Charles Howie  

B.Sc. (London 1969), M.Sc. (Stirling 1982), M.Sc.(Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester 2000)

The political ecology of farmer decision making in An Giang Province, Vietnam

Postgraduate award October 2002: Economic and Social Research Council and Natural Environmental Research Council.
Supervisors: Professor Tim Unwin (Geography, RHUL), Advisor Dr Katie Willis (Geography, RHUL) and Professor Paul Davies (Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester)
Email: C.A.Howie@rhul.ac.uk

In 1999 I went to Soc Trang province at the coast in the Mekong Delta to gather data for an M.Sc. in Sustainable Agricultural Systems.  In 2001 I returned as a volunteer to help the newly-established An Giang University develop a new degree: Integrated Rural Development, staff development and training.  This gave me the opportunity to scope to do research into farming and farmer decision-making close to the border with Cambodia.

In spring/summer 2002 I visited 47 farmers in 3 communes in An Giang province.  Land-holdings are small (0.5 to 1.5 ha for most), partly as a result of frequent subdivisions, but irrigation enables crops to be grown for most of the year.  Behind high dykes continuous cropping is possible (even 7 rice crops in 2 years), but more chemical inputs are required.  Other farmers grow rice in the dry season, and prawns and fish in the same fields in the wet season; for small-scale farmers alternate sources of income appear crucial to well-being.  High-yielding varieties of 95-day rice have largely replaced the traditional 160-day ‘floating rice'.

In 2003 I spent 4 months studying Vietnamese at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Ho Chi Minh City and in 2004 I investigated decision-making in more detail with respect to the raising of dykes which exclude all external water. This brings some negative environmental impacts, but may bring social gains through better access to education, health and markets

See also:

• Pioneering degree programme developed by PhD student benefits Vietnamese students
• Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester
• Vietnam: Higher Education Link, British Council
• High dykes in the Mekong Delta in Vietnam bring social gains and environmental pains
• Vietnam to move thousands from Mekong flood zone