Examining the Impact of Government Input Support on Rice Production in Vietnam

Although rice production plays a vital role in Vietnam's economy, rice farmers' incomes remain low compared to other sectors. Several support policies have been introduced to improve this, including input support policies. This study examines the effect of input support on production outcomes of rice farmers using endogenous switching regression (ESR) analysis and propensity score matching (PSM) with data from the Vietnam Household Living Standards Survey (VHLSS) in 2018 and 2020. Findings show that households receiving input support had lower rice production efficiency and incomes than comparable households not receiving the support. While there is a link between support value and production outcomes, the impact is limited if support values are low. This suggests that small amounts of support are insufficient to improve production outcomes. Given our results, the Vietnam government should increase the support budget and focus on providing quality inputs. Additionally, rather than giving small cash amounts to individual households, which are insufficient to buy modern machinery, the government should invest in shared community‐level equipment to improve production capacity.