Government and companies impoverish farmers
Cần Thơ City (AsiaNews) Vietnam may be the second rice exporter in the world but the economic policies of its Communist government are driving farmers into debt to survive or forcing them off the land and into the big cities to beg.
Under current rules, farmers are required to sell their rice at a fixed rate and barred from selling on the free market. Government officials set prices, usually below the rice's real value. This year's price for spring-winter rice is 17 cents US per kilo but farmers had to sell it at no more than 10 cents.
The problem has been compounded this year by a locust infestation in Cuu Long that has affected some 10,000 hectares (25,000 acres) of rice fields without the authorities intervening one way or another.
Furthermore, companies in Cần Thơ have created an unofficial cartel to buy rice at a price lower than that set by the government, taking advantage of the fact that farmers have no alternative but to sell to them.
An official with Vietnam's Food Association told AsiaNews, that "[m]any enterprises got low prices for the best crops, and farmers had to bear the burden. Rice is abundant in the country and so companies can easily force farmers to accept their terms."
"We are five in my family and everyone works on our hectare of land," said one farmer. But "after each harvest we are unable to repay our debts and get enough food. I have had to send two of my children to Ho Chi Minh City to find work whilst the youngest, the nine-year-old, can no longer go to school. I don't have the money to pay for his school fees."
Vietnam's population now stands at 84 million and agriculture represents 80 per cent of the economy. But millions of farmers are leaving their fields behind in search of a better life in the cities, where they instead find drugs, prostitution and AIDS.
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