Impacts of migration on agricultural development in Red River Delta, Vietnam ; Impact de la migration sur le développement agricole dans le delta du fleuve Rouge, Vietnam

This thesis explores the impacts of rural migration on agricultural production in the context of 30 years after the Đổi Mới (renovation) reform based on a systematic survey of a Vietnamese village, key informant interviews and participatory observation. All data was collected in Mai Thon Village, Bac Ninh province, a typical Red River Delta village. It features the comparative perspective, comparing the situations of household groups participating in different types of migration and non-migrant households and the impact thereof on their agricultural production. This thesis shows that the increasing rural out-migration flows have become more circular with the development of infrastructure. Normally, migrants send remittances back home and bring food from their homes back to the city. Moving back and forth, the migrants themselves are the key factors of rural-urban continuum. Migration has, therefore, become an important generator of change in farming in Mai Thon village. Remittance plays a central role in local household income and shows a positive case of remittance spending in farming activities. The groups involved in diversified migration types made more remittances to overcome farming constraints than other groups. The remittance used for agricultural production is four times higher than for non-farm. Agricultural production and non-agricultural production are complementary to each other in household earning activities. The majority of migrant households keep their paddy fields and manage to maintain agricultural production on their land in the context of labour lost due to migration in multiple ways including partial abandon, partial leasing, partial lending and partial producing. Agricultural land and farm work, however, are retained as a stable resource, a guarantee of subsistence or a safety net for rural people while boosting their autonomy. In terms of an agricultural production choice, most of Mai Thon households keep rice production as the fundamental agricultural activity, while cash-crop ...