Vol. 12 No. 6 (2014)

Bai Tu Long Bay Tourism plays an important role in the economic -social development of Van Don island district, Quang Ninh province. However, the island tourism is facing to the risk of unsustainable development on several aspects. A survey was carried out throughsurveying641 tourists, 100 local people and 25 local leaders and staffs in order to analyze the current situation of tourism development and assess its sustainability. The results of the study showed that touristactivities is growing, contributing to economic growth, reducing the poverty rate, and creating jobs for local people. However, the tourism of Bai Tu Long Bay currently faces withproblems of the environmental pollution,traditional cultural deterioration, and risk of destabilizingsecurity and order. The study has provided recommendationsand key solutions for sustainable tourism development on planning, environmental protection, human resources improvement and tourism promotion.

Although the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has issued a procedure of good agriculturalpractices (VietGAP) for vegetables and fruits, this procedure has been slowly adoptedfor different reasons, particularly, the difficulties of providing bylocal government’s of guidelines and implementation. As a result, VietGAP prodedure has merely been applied in some locations as agricultural demonstrations. One of the important reasons is thelack of actor participation. Most of the actors spontaneously participated in production and marketing of VietGAP vegetables. Thus, how to enhance these actors in VietGAP vegetable production and marketing in order to produce more safe products, to increase farmer’s income and to protect natural environment is a big question. Based on data and information collected in Hoa Binh province, this paper analyses influential factors and draws recommendations on enhancement of actor participation in VietGAP vegetableproduction and marketing in Hoa Binh.

The studyinvestigatedservice activities of agricultural cooperatives and the role of services for farm households business through farmers’ assessment in Thai Binh and Hoa Binh provinces. The results showedthat most of farmers are aware of and use basic services from agricultural cooperatives such assupply of agricultural inputs, transfer of advanced technology, crop protection, irrigation,andfarm production management support. The quality of services after cooperative joint in MARD-JICA Project was rated by farmerswith good remarks. The proportionof farm households reported that their income improved by services of the cooperative varied but at a high level for all of the two provinces, indicating thatthe important role of cooperatives in providing services to farm households. Farm households also suggested that services of agricultural cooperatives should be diversified and expanded in scale in almost types of services in the future. Especially, some services such assupply of inputs, marketing support, transfer of advanced technology, mechanical cultivation, crop protection, andfarm production management support should be expanded and improved.

Improving the quality of employment in general and employment in the informal sector is of particularly urgent requirement today. This study aimed to analyze the characteristics of employment, to identifythe measurement of the quality employment, analyze factors of employment quality evaluation and propose some solutions to improve the quality of employment in Hanoi informal sector using qualitative and quantitative methods. The analysis was done through testing Cronbach's Alpha scale reliability coefficient, Exploratory Factor Analysis - EFA and regression factors affecting the level of job satisfaction of employees. The study results showed that five elements constituting employment quality: (1) working time and rest, (2) wages, (3) skill development and relationships at work, (4) insurance policy and job security and (5) working conditions.

Based on review some documents ralated to regulationson planting material management forproductiveafforestationand fieldstudies on productiveafforestation in Dong Nai province. This paper has clarified government and local regulations on productive forest planting materials;and current status of planting material management in Dong Nai province. Some solutions toexisting problems for in depth study and improvement of planting material supply chain were suggested.

The low-carbon rice farming technique has proven to deliver the triple wins that include economic, social and environmental benefits from the reduction of inputs (seed, fertilizer, agro-chemical and water); increase of rice yield, increase the social linkages among rice farmers in their communities by the sharing the common farming practices; and at the same time reduce significantly the greenhouse gas emissions from rice cultivation, protection of the water resource from pollution and the overdose as well as the ecological system. The low carbon rice farming technique is therefore urged to scale-up through the transfer of technology to the intensive rice cultivation provinces. In order to understand thoroughly about this low carbon rice farming technique and its essentiality, this paper discusses the concepts, essentiality, characteristics and the key major factorsaffecting the effectiveness and efficiency of the process of technology transfer. At the same time, this paper also seeksto discuss and draw the experience and lesson learnt in applying and implementing the low carbon rice farming technique from both foreign countries and within Vietnam in order to consolidate the theoretical and practical issues of this contemporary advanced farming technique.

Industrial livestock farming has an important role in the livestock development in general and in pig raising in particularc towards commodity production. There is a large demand for industrial livestock procedure of pig breeding establishments in Thanh Hoa province. However, not all of establishments having demand for industrial livestock methods select industrial livestock farming. This research showedthat the establishments of pig breeding (householdsand farm) in Yen Dinh district representative for plains appliedindustrial livestock farming procedure to greater extent compared to other areasin theprovince.There existalot of factorsthat affect decision making onchoosing industrial livestock farming byhouseholdsand farm, in which the number of years of schooling of the household head, average householdannual income, initial investment, farmland and linkagein pig breeding for meat.

Production development of Doan Hung pomelo and Gia Thanh persimmon in Phu Tho province is a positive direction in order to exploit the potential advantages of agricultural products that have location-specific speciality. However, the implementation of development activities for Doan Hung pomelo and Gia Thanh persimmon has met many difficulties such as fragmented landconditions and scattered planting acreage primarily athousehold scale. The investment for cultivation, care, pest control, harvest and storage, processingof product is not paid attention. To partly solve these shortcomings,it is necessary to realize in harmony ofdevelopment and production solutions, constantly improve product quality of Doan Hung pomelo and Gia Thanh persimmon.

Basedonthe assessment s of current capacity situation of professional colleges in the Red River Delta Region as well as the Vietnamese social economical context during the period of international economicof integration,on the strategic demandof Vietnamese professional education andon demand forecast of human resources of economy in2011 -2020period, the presentstudyproposed, orientationsand solutionsto improve on thecapacity of professional colleges in the Red River Delta Region.The orientations includeindustrialization and modernization under international economic integration; close collaboration and transfer; learning by doing; andenhancingthe quality of education/training.The solutions aregood planning ofprofessional education network; allocating necessary resources; improving the quality of education; promoting collaboration ofprofessional education unit with industry/enterprises and international cooperation; establishingthe educational quality management; increasing the role of Government in educational administration; and completing the policies on professional educational sector. Specific recommendationstoward public educational sector focus on the investment for the national colleges while private professional colleges should be classified/ranked annualy based on their capacity.

Pig production according togood agicultural practices(VietGAP) is the method thatbrings abouthigheconomic efficiency and environmental protection, meeting the demand forsafety foodbycustomers. HouseholdsinsuburbandistrictsofHanoihave beenapplyingtechnical protocol of concentrated meat production based onVietGap standard. However, forwideapplication of thisprotocol,it is necessary to comprehensively assess and clearly analyzethe economic efficiency and the factors affecting concentratedpigproductiontowardsVietGap,serving as thebasisfor authoritiesto direct agriculturalproductionandpig growersin Hanoisuburban to sustainablydeveloppig production.

Hoang Dieu, a rural commune located at the center of the Red River delta, was selected as a case study to examine impacts of changes in socio-economic factors on its budget. The results reveal that, during period from 2008 to 2013, the budget of the commune had considerably fluctuated not only in terms of budget amount but also in terms of budget structure. Expenditures for investment depended mostly on revenue from assigning use rights of residential land. We recommend that (1) declaration of commune budget to farmers should be promoted, (2) tax rate for non-agricultural land should be modified, and (3) fee for using public cropland land should be adjusted.

Climate change is one of the phenomena that has a strong impact on the nature and human life in many countries, including Vietnam. The extreme weather phenomenon such as prolonged heat, coldness, floods, droughts, sea level rise...have impacted negatively on agricultural production activities, particularly in coastal areas. Giao Thuy district is one of Nam Dinh province's coastal areas, which has abundant and various resources and good conditions to facilitate development of agricultural production. However, the district at the same time faces withseveralthreats and risks caused by storms, floods, tides, sea level rise..., causing tremendous damage to infrastructure and human lives. To respond to climate change, local governments and citizens in Giao Thuy district have takencertain actions to adapt with the climate change to develop agricultural production. This articleprovidesthe first impact assessment of climate changein Giao Thuy district, with emphasison agricultural production and adaptation measures used in agricultural production in Giao Thuy district, Nam Dinh province. Some measures to enhance adaptive capacity of communities to prevent and minimize harm, stability and development of agriculture in climate change conditionswere also recommended.

This study aims to show how information of vegetable originsand sources influence on consumer’s behavior in Hanoi city. The data collected from consumers in Hanoi showed that they much paid attention to information of vegetable origins, particularly women bebcause they occupied 85.6 percent of vegetable buyers. Gender, age, occupation, educational achievement and family component are factors that influence on consumers’s perception and behavior. Based on the investigation of consumer’s behavior, the study recommends major solutions in order to enhance consumer’s perception of and their accessibility to vegetable origins such as selecting vegetabe suppliers and seeking enough information of vegetables as “a smart consumer”.

This research aimed to analyze the situations when Vietnam’s shrimp and catfish exported to USA market, and to identify technical barriers to help such companies to meet USA-importer’s requirements. The secondary datawere analyzed usingcomparative methods of f absolute and relative quantities. Some recommendations toovercometechnical barriers forshrimp and catfish export to the US market.

In recent year, maize is gradually becoming a kind of agricultural commodities which aims to reduce poverty for farmers in the Northwest region, especially in the two provinces of Son La and Hoa Binh. The survey results show that income from maize production constitutes a high proportion of the income structure of farm households in this area. However, maize acreage and yield annual area are declining. The farmers in the Northwest now faces major problems such as the shortage of capital for production, the rapid rising input cost, especially maize seeds and fertilizers. In addition, transport systems, storage systems, and the consumption of maize are still low, which are also the major challenges to the developm ent of maize production in this area. Therefore, to develop commodity maize production in the Northwest region, the solutions offered are going to focus on those aspects: the methods to control soil erosion and exhaustion, transportation system development, maize consumption system diversification, technical support and the encouragement of maize storage system construction for farmers, maize varieties research to select the adapted seeds to the ecological conditions, utilizing the organic inputs instead of inorganic fertilizer and finally the preferential policies that Government should have to encourage maize production.

The study was conducted to collect data from 550 farmers in Thai Binh provinceto identify the status of farmers’ voluntary health insurance (VHI). The results showed that farmers’ participation in VHIincreased in the recent years, but with slow growth rate. Most of farmers (about 92.18%) said that health insurance participation is ofnecessity.However, 7% to 31% of farmers didnot have the need to participate in VHI due to several reasonssuch as: (1) no habit of health examination (80%); (2) too complicated paper work (75%); (3) high health insurance fee (65%);andlow income (55%). Fourmain solutions were recommended to improve and attract farmers to participate in VHI.

This study aims to analyze and evaluate the performance of contract integration in production - consumption of rice in Dong Thap province, from which proposed some solutions for developing contract integration in production -consumption of rice. Through field research, historical and comparative research, studies of situations, this paper discovered 4 issues arising from the performance of contract integration in production -consumption of rice, including: i) the forms of contract integration in production -consumption of rice is not appropriate; ii) capacity of farmers and enterprises are weak and; iii) the State has not fully played its role in developing contract integration of production -consumption of rice; iiii) cooperatives and cooperative groups have not well done their role in the cooperation of production -consumption of rice. Since then, the paper has proposed four solutions to develop forms of contract integration in production -consumption of rice in Dong Thap province, including i) replicate and develop the form of contract integration in production -consumption of rice, which enterprises hold the role of nuclear in supply of production inputs and purchasing rice of farmers; ii) support and facilitate capacity building of farmers and enterprises; iii) strengthen and promote the role of the State in the production and consumption of rice through contracts; iiii) strengthen and develop cooperatives and cooperative groups.

Thai Binh province has over 70 percent of population who still live on farming activities. This means that pesticide has been used with a big amount and in large cultivated area. Almost all farmers used pesticide based on their experiences, so pesticide overusing is happened overwhelmingly. Carried out in Hung Ha and Quynh Phu district, this study showed that state management of households’ pesticide use is not strictly enough in these two locations. Reasons are that fact that the state policies of pesticide management have been slowly implemented. Simultaneously, mornitoring activities have not been paid much attention. Lack of human, financial, and equipmental resources influenced state management of pesticide use. In order to improve the state management of pesticide use, the study recommended major solutions including organization improvement; human, financial and equipmental resource enhancement; and building up an organization for pesticide use management at commune level.

The study employedanalytical econometric model to measure the possibility of non-agricultural jobs in rural area of Hanoi. The panel 2010-2012 data of Vietnamhousehold living standards surveywere estimated using probit regression probability model. The results showedthat the education level of Hanoirural workers playeda significant role in wage employment or self-employment. If number of year schooling of workers increases oneyear, the opportunity for getting a non-agricultural employment increases 3%.If other factors remain constant, 1% increase in schooling will lead to 3% increase in non-agricultural jobs. Besides,job creation programs also have a positive impact on opportunityof non-agricultural employment of rural workers. Economic growth leads to an increase of enterprises in rural areas as well as the possibility of finding non-agricultural jobs.

Food security at household level is ensured when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life. Based on this definition, four food security dimensions can be identified as: food availability, food access, food utilization, and food stability. Ensuring food security is an urgent demand of poor households in Mai Chau -a poor district whose undernourishment prevalence in between-crop periods reaches to 24.1% of total poor household. Surveying 203 poor households, 22 local authorities at 5 sampled communes, the research indicates that fragmentation and small scale of agricultural production on slopping relief lessens the food availability of poor households. Those households usually face with difficulties in food access due to low transportation and economic conditions. Additionally, capability of income generation from agricultural and non-agricultural activities is pretty low and unstable. Therefore, present solutions should focus on improving agricultural production, enhancing market access capacity, and diminishing risks in food access and food utilization of poor households in Mai Chau.