Ensuring equity and resilience, and investing in small-scale farmers will lead to food security and sustainability in Vietnam
Hanoi, October 16 - Sharing the spirit of the World Food Day and a determination to fight against poverty and hunger, Oxfam’s report provides a strong analysis on the food security situation of Viet Nam, highlights the current challenges and proposes five big shifts for policy makers in Viet Nam to expand rights, voices and choices for small – scale farmers.
“ Rooted in real stories and in-depth analysis, ’Growing a better future‘ looks at both the achievements and constraints of socio-economic development in Viet Nam”. Dr. Dang Kim Son, the General Director of the Institute of Policy and Strategy for Agriculture and Rural development, has written in the foreword to introduce the report: “it focuses on the importance of safeguarding vulnerable communities, particularly poor people, small-scale farmers, women and ethnic minorities”.
Based on its practical experience, Oxfam argues that the fight against poverty, food insecurity and injustice is not yet won. The report says that the role of small-scale farmers should be fully recognized and their voices should be heard. With nearly eight million farmer households living from less than 0.5 hectares of paddy land – accounting for nearly 80% of the farmer households in Vietnam – small-scale farmers and the rural economy must remain central to Viet Nam’s development process.
‘If Vietnam wants to address the three challenges of sustainable production, equity and resilience, investing in farmers and small-scale sustainable production models is the key to success’, Le Nguyet Minh, Oxfam’s spokesperson on the GROW campaign confirmed.
The report presents powerful data and case studies, in which voices of the farmers were taken into account. Le Ngoc Thach, 54 years old, head of Dai Nghia agriculture cooperative of Hanoi and a pioneer farmer of SRI (System of Rice Intensification) pioneer farmer said “…What really motivates me is that we have introduced something new [SRI] that benefits the farmer economically, improves the environment and has changed the mindset of our farmers to make them more open to new suggestions…”
To grow a better future, Oxfam proposes five big shifts for policy makers in Viet Nam:
- End hunger and malnutrition, and confront the causes of food insecurity.
- End all forms of exclusion
- Increase public and private investment in small scale farmers
- Guarantee the land rights of small holder farmers
- Support people’s initiatives, collaborative groups and voices.
This report is key element of Oxfam’s global GROW campaign that aims to grow a better future, where every one of us will always have enough to eat.
