Livelihood Diversification Strategies of Khmer and Kinh Farmers in the Mekong Delta Since the 1993 Land Law

Abstract

With the introduction of the 1993 Land Law and other economic reforms in Vietnam, land has effectively become a commodity, the distribution of which is controlled by market mechanisms. As a result, both ethnic Khmer and Kinh (ethnic Vietnamese) farmers in the Mekong Delta have responded by diversifying their livelihood strategies. This study finds that: (1) The better-off Kinh households had more capital to expand their land for their farming and business. Therefore, more the Kinh households bought land than Khmer households did. Vice versa, more Khmer households sold their land than Kinh households did. In both Khmer and Kinh households, the better-off households bought land and the poor households sold land. Nowadays, the land sizes per household have shrunk and are not large enough for farming; (2) Intensification and diversification were implemented within various groups. Those who own land try to intensify rice farming and to combine farm activities with off-farm and non-farm activities, but those who are landless have to rely on hiring out their labor in both the farm and non-farm activities; and (3) Externally driven forces have shifted the sources of local labor and hired labor for agricultural production in the local area. Thus, hired laborers required from outside the local areas are acquired through labor market networking between farmers and the poor hired laborers in the region.