers face from losing agricultural land use rights, increased Lusaka (Zambia), Jos seasonal flooding and water contamination by city wastes. Most farmers have (Nigeria), The Netherlands, various other cities in turned to more intensive horticulture and fish farming, in part because these give Europe and now extending much higher returns per hectare and usually (but not always) higher returns per to East Asia. hour. Many farming families have some members working in industry or services. Some have built apartments on their house sites and rent these out or sub-divide Address: ALTERRA, PO Box 47, 6700 AA their residential lot and sell it to urban house seekers. Some farmers leave land Wageningen; e-mail: fallow, waiting for urban development opportunities. Farmers who lose their land [email protected] to the city development agency’s residential or commercial developments get g-ur.nl compensation, which used to be fixed arbitrarily but is now increasingly up for Maarten Siebe van Wijk is a negotiation, and a few are using this compensation to develop farms further from scientist at the Agricultural the city. As in many other cities, the relationship between urban planners, Economics Research consumers, rural communities and horticultural producers is uneasy and gener- Institute (LEI), which is part of the Wageningen ally not constructive. University and Research Centre, where he is coordinating two international research I. URBANIZATION IN VIETNAM AND HANOI projects in China and PROVINCE(1) Vietnam in the field of peri- urban agriculture. These projects focus on the WITH A TOTAL population of more then 77 million, Vietnam is the development of an seventh most populous country in the Asia–Pacific region. In 1990, 20 per economic and cent of the population lived in urban areas, but in the following decade the environmentally annual urban population growth rate was 3.7 per cent, resulting in a rise sustainable horticultural sector in peri-urban areas, in the urban population of six million people, to 24 per cent of the total through partnerships population in 2000.(2) between farmers, Based on the population censuses of 1979, 1989 and 1999, the General researchers and policy makers. Statistical Office has estimated the expected urban and rural population in 2024. The scenario with the lowest growth assumption predicts a total Address: LEI, PO Box 29703, population of over 96 million persons, of which 32 per cent – or 12 million 2502 LS The Hague, the Netherlands; e-mail: people – will be urban. In the high-growth scenario, the urban population (3) [email protected]; increases by 17.5 million, or 36 per cent of the total population. An tel.: +31–(0)70–3358243. important driving force behind the urbanization process has been a re-

Environment&Urbanization Vol 15 No 1 April 2003 35 AGRICULTURAL TRANSFORMATIONS

Pham Van Hoi is a scientist Table 1: Population trends in Vietnam at Hanoi Agricultural University (HAU). He has a BSc in plant protection and Urban Rural Total an MSc in social development from the Population in 1990 (millions) 12.9 53.1 66.0 Ateneo de Manila University in the Population in 2000*(millions) 18.6 59.0 77.6 Philippines. He is now teaching environmental Population shares in 1990 (%) 19.5 80.5 100.0 science at HAU and is involved in several projects Population shares in 2000 (%) 24.0 76.0 100.0 regarding sustainable peri- urban and rural Annual growth rate 1999–2000 (%) 3.7 1.1 1.6 development in Vietnam. He is also a regular contributor to the Magazine *Data for 2000 are still preliminary for Environment Protection SOURCE: General Statistical Office (2001), Statistical Yearbook, Statistical Publishing House, Hanoi. of the Vietnamese Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment. engagement with the world economy in the late 1980s as a result of reforms to reduce the role of the state and open up the economy to foreign Address: Department of (4) Agro-Ecology Sciences, capital. A very large majority of the economic growth thus generated Hanoi Agricultural concentrates in the urban areas of Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi,(5) and this University, Gialam, Hanoi, explains why an important share of urban growth takes place in these Vietnam; tel: (84–4) 8765607; cities. fax: (84–4) 8766642; e-mail: [email protected] Hanoi is the second largest city in Vietnam, and its capital. It was founded in 1010, in the centre of the fertile Red River delta. Located on a 1. This article is based on bend in the river, it had easy access to transport, naturally irrigated agri- the work of a large team of cultural land and was difficult to attack by enemies. Hanoi developed researchers as part of a recently started project. The slowly over the first 900 years of its history and had only 70,000 people by team includes Tran Duc 1918. Throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Hanoi Vien, Pham Van Hoi, Pham went through difficult times: after French colonial rule came the Japanese Thi Huong, Pham Tien Dung, Le Dao Luan, Dang occupation, followed by war with the USA. Despite these turbulent times, Thi Sy, Tran Huu Cuong its population had grown to 300,000 by 1945 and to about 1 million by and Ngo The An from 1990.(6) Hanoi Agricultural The city administration (People’s Committee) has responsibility over University, and Eefje den Belder and Marleen van den not only the urbanized core of the city but also its surrounding rural Top from Wageningen–UR. hinterland.(7) As shown in Table 2, Hanoi province consists of seven urban More information about the city districts and five rural suburban districts. In this paper, we define the project can be found on the web site: five suburban districts as the peri-urban area, which forms about 91 per www.searusyn.org. Unless cent of the province. otherwise stated, data At 3.1 per cent, the annual growth rate of the population of Hanoi presented are from district province for the period 1990–1999 was much higher than that for the and city statistical offices, from surveys by our (8) whole country. Between 1991 and 1999, the province’s population grew Vietnamese counterparts by 590,700, of which 319,000 were migrants and the rest came from natural and from our joint field population growth. These figures are based on official data and do not visits during the preparation of the project include the many immigrants (both temporary and permanent) who are proposal in the summers of not registered.(9) This urban population growth and the rapid economic 1999 and 2000. growth of the last decade(10) are important driving forces in the changes 2. General Statistical Office that took place in the peri-urban agricultural sector. (2001), Statistical Yearbook, Statistical Publishing House, Hanoi. II. URBAN AND PERI-URBAN AGRICULTURE IN 3. General Statistical Office HANOI PROVINCE (2000), Population Projections: Vietnam, 1999–2024, ONE OF THE important impacts of “doi moi” (see note 4) has been the Statistical Publishing change in the economic structure of Hanoi province, as reflected in the House, Hanoi, page 42.

36 Environment&Urbanization Vol 15 No 1 April 2003 AGRICULTURAL TRANSFORMATIONS

Table 2: Administrative districts of Hanoi province

Official Area (hectares, Population Population density District Status designation 1998) (1999) (person/km2,1999)

Ba Dinh City district Urban 930 200,800 21,591 Cau Giay City district Urban 1,195 127,700 10,686 Dong Da City district Urban 987 332,700 33,708 Hai Ba Trung City district Urban 1,465 355,300 24,253 Hoan Kiem City district Urban 529 171,100 32,344 Tay Ho City district Urban 2,394 92,000 3,843 Thanh Xuan City district Urban 913 151,900 16,637 Total city 8,413 1,431,500 17,015 Dong Anh Suburban district Rural 18,172 258,400 1,422 Gia Lam Suburban district Rural 17,285 337,300 1,951 Soc Son Suburban district Rural 29,521 243,400 824 Thanh Tri Suburban district Rural 9,796 227,800 2,325 Tu Liem Suburban district Rural 7,515 189,700 2,524 Total suburban 82,289 1,256,600 1,527 Hanoi province 90,702 2,688,100 2,964

SOURCE: Calculated from Hanoi Statistical Office (2001), Hanoi Statistical Yearbook.

4. This reform process is shares of the different sectors in the gross domestic product. Since the late referred to by the 1980s, the share of agriculture declined from 10 per cent to about 3.6 per Vietnamese words “doi (11) moi”. cent in 1999, or a value of about US$ 71 million. But, despite this, the sector still plays an important role in land use (management of green open 5. Drakakis-Smith, David space), the supply of food and the provision of income to the poorest part and Chris Dixon (1997), “Sustainable urbanization of the population. in Vietnam”, Geoforum Vol In 2000, about 49 per cent of the total surface of Hanoi province(12) was 28, No 1, pages 21–38. used for agriculture, and nearly 194,000 households (an estimated 829,000 6. UNDP (2000), “Ha Noi: people) obtained an important part of their income from that sector. an urban profile”, Project Provincial production supplied between 62 and 80 per cent of vegetable VIE/95/050, United consumption, between 50 and 73 per cent of pork and about 46 per cent Nations Development of fish. As shown in Table 3, the variation in the estimates of supply and Programme, Hanoi. demand for agricultural products is considerable and clearly calls for 7. See reference 6. further study, but these estimates show beyond doubt the important role played by the peri-urban agricultural sector in Hanoi province. 8. Calculated from data from Hanoi Statistical Office The urbanization process has various important effects on the peri- (2001), Hanoi Statistical urban agricultural sector. First, urban growth decreases the amount of Yearbook. land available for agriculture, causing an increase in land prices and forcing farmers to intensify their land use. Second, the demand for food 9. See reference 5; also see reference 6. products such as meat (pork), vegetables, fruit and fish increases. Table 4 shows that between 1991 and 1999, in Hanoi province, there 10. Data from the 2002 was an average decline of 15 per cent in the area of agricultural land per World Bank Development Indicators CD show that household. The largest decrease occurred in Thanh Tri district, where the between 1990 and 2000, the area of land per farm household had decreased by 27 per cent over this Gross Domestic Product of period. Vietnam increased by more than 7 per cent per year. The total area of sown land is almost twice as much as the total agri- This resulted in a real per cultural area (Table 5), indicating that, on the average, there were slightly

Environment&Urbanization Vol 15 No 1 April 2003 37 AGRICULTURAL TRANSFORMATIONS

Table 3: Estimates from various sources of the demand for agricultural products in Hanoi province, and the supply by producers within the province

Supplied by Supplied by Supplied by Demand Demand Demand Hanoi- based Hanoi- based Hanoi-based (tonnes) (tonnes) (tonnes) agriculture agriculture(%) agriculture(%) (2000)* (2000)** (1999)*** (%)* ** ***

Pig meat (live pig) 58,102 73 63,000 50 65,250 50

Beef 4,754 24 11,750 – – –

Poultry 15,000 80 15,000 52 14,920 52

Dairy (milk) 13,205 37 13,000 16 12,693 16

Fish 21,128 47 15,500 45

Vegetables 184,870 62 150,000 80 148,287 80

Fruit 66,025 15 65,000 30 107,496 30

Grain 475,380 44 (rice) 397,800 – –

Eggs – 34 103 40 40

SOURCE: * Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (2000), “Food security programme until 2010” (mimeo). ** Tran Van Lai (2000), “Perspectives of peri-urban vegetable production in Hanoi”, paper presented at the CIP workshop on Action Plan Development in Hanoi, 6–9 June 2000. *** Mai Thi Phuong Anh (2000), “Current status and prospective planning upon agricultural development in Hanoi”, paper presented at the CIP workshop on Action Plan Development in Hanoi, 6–9 June 2000.

Table 4: Agricultural population and agricultural land per household in districts of Hanoi province Agricultural Agricultural Number of Agricultural land Change between households population (1999) people in (1999) 1991 and 1999 (1999) agricultural (ha/household) (ha/household) population aged 15–65

Soc Son 45,893 222,655 115,781 0.31 -0.05

Dongh Anh 48,276 209,710 103,680 0.20 -0.05

Gia Lam 38,633 151,002 81,541 0.24 -0.03

Tu Liem 21,334 89,390 46,474 0.19 -0.01

Thanh Tri 31,570 127,512 61,206 0.16 -0.06

City districts 8,136 28,637 12,583 0.25 -0.06

Total 193,842 828,906 421,265 0.23 -0.04

SOURCE: Hanoi Statistical Office (1995), Hanoi Statistical Yearbook, Hanoi Statistical Office, Hanoi; also Hanoi Statistical Office (2001), Hanoi Statistical Yearbook, Hanoi Statistical Office, Hanoi.

38 Environment&Urbanization Vol 15 No 1 April 2003 AGRICULTURAL TRANSFORMATIONS

Table 5: Sown area of different categories of crops in Hanoi province

Sown area (ha) Share in the total Sown area Share in the total Change in sown (1991) sown area (%) (ha)(2000) sown area (%) area between 1991 and 2000(ha)

Staple food crops 74,940 86 70,509 82 -4,431 Vegetables 6,115 7 9,174 11 3,059 Industrial crops 5,749 7 6,074 7 325 Total 86,804 100 85,757 100 -1,047

Table 6: Area sown with different crops in 1999 in each district and percentage share of the total sown area of a specific crop

Spring paddy Winter paddy Maize Vegetables Flowers Other* (ha) (%) (ha) (%) (ha) (%) (ha) (%) (ha) (%) (ha) (%)

Soc Son 6,354 26 9,918 34 4,567 39 1,101 14 12 1 7,155 53 Dongh Anh 7,212 29 7,575 26 2,936 25 2,250 29 66 6 3,100 23 Gia Lam 4,633 19 5,365 18 3,332 28 1,758 23 33 3 2,433 18 Tu Liem 2,876 12 2,915 10 22 0 959 13 483 45 282 2 Thanh Tri 2,974 12 2,558 9 711 6 1,381 18 101 9 295 2 City districts 464 2 471 2 130 1 221 3 380 35 25 0 State farms 276 1 304 1 20 0 000001 Total 24,789 100 29,106 100 11,718 100 7,670 100 1,075 100 13,290 100

* The “other” category was calculated by the authors from data from the Hanoi Statistical Office. In the Hanoi Statistical Yearbook, the total sown areas per district are presented, also the sown areas for rice, maize, vegetables and flowers. If the crop-specific figures pro- vided by HSO are added up, there remains an unspecified sown area that we have defined as “other”.

Table 7: Share of different sown crops as percentage of the total sown area in each district (1999) Spring Winter Maize (%) Vegetables Flowers (%) Other (%) Total (%) paddy (%) paddy (%) (%) Soc Son 22 34 16 4 0 25 100 Dongh Anh 31 33 13 10 0 13 100 Gia Lam 26 31 19 10 0 14 100 Tu Liem 38 39 0 13 6 4 100 Thanh Tri 37 32 9 17 1 4 100 City districts 27 28 8 13 22 1 100 Hanoi province 28 33 13 9 1 15 100

Environment&Urbanization Vol 15 No 1 April 2003 39 AGRICULTURAL TRANSFORMATIONS

Figure 1: Relative change in areas of different crops sown in each district in the period 1991-1999

100%

80%

60%

40%

20%

-20%

-40%

-60%

-80%

-100% Soc Son Dongh Anh Gia Lam Tu Liem Thanh Tri Others

Spring paddy Winter paddy Maize

Vegetables Flowers Others

less than two crops a year. During the last decade, the area of vegetables capita GDP increase from has increased considerably, to almost 10,000 hectares, replacing staple US$ 206 in 1990 to US$ 356 food crops. in 2000. Rice is by far the most important crop, followed by maize and vegeta- 11. Hanoi Statistical Office bles (Table 6). Vegetables and flowers are grown mostly in those districts (1995), Hanoi Statistical nearest the city. Of all the paddy area cultivated in Hanoi province, 30 per Yearbook; also Hanoi Statistical Office, (2001), cent was located in Soc Son and 27 per cent in Dongh Ahn. For vegetable Hanoi Statistical Yearbook. production, Dongh Anh (29 per cent), Gia Lam (23 per cent) and Thanh Tri (18 per cent) were the most important districts. Flower production is 12. Of the 90,702 hectares, almost wholly located in Tu Liem (about 45 per cent) and in the city 44,842 were agricultural in 2000. districts (35 per cent). At the district level, the sown vegetable area as a share of the total sown 13. The increase in the sown area in a district is highest in Thanh Tri, where it occupies more than 17 area of maize was not achieved by replacing other per cent of the sown area. crops but by increasing the Of the relative changes in land use area between 1991 and 1999, the total sown area. Between most important has been the increase in vegetable acreage (Figure 1). 1991 and 1999, the total sown area in Soc Son Exceptions to this trend were found in the city districts and in Soc Son increased by more then district. In the latter, the greatest change was an increase in the sown area 3,000 hectares, an increase of maize,(13) achieved by increasing the number of crops per year. In the of 12 per cent. city districts, the increase in sown area was the result of adjustments to 14. This is temporary as, district boundaries. Land from Thanh Tri district became part of a city very soon, this land will be district, which increased the latter’s agricultural land area.(14) In Tu Liem, used for urban housing the total area of sown crops decreased, with only the flower-growing area programmes. increasing since 1991. In Dong Anh, vegetables seem to have replaced

40 Environment&Urbanization Vol 15 No 1 April 2003 AGRICULTURAL TRANSFORMATIONS

winter and spring paddy and other crops. The same occurred in Thanh Tri and Gia Lam districts, with the only difference that in the latter, vegetables seem to have replaced maize. 15. Jansen, H P G, D J It is likely that these changes in land use are due to an increased Midmore, P T Binh, S demand for vegetables and pork (which increases the demand for maize). Valasayya and L C Tru This leads to higher prices, making vegetable production more profitable. (1996), “Profitability and In one of the few available empirical studies on the economics of peri- sustainability of peri-urban (15) vegetable production urban agriculture in Vietnam, Jansen et al. found that on the urban systems in Vietnam”, fringe of Ho Chi Minh City, the mean net return per year for rice was less Netherlands Journal of than US$ 100 per hectare. With an average labour use of 100 man-days Agricultural Science Vol 44, No 2, pages 125–143. per hectare, the average net return for rice was US$ 2.5 per day. For vegetables, the net returns per hectare were much higher, ranging between US$ 500–1,000. It thus seems surprising that farmers still culti- 16. Bui, Thi Gia (2000), vate rice. Jansen et al. also found that most vegetables require a labour “Production and marketing input of between 250 and 625 man-days per hectare, which is between of safe vegetables in Gia Lam district, Hanoi City” in 2.6–6 times higher than for rice. The difference between the net returns Rural Economy Development per day for rice and vegetables, therefore, is not as great as the difference Issues in the Red River Delta, for the net returns per land unit. For the most common vegetables, the net Proceedings of the Fourth Joint Workshop at the returns ranged between US$ 1.42–5.42 per day. Faculty of Economics and For Hanoi, the only reliable figures available are based on a survey Rural Development, Hanoi among 160 vegetable farmers in Gia Lam district. Bui(16) calculated the net Agricultural University, return per hectare per day for the two main vegetables, cabbage and Hanoi. kohlrabi. As shown in Table 8, her figures are far higher than those found 17. See reference 15. by Janssen et al.(17) in Ho Chi Minh City, and demonstrate why the sown area of vegetables increased so much in the last decade. With a net return of about US$ 4 per day for the cultivation of cabbages, the rewards are much higher than the opportunity costs for an unskilled labourer, which were about US$ 0.8 per day in 1997. For kohlrabi, they are about the same as for an unskilled urban labourer. Although agricultural households in Hanoi province only have small areas of land and relatively large amounts of available labour, the high labour demands for vegetable production are restrictive. For one hectare of cabbages, a household needs to invest 855 days over a period of three months; this certainly limits the possibilities for concentrating completely on vegetable production. Another reason for households to remain engaged in rice production is the difficulty in culti- vating vegetables in the summer season, when temperatures and humid- ity are high. Finally, the rotation of vegetables with rice, when all fields are submerged with irrigation water, is an important factor in the control of pests and disease. Besides differences in land use, the districts also differ in terms of share of total production and productivity. With regard to rice, Dongh Anh was the most important district with more than 30 per cent of total rice produc-

Table 8: Average net returns for cabbage and kohlrabi in Gia Lam district, Hanoi province (1997)

Cabbage Kolhrabi Net return in US$/ha 3,417 536 Net return in US$/day 4.0 0.8 Labour input (day/ha) 855 657

SOURCE: Bui, Thi Gia (2000), “Production and marketing of safe vegetables in Gia Lam district, Hanoi City”, Rural Economy Development Issues in the Red River Delta, Proceedings of the Fourth Joint Workshop at the Faculty of Economics and Rural Development, Hanoi Agricultural University, Hanoi.

Environment&Urbanization Vol 15 No 1 April 2003 41 AGRICULTURAL TRANSFORMATIONS

Table 9: Production of each district as share of total production in Hanoi province (1999)

Spring paddy (%) Winter paddy (%) Maize (%) Vegetables (%) Flowers (%) Soc Son 19.2 27.5 29.3 8.6 0.1 Dong Anh 31.6 28.9 29.2 28.2 2.5 Gia Lam 21.2 21.3 34.7 18.0 0.9 Tu Liem 12.5 10.5 0.1 14.1 57.2 Thanh Tri 12.8 9.5 5.6 27.1 6.2 Others 1.4 1.1 0.9 3.9 33.1 State sector 1.2 1.1 0.2 0.0 0.0 Total 100 100 100 100 100

tion despite the fact that Soc Son had the largest area of rice (Table 9). As one can see in Figure 2, the productivity of this district is the lowest for all crops. When compared to the estimated provincial demand for rice and vegetables (see Table 3), in 1999 probably at least 40 per cent of the demand for rice was met by production within the province. According to the table, the province produces roughly 60–80 per cent of its demand for vegetables. In vegetable production, both Dong Anh and Thanh Tri produced about 28 per cent per cent each of the total. The remarkable

Figure 2: Average yields in 1999 for different crops, per district

42 Environment&Urbanization Vol 15 No 1 April 2003 AGRICULTURAL TRANSFORMATIONS

Figure 3: Number of pigs older than two months in Hanoi province and its districts

performance of vegetable production in Thanh Tri is reflected in its high yield per hectare (see Figure 2). For flowers, not surprisingly the highest total production was from Tu Liem as almost all production is located there. The average yield is also highest in this district, probably because of its long tradition of flower production. The differences in average yield between the districts is considerable. Gia Lam has the highest yields for both rice and maize, with nearly 600 kilogrammes per hectare more than the average and more than 1,300 kilo- 18. Ambassade de France au Vietnam (2001), Regards sur grammes per hectare when compared to Soc Son. Soc Son district has the le peri-urbain de Hanoi; Hanoi, poorest soils in the province and this is reflected in these figures.(18) In le cycle des métamorphoses, Thanh Tri, vegetable yields are about 8,700 kilogrammes per hectare more Hanoi. than the average for the whole province. This is probably due to the fact that the district is located downstream of the Red River and receives large amounts of nutrient-rich sediments. Productivity in the urban districts is relatively low for rice (roughly the same as that in Soc Son) but for vegetables it is almost as high as in Thanh Tri. With regard to livestock production, Figure 3 shows that the agricultural sector has responded to increased demand. The total number of pigs has increased greatly, from about 200,000 in 1991 to around 300,000. Most of this growth has taken place in Gia Lam district, where the number of pigs has doubled. This also explains the increase in maize production in this district, as maize is an important input for pig production. Only in the city districts has the number of pigs decreased, despite the changes in district boundaries. In 1999, the total estimated number of pigs older than two months was more than 301,000 head. On average, this meant 1.6 pigs per agricultural household. The largest share of all pigs in Hanoi province is in Dong Anh, where almost 26 per cent of all pigs are kept. The two other important pig-raising districts are Soc Son (24 per cent) and Gia Lam (23 per cent). Most pig breeding takes places in small units, integrated into the other productive activities of agricultural households.

Environment&Urbanization Vol 15 No 1 April 2003 43 AGRICULTURAL TRANSFORMATIONS

III. URBAN EXPANSION AND AGRICULTURAL INTENSIFICATION IN THANH TRI

FROM THE PRECEDING analysis, the district of Thanh Tri emerges as the one with the highest yields in vegetable production on almost the greatest land area. Between 1991 and 1999, it experienced the greatest decrease in paddy field area; even so, its share of sown area of spring paddy is still far above the provincial average, and that of winter paddy hardly lower. In 1999, it had the lowest ratio of agricultural land per agricultural household and, in previous years, it experienced the sharpest decline in this ratio of all peri-urban districts of Hanoi. The experience of Thanh Tri as a rural district being invaded by urban functions such as housing, industry and infrastructure for the needs of 19. Sinclair, R (1967), “Von the adjacent Hanoi City is quite typical of rural–urban fringe areas Thünen and urban sprawl”, anywhere in the world.(19) Many farmers living close to the city respond Annals Ass. Am. Geography No 57, pages to market demands for fresh vegetables, milk and other perishable 72–87. commodities. They switch to more valuable crops than rice or wheat and experience a gradually increasing land shortage, forcing them to use more intensively whatever land they can lay their hands on. In Thanh Tri, this is reflected in decreasing surface areas available for cultivation and an increasing concentration on vegetable production. Although this could be the dominant response to urban pressure, there is always the alternative, practised by many peri-urban farmers and/or landowners all over the world, namely that of “sit and wait”. For these farmers, the uncertainty of when exactly the land might be taken over by urban structures is too great to make it worth their while continuing with serious, intensive agricultural production. This explains the widespread fallow or under-utilized land found around many expanding cities. In Thanh 20. Data supplied by Thanh Tri district, this amounts to approximately 10 per cent of the total area.(20) Tri District Planning Department (July 2001). a. Downstream versus upstream rural–urban interfaces

As shown in Figure 4, Thanh Tri is situated immediately downstream of the main built-up areas of Hanoi. For an understanding of the processes that are taking place in the rural–urban interface, it makes sense to distin- guish between upstream and downstream developments. Streams and rivers passing through a city tend to accumulate urban waste in the process, which makes it less likely that smart residential and business developments will be situated in that particular area of the city; more commonly, one would find low-income housing areas and heavy industries. This is a fairly universal trend that can be observed in cities as diverse as London, Rotter- dam and Hanoi, and is particularly evident in Hanoi, where the city is 21. Hoi, Pham Van (2001), “Environmental situation in located along the Red River and its delta. Thanh Tri district, immediately Thanh Tri district”, paper south of the city, is considered by some as “…the navel of pollution-driven presented at CARES–WUR elements: to which wastewater from Hanoi enters via three rivers.(21) Workshop on Partnerships This waste consists of both pollutants and nutrients, and some of the between Urban Growth and (Peri-)urban Agriculture, agricultural nutrients are simultaneously air pollutants. This “bad smell” Hanoi (mimeo). alone can be a long-term reason why smart developments stay away from the area. At the other extreme, the north-western rural–urban interface of 22. Leaf, Michael (1999), “Vietnam’s urban edge; the Hanoi (Phu Thuong, which became an urban ward in 1996) is still reputed administration of urban for its “flower villages”.(22) Here, new high-class housing estates, development in Hanoi”, embassies, lavish hotels and office blocks are emerging, often as joint Third World Planning Review ventures between the Hanoi government and foreign developers. Apart Vol 21, No 3, pages 297–315. from these flower villages, the ward contains vast expanses of rice fields

44 Environment&Urbanization Vol 15 No 1 April 2003 AGRICULTURAL TRANSFORMATIONS

Figure 4: Thanh Tri district; the northern boundary is at the edge of built-up area of Hanoi

that are earmarked for further urban mega-projects. This city district borders onto Tu Liem peri-urban district, which – as shown in Table 9 – produced over half of all flowers in Hanoi province in 1999, followed by the urban districts, which produced 33 per cent. Downstream areas are negatively affected not only by problems of water quality but also by increasing peak discharges of water after heavy rain. As vegetated areas become building sites and surfaced roads, rain- water has less chance of soaking away into the soil and instead runs directly into drainage ditches. Over the years, farmers in Thanh Tri district have experienced increased problems in protecting their lower rice fields against flooding. Whereas the normal pattern is two rice harvests per year, they have now given up their rainy season crop from these lower fields. They make the best out of this situation by turning their flooded fields into seasonal or permanent fishponds, but the situation is not really satis- factory. This contrasts with the land and lakes upstream, where flooding also occurs and also tends to be slightly greater due to deforestation in the Vietnamese and Chinese hills further upstream. But these floods are quite well controlled and the water is clean. There is a big lake in that area (West Lake), which is used extensively for recreation and which is now

Environment&Urbanization Vol 15 No 1 April 2003 45 AGRICULTURAL TRANSFORMATIONS

surrounded by a relatively open type of urban development mixed with substantial areas of remaining rice and ornamental plant production.

b. Agricultural employment

In Thanh Tri district, about 80 per cent of employment is still agricultural, but many farming families already have some members working in factories and services in this area. In one of the communes we visited (Tan Hiep, the most “urban” amongst them), we were told that 1,300 of the 2,000 households (65 per cent) were farm households. In these farm households, about 70 per cent of earnings are derived from agriculture and 30 per cent from off-farm employment and non-agricultural activities at home. Major industrial enterprises are an electrical and battery factory and a fertilizer factory. There is also a long-distance bus terminal in the district. Smaller industries are mainly in the food-processing sector. As the area is in the process of shifting from rice to more labour-intensive vegetable production, most agricultural labour in the area is full time. In fact, many of the vegetable producers said they had to hire agricultural labour from rice-growing villages further away from town in order to cover their peak labour demand. 23. Institute of Sociology In the “upstream” ward of Phu Thuong (removed from Tu Liem district (1998), “Report on the in 1996 and included in the urban area), agriculture also remains the main results of socioeconomic employment. According to a survey by the University of Hanoi,(23) 77.6 survey in Phu Thuong per cent of the households are engaged in agriculture, however only 15.2 ward”, Project VIE/95/050, University of Hanoi per cent consider agriculture as their only source of income. The other (mimeo), pages 5–12. households combine agricultural employment with occupations such as trade, services and wage labour. Trading flowers and rice products are mentioned as popular sources of income in Phu Thuong but, unlike Thanh Tri, industrial employment is not specifically mentioned. The survey also shows that, although rice cultivation is the main activity, it is on the decline, whilst flower growing is stable and provides far higher incomes. The authors state that: “…transformation from rice to flower, from peach blossom flower to other flower and decoration plants, in essence is a trend towards increasing the effi- ciency of land use. This process leads to polarization and competition, which are not based on the amount of land used but on elements such as investment, technique and marketing capability.” The survey also established that some 44 per cent of households in this urban ward are engaged in animal breeding (mainly pigs), but this is done on a very small scale and is considered only as one of many additional sources of income.

c. The special case of fish farming in Thanh Tri

Animal breeding did not even occur as an economic activity in the survey results from Thanh Tri and, during our field visits, we were told that it was a very marginal source of food or income, just a few pigs or chickens in the yard. The exception, however, was fish and shrimp farming. Whilst 24. Sy, Dang Thi (2001), “Fish-farming in Thanh Tri this was an equally marginal activity in Phu Thuong, it was reported to district”, paper presented at occupy about 1,200 hectares, or 20 per cent of the cultivated land, in Thanh CARES–WUR Workshop on Tri. According to Sy,(24) about half of this area is used by year-round fish Partnerships between Urban Growth and (Peri-) breeders and the other half by those who use it for fish farming during urban Agriculture, Hanoi the wettest third of the year only and plant two crops of rice during the (mimeo). rest of the year. Sy also found that on about 400 of these 1,200 hectares,

46 Environment&Urbanization Vol 15 No 1 April 2003 AGRICULTURAL TRANSFORMATIONS

Box 1: Fish farming in Tan Hiep commune

We interviewed the biggest of the fish breeders in Tan Hiep commune (who had about 10 hectares), who said that he had received no income from this activity for the past three years. “Fortunately, my wife has a job in one of the nearby factories.” His father had taught him how to breed fish but he had been a factory worker until about four years ago, when he won a tender to operate a fish farm on submerged rice fields belonging to about 600 farming families. The commune’s administration had persuaded these farmers to lease their land for flooding purposes for a period of three years, for which they received a fixed fee. The fee was less than they would have received from three good rice harvests, but more than they would have got if at least one of the harvests had been spoiled by the increasingly hefty seasonal floods. Understandably, the farmers considered controlled flooding to be better than uncontrolled flooding. Of the ten bidders, this particular fish farmer offered the most for a three-year lease, after which time the original users can either invite new tenders, use it individually for rice cultivation or something else, or make it available for urbanization. Last year, the fish farmer managed to renew the contract for a further three years. He decided that fish alone did not earn him enough to pay the lease and have an income on top. He therefore started an experiment on one hectare of flooded land with a new variety of shrimp that is promoted by the local government centre for fish breeding and for which he can buy special food from a local Cargill factory. When asked about his pond’s water quality, he stated that he was quite happy with the effluents from the nearby fertilizer factory, as these reduced somewhat his need to buy food for the fish. Apart from not getting a high enough price for his product, the fish farmer faces two main problems. As the land he uses is zoned as “agricultural”, he is not allowed to build more than a temporary shelter next to his pond. And because the farmers want the land back at the end of the lease in the same condition as they left it in, he is not allowed to do any dredging, which would give the pond an optimal depth for fish breeding. Nevertheless, he has high expectations of the returns from his one hectare of shrimp in about two or three months time. He said that there were about 25 shrimp farmers in Thanh Tri district at the moment, but attempts to form an effective association to look after their common interests have failed.

those that are closest to the three rivers carrying household and industrial sewage from the city, the fish thrive solely on the nutrients in this wastewater; on some 500 hectares, the fish are also fed with added inputs; and on the remaining 300 hectares, no urban wastewater at all is used for 25. See also Cuong, Tran feeding. The number of people engaged in fish farming in this district is Huu (2001), “Some issues of vegetable production and fairly small, around 400 (men), with an equal number of (female) fish marketing in Hanoi”, paper traders at Hanoi markets. This is out of a total of just over 30,000 rural presented at CARES–WUR households (see Table 4 above(25)). For ordinary fish farms, one needs an Workshop on Partnerships Between Urban Growth and area of at least three to five hectares, with a maximum of ten hectares. One (Peri-)urban Agriculture, of the communes in Thanh Tri was reported to have about 50 fishponds, Hanoi (mimeo). operated by some 30 professional fish breeders. In Thanh Tri, there are several fish farmers who combine this activity with the production of waterborne vegetables, flowers and herbs. The main ones are certain types of spinach and morning glory; also, water hyacinth spreads rapidly over the lakes and is harvested regularly for animal feed and composting. It is not only individuals and the rural commune and district adminis- trations of Thanh Tri who are actors in the fish-farming sector; Hanoi City government also uses it for its own ends. The commune of Thin Liet already has nearly as much water as agricultural land (164 and 185 hectares, respectively), but has now seen 85 of the 185 hectares demar- cated by the city government for a new lake. Its main purpose is to receive water from the built-up area of Hanoi in flooding time and to allow heavy metals carried by one of the heavily polluted rivers (the Set), also in the built-up area of Hanoi, to settle down before the water is released into the Red River. In addition, this new lake will be a source of water during the dry season for the many fishponds in the area; and its shores will be land-

Environment&Urbanization Vol 15 No 1 April 2003 47 AGRICULTURAL TRANSFORMATIONS

scaped so as to provide recreational space. The commune leaders also told us that they had been approached by the urban development agency of Hanoi City about taking over fishpond land at the end of one fish breeder’s three-year lease. This land would be ideal for large-scale urban development as it has already been consoli- dated and an existing mechanism for paying compensation to the original, agricultural users can be applied. Also, the land itself is hardly “developed”, as whatever dykes and ditches existed before the fields were turned into a big lake are now blurred by sediments. For a large-scale urban development agency, it is relatively easy to organize a landfill oper- ation by bringing sand from the Red River to these low-lying areas, in order to provide excellent building sites. This has been common practice for the city administration in many building projects in the past. Such large-scale landfills would, in turn, increase the seasonal flooding of low- lying rice fields further downstream, thus setting in motion another sequence of land uses: from rice to, first seasonal and later semi-perma- 26. See reference 24; also nent, fishponds, followed by landfill for urbanization. Furedy, Christine (1994), “Solid wastes in the waste d. Polluted fish and vegetables? economy: sociocultural aspects”, Proceedings of a Workshop funded by Many observers have raised serious questions about the use of urban and International Development industrial effluents as nutrients for fish and vegetables.(26) Despite the fact Research Centre, Ottawa on The Urban Waste Economy that, normally, polluted effluents are not directly fed to fish meant for in Vietnam, Hanoi, August human consumption, samples of fish from the area, and which are meant 22–25, Publication Series for human consumption, do sometimes contain overly high concentra- Report No 3, www.utoronto.ca/env/ tions of heavy metals. The same applies to vegetables grown using this vietpro/waste. water. Generally, polluted water is allowed to settle before it is applied to vegetables and used for fish breeding. However, it has been shown that some fish thrive in these settlement ponds. Sy considers that these fish have a purifying role but that they are unsafe for consumption. The water in fishponds next to these three heavily polluted rivers contains far lower levels of organic and chemical pollutants than the rivers and their irrigation canals. These concentrations are lower again in adjacent ponds that get their water only indirectly from these rivers. Recently, incidents have been reported in the local press of fish farmers in Thanh Tri district seeing their fish dying from contaminated effluent from a nearby fertilizer 27. Vietnam News, 7–15 (27) factory. Vegetables were also seriously affected in the same incidents. September 2002. People in Thanh Tri are well aware of the fact that surface water in the area is not suitable for drinking, even after boiling. Piped water is not yet available in all houses but people have wells from which they assume it is safe to drink. However, tests on the water have thrown this assumption into considerable doubt, and the groundwater is also sometimes polluted. Extending the piped water network is a high priority for the district authorities. 28. Dung, Pham Tien (2001), The pollution problem for vegetables is not only one of contaminated “Impacts of peri-urban urban wastes and pathogens but also the result of some farmers using too agricultural production on much fertilizer and pesticide and not adhering to the norms.(28) This is not safe foodstuff in Thanh Tri district”, paper presented at least a direct health risk to the farmers themselves when they come into CARES–WUR Workshop on contact with these toxic chemicals. In this latter respect, Thanh Tri Partnerships between vegetable growers are not much different from those elsewhere in the city, Urban Growth and (Peri-) urban Agriculture, Hanoi but in terms of urban pollutants they are clearly much worse off. Other (mimeo). than the sedimentation ponds already in use and the proper treatment of effluents at source, there is no secure and affordable technique yet available by which the beneficial nutrients in urban waste can be separated from the potentially dangerous elements.

48 Environment&Urbanization Vol 15 No 1 April 2003 AGRICULTURAL TRANSFORMATIONS

IV. ACQUISITION OF AND COMPENSATION FOR AGRICULTURAL LAND FOR URBAN DEVELOPMENT

WE HAVE ALREADY mentioned that the urban development agency of Hanoi City government is active in acquiring agricultural land in the surrounding rural districts for urban needs. There are several such agencies or public companies under the municipal Department of Construc- tion, Planning and Investment, and the Department of Land and Housing. One ongoing project, which demonstrates the limitations of the system, is that of widening the main highway (1A) to the south, through Thanh Tri district. Over the years, substantial ribbon development has taken place along the original, narrower road. These – mainly business – premises now have to be dismantled to give way to a high-capacity transport artery. In the past, the government fixed the nature and amount of compensation for the occupants of the buildings and offered them alternative sites. However, since the 1986 policy shift (doi moi) towards a market–socialist 29. See reference 22. economy,(29) the notion has developed among residents that they have some room for negotiation by refusing to accept the offers made to them 30. Japan Bank for International Development by the road development agency. Removing them by force would cause (1999), “Urban riots, which the government wants to avoid. As a result, the price that has development and housing to be paid to these residents has risen sharply and the process of street sector in Vietnam”, JBIC widening has slowed down considerably. Research Paper No 3, pages 124–130. There is a standard procedure for compensating sitting land users for the loss of their land use rights,(30) with three components: 31. US$ 1 equals about • money for the loss of land at a rate of between 16,000–19,000 VND(31) per 15,000 Vietnamese Dong (VND). square metre, depending on the agricultural productivity of the land; • money for the loss of crops. This could be much more than the former in the case of perennials such as fruit trees, but could also be very little or nothing if the land is taken over just after harvesting a seasonal crop; and • money for retraining and finding a new job. This is calculated at 30 per cent of the value of the land over a period of 30 years and is given to the farmers as a lump sum. In the case of buildings, this system is hard to operate, which explains the problems with widening the highway. This is where owners and the development agency tend to disagree most strongly over the amount of compensation, as there is, as yet, no transparent real-estate market in the country. This is also why existing villages are not touched when development agencies need rural land fur urban projects. In the case of the new lake that was needed for water regulation and purification, the city intended to demolish 18 buildings that would have been right on the lake shore. The owners of these buildings refused the offers made to them, including the sites offered for building new houses. At the time of our visit, it was not yet clear whether they would face compulsory resettle- ment, after perhaps some protracted negotiations, or whether they would be allowed to stay after all and make use of their new situation right on the edge of a future recreational lake. Three years ago, the families using the land where the lake was to be created were offered total compensation of 39,000 VND per square metre (all three compensation components together) but only one-third of them agreed to the price. This forced the development agency to renegotiate and we were told by commune leaders that, recently, an agreement had been reached with all the families for compensation totalling 75,000 VND per square metre. We were also told that elsewhere in the city, compensation had risen from 1 to 3 million VND per square metre for agricultural land that was to be converted into

Environment&Urbanization Vol 15 No 1 April 2003 49 AGRICULTURAL TRANSFORMATIONS

smart residential building sites and that, recently, the building sites themselves were selling at 50 million VND per square metre. The main concern of our informants was not so much the price levels but, rather, the lack of transparency in what would be fair compensation. The administrators in the rural (peri-urban) district feel at the mercy of urban forces they don’t understand. This is exacerbated by two other elements in the process: • Too many farming families don’t know what to do with the lump sums they receive as compensation for the loss of their agricultural land use rights. To them, it is a loss of livelihood. They feel totally unable to take up a different career to farming as they have received very little, if any, formal education and the courses offered to them are completely beyond their capabilities. As a result, they spend the money quickly on consumables and end up destitute. Such families would benefit much more from compensation in kind, in the form of agricultural land use rights elsewhere in the vicinity, where urban growth would be unlikely to affect them. Such a mechanism does not exist yet, although we found a few instances of farmers (generally already more wealthy) who were anticipating urban growth on their land and who were seeking access to land some 50 kilometres from the city. One such farmer had recently acquired a piece of hillside land where he had planted fruit trees for the urban market and which he also intends to develop as a recreational area (tourist spot). Our spokesmen also referred to several farmers who had spent their compensation quite wisely on new urban enterprises or on acquiring agricultural land use rights for land that would soon be in demand for urban development. These are typical land speculators that one finds in every city with a free, capitalist land market.(32) • The second practice that makes it difficult for commune and district offi- 32. See reference 19; also cials to understand the system of rural–urban land conversion, and feel Darin-Drabkin, H (1977), that they have a role to play in it, is that, whenever a piece of the land “Land policy and urban under their jurisdiction is needed for an urban function, it is taken out growth”, Urban and Regional of their control. When it involves just the site for a new, large industry, Planning Series No 16, Pergamon Press, Oxford. an enclave will be created that is administered by the city authorities or even the national government. In total, almost 500 hectares (12.5 per cent) of Thanh Tri area is used by such big (state-owned or joint venture) companies. And when it involves a larger residential or industrial area, the land required is taken completely out of their jurisdiction and added to the adjacent urban ward. In this way, Thanh Tri district has lost 197 hectares since 1995 (one complete commune and parts of an adjacent commune) to Hanoi City. Not only are these events totally beyond the control of the leaders of rural districts and communes, they are also highly unpredictable. There is an official masterplan for Greater Hanoi but, due to a lack of funds, this is not at all adhered to when new developments are initiated by individ- ual departments, state companies or joint ventures. The Hanoi masterplan of 1997 is supposed to be drawn up for both urban and rural districts in the province, but for Thanh Tri such a detailed plan is not yet ready. Instead, there is a rural district masterplan which, as all concerned know, can be overruled at any time. In theory, such an urban masterplan cover- ing the district would guarantee that only those areas earmarked for specific urban functions (including stormwater reservoirs and highway construction) could be claimed by the urban authorities. This would provide some greatly needed clarity for the next decade or so.

50 Environment&Urbanization Vol 15 No 1 April 2003 AGRICULTURAL TRANSFORMATIONS

V. SMALL-SCALE INFORMAL URBAN DEVELOPMENT NEXT TO THE OFFICIAL PROCESS

IN THANH TRI district, almost 13 per cent of the land is taken up by housing. This is land set aside for existing villages and farmhouses. These houses have always remained private family property. As it is hard for public agencies to acquire this land for urban redevelopment, it appears on the urban planning maps (such as the 1997 Hanoi masterplan) as 33. See, for instance, “conservation villages”, in theory to be left as is. However, recent Evertsz, Helen (2000), studies(33) show that, in practice, these “villages” are rapidly redeveloped “Popular housing in by their owners either: Hanoi”, Shelter and Living in • by pulling down the old, one-storey buildings and replacing them by Hanoi Series No 3, Cultural Publishing House, Hanoi; two- to three-storey dwellings and apartment buildings, partly for rent also Schenk, Hans and to urban house seekers; or Trinh Duy Luan (editors) • by sub-dividing the relatively large, rural residential lots in order to sell (2000), “Housing and land in Hanoi”, Shelter and Living parts as building lots and to generate funds for construction. in Hanoi Series No 2, Both processes are informal and do not involve title deeds. Neverthe- Cultural Publishing House, less, the quality of construction is quite good, which suggests that there is Hanoi. some form of inspection (or, more likely, social control) exercised by the commune leaders and that prospective occupants have relatively high incomes. These new “urban villages” seem quite popular among those Hanoi residents who can afford them, probably because the land (and often the ponds.) around them is not yet built up, offering an atmosphere of tranquillity. This situation is unlikely to last, however, and will probably result in the wealthier of these new village residents moving again once all the open space between the villages has been used for further (and most likely larger-scale and agency-built) urban development.

VI. CONCLUSIONS

FAIRLY TYPICAL OF any peri-urban setting, farming immediately downstream of Hanoi, in Thanh Tri district, is in rapid transition. However, the nature of this dynamic is unique. Furthest away from the built-up area, normal rice cultivation still exists, with two harvests a year. In lower areas, the land is threatened increasingly by flooding, which results in fish farming becoming an activity, initially during the rainy season only but later on (when the city gets closer), during the whole year. In higher areas, rice is gradually replaced by fruit and vegetable market gardening for the growing urban population. Urban and industrial effluents are used by the farmers and fish breeders as a free substitute for chemical fertilizers and fish food from factories. The farmers in this area are increasingly confronted by inconsistent and non-transparent compensation for their loss of agricultural use rights and, at the same time, are aware of the far higher prices this land fetches in the next phase of development, as more or less serviced building lots. They are also confronted by stagnating prices for their produce, as the increasing demand is easily matched by the growth in the number of suppliers in ever-wider circles around the city, as existing roads are improved and new ones constructed to take the produce to the urban markets. This state of affairs has generated a certain degree of cynicism among vegetable and fish producers in Thanh Tri. When concerned researchers ask them about how they solve the dangers of heavy metals and pathogens on and in the products that leave their farms for the urban markets, some of them reply that they don’t care

Environment&Urbanization Vol 15 No 1 April 2003 51 AGRICULTURAL TRANSFORMATIONS

about some of these rich people getting sick after eating the fish or vegetables from their farms. “They don’t care about us and fool us around with useless compensation, so why not take some form of revenge?” The urban development agencies who make money from converting agricultural land into urban building sites need to cooperate with Depart- ment of Agriculture staff and other departments involved in providing displaced farmers in the rural–urban interface with improved production sites in the neighbourhood. Such new sites should have properly checked (and appropriately treated) water for drinking, fish breeding and horticulture, as well as good extension workers to secure a safe and efficient provision of fresh commodities to the growing urban population. An affordable separation of the beneficial from the harmful components of urban waste could be integrated into such new projects for intensive peri- urban food production. Traditional systems of finding this rural–urban synergy should be supplemented by new, appropriate technologies.

52 Environment&Urbanization Vol 15 No 1 April 2003