Study Of Development And Main Influencing Factors Of Agricultural Mechanization In Vietnam

After nearly 30 years since the reform in 1986,Vietnamese agriculture has demonstrated significant development,contributing greatly to the development of the whole economy.However,with the demand of agricultural modernization in the current period,it is vital to make efficient policies to deal with outstanding issues in a consistent and efficient manner in order to ensure faster and more sustainable growth in the future as well as to promote the strengths and potentials of agriculture sector of Vietnam.This study analyzes the state of development and the relationship between agricultural mechanization and other factors in agricultural production,such as labor,land and capital in order to evaluate and assess the development of Vietnam’s agriculture in the current period,its difficulties and problems as well as policy implications for the future orientation.As explained in this study different agricultural areas have a significant different characteristics in terms of labor,land and mechanization;therefore,it is ill-advised to apply a common policy for all agricultural regions.Instead,tailor-made policies should be emplaced to address specific problems of each region depending on its own characteristics of agricultural production.The analysis of the position of mechanization in agricultural production demonstrates that agricultural mechanization is a decisive factor in the development of agriculture in Vietnam.Even though currently,other input factors such as natural conditions,labor,fertilizers and chemicals have reached a considerably stable level still the improvement of productivity as well as agricultural output will depend on the development of the mechanization process in agricultural production.In addition,mechanization also has interactive relationship with labor,land and capital in agriculture as it unleashes rural labor as well as increase land productivity and income for agricultural production households.On the other hand,the shift of labor from the agricultural sector to the non-agricultural sector and land consolidation to enlarge the scale of agricultural production as well as income growth of farmer households are also driving forces that speed up agricultural mechanization process.Therefore,agricultural mechanization policies in Vietnam must be made to select the most suitable model for specific production characteristics of each region to improve capital efficiency in agricultural production and release the burden of agricultural support out of GDP.The entire research work systematically analyzes and summarizes the results of previous research,and comprehensively uses the basic principles and methods of system analysis as well as system engineering methods,computer technology,and data mining technologies,combining comparative research with empirical research,and quantitative research.The following main conclusions are drawn:1)The degree of agricultural mechanization is low,but is showing rapid growth.The forms of agricultural production in Vietnam are mainly based on humans,animals with low mechanization rates.Machinery is used mainly in heavy-duty work such as land preparation and harvesting and it can also be used to reduce post-harvest losses and ensure product quality such as drying and preservation of post-harvest agricultural products.Most of the agricultural equipments used in agricultural production in Vietnam are small or medium sized,small tractors with a capacity of less than 12 horse power accounts for 55% of the total number of tractors,medium tractors with a capacity of 12-35 horsepower(42%),large tractors with a capacity of over 35 horsepower(about 3%),and other machines with similar proportions.The average equipment for every 100 agricultural households is only 1.05 tractors with a capacity of 12 horsepower or more and 2.4 tractors with a capacity of less than 12 horsepower.2)Based on the data of imported agricultural machines in Vietnam in terms of value and structure,it was found that the amount of agricultural machines imported into Vietnam increased very rapidly in value.According to that data the imported agricultural machines accounted for more than 70% of total agricultural machinery in Vietnam,and have played a great role in development of agricultural mechanization.Agricultural mechanization in Vietnam started to show a real growth since 2006,when the number of agricultural machines imported began to increase sharply.In the period from 2000 to 2005,the value of imported agricultural machines increased by an average of 19% per annum,while in the period from 2005 to 2012 the average annual growth rate was more than 40%.The market structure of imported agricultural machines also changed sharply during the period from 2000 to 2013.Prior to 2005,agricultural machinery was mainly imported from Japan and South Korea,and in those days agricultural machinery imported from China accounted for just over 10% however from 2006 to 2013,Chinese agricultural machinery almost completely occupied the market of agricultural machinery imported in Vietnam,with a rate of 93% of the total import of agricultural machines in 2012.3)The preferential policies for the development of the Vietnamese mechanical engineering industry in general and the mechanics of agricultural machinery production in particular are very favorable,but the implementation has not achieved the desired effect.Investment in agricultural machinery facilities is still difficult.The main reason is that there is no general and detailed planning on agricultural mechanics development;investors are confused in selecting products and developing projects that meet the conditions of the support policy.The policies drafted by the state for encouraging people to invest in machinery and equipment for agricultural production has brought many benefits.Thanks to those policies that made funds accessible,it helped farmers to easily purchase machinery,thereby speeding up the mechanization of agriculture.However,there are still many difficulties in implementing the mechanism.Farmers and enterprises find it difficult to access loans.Many long-term investment projects are not clear in constructing feasibility calculations because interest rates are still relatively high.4)Vietnam’s agriculture has been facing great challenges in the process of transformation and integration of regional and world economy: The advanced farming methods are still slow to be applied on a large scale,lack of good farming and livestock production which is less sufficient for production;The productivity of many plants,animals and product quality is low,depending on weather and climate;Transformation of agriculture and rural structure is slow,many places are spontaneous,not stable;Industrialization and modernization of agriculture and rural areas have not been implemented properly.The infrastructure of agriculture(roads,electricity,irrigation and drainage,etc.)is inferior,which restricts access to markets,as well as supports the increase of land productivity and labor productivity.5)Vietnam is a country with a lot of rural labors,consequently,benefits from the land consolidation are only reflected when the opportunities of agricultural labors is increased.The solution is to introduce suitable policies that allow the transit of agricultural workers to other economic sectors,which will create chances for land consolidation.Moreover,reducing the costs and procedures in agricultural land transactions is also a prerequisite for more active process of land consolidation.Each region has its own levels and characteristics of land fragmentation so different solutions are required for the betterment of the situation.In the regions with high level of intra-farm land fragmentation land consolidation is required to reduce the number of rice-field plots as well as the distance among plots.For the regions with inter-farm land fragmentation or focal production zones,land accumulation is vital for the improvement of the agricultural production scale of households.Scale of agricultural land decides the profitability of the production.The area of agricultural land has inverse proportion to the number of labor days per production area unit,which increase the profitability of agricultural production,on average,households which own land smaller than 0.25 hectares cost 649 labor days in one production cycle while those who own land more than 3 hectares of land cost only 88 labor days.It becomes more obvious when the price of labor in agricultural production is increasingly high.As analyzed above,the agricultural households owning less than one hectare production is inefficient,so in terms of the profit,the production suffers losses.The level of mechanization in agricultural production also depends heavily on the scale of farming land.The level of mechanization for households owning less than 0.25 hectares of farming land is very low,higher levels of mechanization are seen only when the area of farming land is larger than 3 hectares.This is also demonstrated quite clearly in areas with low inter-farm and intra-farm land fragmentation like the Mekong Delta,which has the highest degree of mechanization in Vietnam.Impacts of intra-farm land fragmentation are much lower than the inter-farm land fragmentation,which means the land consolidation of each household is less important than the land accumulation for expanding of the production scale.Only scaling up agricultural production can make high profits as well as promote the mechanization process and improve labor productivity in the agricultural sector in particular and in society in general.6)In recent years,the economic structure and labor structure have shifted positively,but the share of labor in agriculture,forestry and fishery remains high,accounting for 49% of the total labor force,but the total value of agricultural production accounts for only 18% of GDP.Labor productivity in the agricultural sector is just one-quarter of the industry’s productivity and is equal to one-third of the productivity of the service sector.The labor force in rural areas is too low,89% of them have not yet been trained so they do not meet the requirements of production and the labor market.The employment rate and productivity of agricultural workers are also very low.The underemployment of rural workers is very serious(about 9-10 million workers).The movement of labor from rural to urban areas has been on the rise,but the industrial and service sectors have not developed rapid enough to meet the demand for labor mobility.Agricultural and rural industrialization in Vietnam has not been successful in recent years,while the industry suffers from a serious shortage of technical workers.In rural areas,there is a large number of unskilled labor who are tied to agriculture with low productivity and low income.In order to mechanize agriculture,the Vietnamese government needs to find solutions to improve rural labor skills to hasten the mechanization process.More importantly,measures need to be taken to promote the non-agricultural sector to provide sufficient employment for rural workers,as agricultural machines gradually replace people in agricultural production.Capital resources for agricultural development are mainly classified into 2 categories: savings and support funds.Savings are the income of the agricultural households after being deducted by income expenditures used to invest in agricultural production.The latter is funded by the government through supporting incentives such as agricultural subsidies and preferential credits for agricultural production.In the period of agricultural modernization in Vietnam,the largest investment capital in agriculture of agricultural production households is the purchase of agricultural machinery for the purpose of mechanization.Therefore,it is necessary to select mechanization models in line with the current situation of agricultural production as well as people’s income in order to improve the efficiency of capital use in agriculture.Meanwhile,as the agricultural production efficiency increases,farmers’ income increases and their purchasing power for agricultural machinery increases,then it motivates agricultural mechanization.It can be seen that in order to improve the investment capital for agricultural production in Vietnam,the government should have appropriate policies to help farmers improve the use of capital and increase revenues.This is to increase the amount of capital saved for agricultural production.The share of government support for agricultural production in total GDP has been relatively high.Finally based on the results of the analysis it provided recommendations for policy-making in agricultural development as well as agricultural mechanization.