Experts and officials have repeatedly warned of the continued decreases in agricultural land area. In 2010-2015, the city lost 700 hectares of agricultural land a year, while the figure was 1,000 hectares per annum in 2015-2020.

Director of the HCM City Department of Agriculture and Rural Development Dinh Minh Hiep confirmed that hundreds of hectares of agricultural land are converted into other types of land each year, mostly used for commercial purposes.

However, Hiep sais that the total agricultural land in the locality still accounts for more than 50 percent, which is a large proportion. Many people in suburban districts want to retain agricultural land for farming, rather than allocate land into plots for sale.

Farm production also helps protect the environment and maintain the urban green atmosphere. HCM City authorities are striving for green agricultural production and green living spaces in the city.

Selling land can bring bigger money, but this will only exist for a short time. In the long term, it is necessary to organize agricultural production in urban areas for local consumption.

Nguyen Duy Son, deputy head of the HCM City Hi-tech Agriculture Management Board, emphasized the importance of strict management by the state to prevent people from splitting land into plots for sale, and reserving land for agricultural production. 

The administration must not let land owners split large farming land areas into smaller plots for sale.

Son said state management agencies need to plan the use of land for different purposes. As for land for farming, state management agencies need to apply reasonable policies to preserve the land. Farmers want their income to increase, while the state needs to protect the land area for agricultural production.

Land use planning plays a very important role and needs to be conducted with a long term vision, not just for 3-5 years. And the planning needs to be overall, compatible with infrastructure conditions to ensure benefits for people.

“All business fields need to run within an overall sphere. Don’t let ‘everyone for himself’ phenomenon occur. Don’t think your fields are more important than others. Otherwise, planning will completely fail,” he warned.

Dau Thi Mai Lien from the Institute for Vietnam Initiative suggested that Vietnam should learn experiences from Thailand. Selling land plots doesn’t occur in the country and farmers can pocket satisfactory profits from their farm work.  

Tran Chung