Seventy percent of the Vietnamese population and as many as 90 percent of Vietnam’s poor live in rural areas.  While agriculture accounts for 23% of the nation’s GDP and for 30% of total exports, it provides employment  for 60% of Vietnam’s work force. The majority of the rural population makes its living from producing and marketing crops, livestock and fish or sea food. Although forest products play an increasingly important role for the generation of incomes in rural communities, their overall contribution of 1.6% to GDP remains well below its potential.

The rural poor mostly depend on subsistence agriculture, often combined with agroforestry. The limited availability of arable land and irrigation water, the often harsh climatic conditions, and the lack of improved production techniques and capital hamper productivity increases and slow down market integration, in particular in the remote areas.

Vietnam’s agricultural sector  has seen steady improvements over the last two decades, converting Vietnam from a country with food shortages to an important exporter of rice, coffee, cashew, pepper and other commodities. However, Vietnam’s rural areas still face serious challenges which can be summarized as follows (adapted from World Bank 2007):

• Stagnant agricultural and forestry productivity
• Slow rate of investment in agricultural diversification
• Underdeveloped marketing channels, institutions and infrastructure
• A widening economic gap between urban and rural areas and ethnic populations in particular
• Unsustainable and inequitable patterns of natural resource use, access and control
• Limited capacity of public institutions and misalignment of public expenditure serving rural sector interests
• Vulnerability to natural hazards (floods and storm surges, livestock diseases)

GTZ Vietnam with its Sector on Management of Natural Resources, has started its engagement in Rural Development as early as 1993 with the Song Da River Social Forestry Project. Maintaining a focus on regions where rural development depends on both, forestry and agriculture, GTZ has continued its engagement in the provinces of Quang Tri, Quang Binh, Dak Lak, and recently in Dak Nong. GTZ’s integrated approach to Rural Development is based on long-term field experience, working directly at the grass roots. Aiming to enhance the participation of the rural poor and vulnerable groups in Vietnam’s socio-economic development, GTZ promotes:

1. Participation in planning and decision making to enhance a demand-driven allocation of land and forest resources as well as needs-based public expenditures for investment and rural services
2. Adequate farming and forest management options which are economically, socially and ecologically sustainable
3. Adequate access to value chains and marketing through improved post-harvest processing and marketing strategies in cooperation with the private sector on local, regional and international markets.
4. Improved rural services with regard to agricultural and forestry extension and access to rural credit and marketing
5. Mainstreaming and capacity building in public institutions with regard to decentralized development planning, participatory forest land allocation and community forestry as well as participatory agricultural and forestry extension
6. Mainstreaming of adequate farm and forest management options in the rural development programs of the partner institutions

Taking advantage of the multi-level approach of the GTZ- Sector Management of Natural Resources, the lessons learnt from GTZ’s field experience are made available at central level to support the development and revision of respective national legislation and regulatory framework.

There are currently 4 projects related to this sub-sector of Integrated Rural Development, as follows:

• Rural Development Dak Lak
• Sustainable Management of Natural Resources in Central Vietnam
• Promotion of Potato Production
• Rural Development Dak Nong