VietNamNet Bridge – The economic crisis have delivered a hard blow to people in rural areas, with many families sending relatives to urban areas to look for better income while those who stay back are also facing severe poverty, according to a survey.

While most of farmers living in rural areas are facing greater economic challenges, the future of their relatives migrating to cities is not brighter, according to results of the survey released in Hanoi on Wednesday.

The survey is conducted by the Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM), the Institute of Policy and Strategy for Agriculture and Rural Development, and the Institute of Labor Science and Social Affairs. The survey interviewed 3,700 households in 12 provinces in June and July, 2012 with assistance from University of Copenhagen.

According to the survey, the rate of poor households increased to 17.2% last year from 13.1% recorded in 2010 when a similar survey was conducted.

“The increasing rate of poor households in 2012 compared to 2010 is exact. However, if the survey was carried out this year, the picture of poverty would be much more somber,” said economic expert Pham Chi Lan said at the workshop revealing the survey results held on Wednesday in Hanoi

The survey indicated that up to 4% of the surveyed households did not consume any protein source within 24 hours before the survey. The rate was the highest in Lai Chau with 25%, followed by Dien Bien Province with 16%.

Besides, around 10% of the households did not own any pieces of farming land.

Currently, Vietnam has 33.1 million hectares of land and is a country having the world’s lowest land area per capita of some 0.38 hectare. Meanwhile, the average farming land per capita is roughly 0.3 hectare.

Vietnam’s farming land is divided into small pieces, hindering the large-scale farming production, said Luu Duc Khai from CIEM.

Meanwhile, farmers migrating to cities do not have a better life.

According to the survey, nearly 20% of the surveyed households had at least one member who migrated to the city.

Over 22% had relatives as permanent migrants in cities while nearly 64% had temporary migrants.

In addition, the average income of the surveyed migrants was VND43.5 million per year. Young migrants’ income was much lower that that of older people.

According to Pham Chi Lan, such income is pretty low. Migrants can hardly save money to help their relatives in farming. “Overall, the poor remains poor,” she said.

Source: SGT