Innovation, agricultural productivity and sustainability in Viet Nam

This report assesses Viet Nam’s agricultural sector through the lens of the OECD Agro-food Productivity-Sustainability-Resilience (PSR) Policy Framework. Agriculture has played an important role in Viet Nam’s remarkable economic growth over the past thirty years. In the 1990s, government policies contributed to strong agricultural productivity growth, but this has since fallen. OECD Agri-Environmental indicators also reveal weaknesses in the environmental footprint of growth, notably with respect to nutrient balances, as a result of the excessive use of agro-chemicals and poor animal waste management practices. The agricultural sector faces significant resilience challenges from climate change impacts, including sea level rises and more frequent and severe storm events. Although the level of agricultural support provided to farmers is relatively low, policies such as land use regulations are skewed in favour of rice production, thereby maintaining a production structure dominated by small part-time household farms that limit innovation. Viet Nam’s support for general services for agriculture (GSSE) was equivalent to 2.5% of agricultural value added in 2018-20, well below the OECD average. Shifting the focus of support towards research, development, and innovation partnerships with the private sector will contribute to improving the agri-environmental performance of agriculture in Viet Nam. This should ideally be accompanied by a reform of land use regulations.