Abandoned farmland: [4] Large-scale farmers struggle to accumulate plots

Large-scale farmers 'thirsty' for farmland

Mr. Pham Van Huong in Dong Hoa Lu Ward, Ninh Binh Province, one of the 63 Outstanding Vietnamese Farmers in 2025, is among the largest-scale farmers in Ninh Binh. He cultivates 160 hectares of rice land, producing two crops a year.

Bài liên quan

Abandoned farmland: [3] Neither farming nor leasing out

Since 2012, after witnessing many people in his hometown leave their fields uncultivated, Mr. Huong has been concerned about the land going to waste. He has approached individual households to ask about leasing or borrowing their fields for cultivation.

Initially, he accumulated 4–5 hectares of farmland through borrowing and leasing, and the area gradually expanded with each crop, as the number of landowners who were not interested in farming and stopped cultivating their fields continued to increase each year. At the time, landowners allowed him to use their fields free of charge. The person using the land would instead pay the agricultural levies (taxes and fees under the former regulations) on behalf of the landowner each year.

With a large land area, Mr. Huong invested in machinery, agricultural materials, fertilizers, and rice seeds, gradually becoming a large-scale farmer. At his peak, he cultivated 160 hectares, generating annual revenue of more than VND 10 billion and providing stable incomes for dozens of local workers.

Bài liên quan

Abandoned farmland: [2] An entire commune skips summer-autumn crop

"Farming encounters numerous difficulties and uncertainties, from natural disasters and floods to pests and diseases, as well as volatile prices. But what large-scale farmers worry about most is not having a stable land fund for long-term, sustainable cultivation," Mr. Huong said.

According to him, once committed to commercial agricultural production, large-scale farmers have to make substantial investments in machinery and equipment, including plowing and harrowing machines, combine harvesters, rice transplanters, and drones. As the cultivated area expands and paddy output reaches hundreds or even thousands of tons per crop, they must also have drying systems, storage warehouses, and other facilities. Total investment in machinery and buildings can run into tens of billions of dong. For farmers, this is a substantial investment that cannot be recovered after just one or two crops, while agriculture is always fraught with risks.

"The more advanced the machinery and the greater its capacity, the larger the land area needed to fully utilize its efficiency and balance production costs, thereby making a profit. If the cultivated area is too small and the machinery is not operated at full capacity, farming will only result in losses," Mr. Huong explained.

Stable agricultural land policies needed

Echoing Mr. Huong's concerns, Mr. Do Van Dan, a large-scale farmer from the 5-ton rice homeland, said: “The biggest challenge for large-scale farmers is access to production land. We borrow or lease fields without formal written contracts. Today, when farmers are not interested in cultivating, they are willing to lend us their fields, but if they see a good harvest and rising rice prices, they may ask for the land back to farm themselves. Without a stable land fund, we cannot afford to invest or develop long-term plans.”

Bài liên quan

Abandoned farmland: [1] Weeds grow green on fertile fields

To secure rice-growing areas for commercial production, in recent years, after each planting or harvest season, large-scale farmers like Mr. Dan and Mr. Huong have had to travel to other provinces to find fields left fallow by farmers so they can lease and cultivate them.

Over the past two years, Mr. Huong has traveled as far as Chuong My (Hanoi), more than 100 km from his home, to lease more than 200 hectares of farmland, which is now in its fourth cultivation crop. After each crop in Ninh Binh, his agricultural machinery is transported to Quang Bi to continue farming.

"Cultivating across several places increases the costs substantially. But that is still better than having no land to cultivate. Leaving machinery sitting idle in one place not only wastes its potential but can also lead to breakdowns," Mr. Huong said.

Speaking about what farmers want most, the two large-scale farmers, each with nearly 20 years of experience working on the vast fields of the Red River Delta’s two major rice-growing areas, former Thai Binh and Ninh Binh provinces, share the same view: stability in agricultural land policies.

According to Mr. Huong, some farmland is also left fallow in his hometown of Ninh Binh, but the proportion is not high, at only around 15–20%. In low-lying, flood-prone areas such as Ninh Khanh and Kim Son, local farmers still grow one crop a year. Therefore, in recent years, he has had to travel to Chuong My and My Duc in Hanoi, where a high proportion of farmers have abandoned their fields, to lease land for commercial cultivation. Many other large-scale farmers also struggle to find farmland to lease.

"To ensure stable and sustainable commercial production, large-scale farmers need more than just sufficient land area; the second key factor is the duration of land use. For fields we lease for rice cultivation, we need a minimum lease period of five years," Mr. Huong said.

According to him, many localities in Ninh Binh have yet to pay sufficient attention to land-use planning and land consolidation. As a result, farmland remains fragmented into small plots, with numerous field boundaries and embankments. Consolidating these plots into large fields would create favorable conditions for mechanization, reduce production costs, and cut labor requirements.

"The more field boundaries there are, the more farmland is wasted, while machinery has to spend time turning around and crossing embankments. Therefore, if local authorities consolidate fragmented plots into concentrated fields, farming will become much more efficient," Mr. Huong shared.

Large-scale rice farmer Do Van Dan also raised the issue of planning for rice-growing land. Local authorities should establish stable plans for agricultural land and limit changes in land-use purposes. Areas with established agricultural production systems, from irrigation and drainage canals to field roads, can have their entire agricultural infrastructure disrupted when they are suddenly converted for other purposes, such as industrial parks or urban developments, leading to a host of other consequences.

"Those of us who have remained committed to the fields need stability in agricultural land policies and greater flexibility in regulations, such as allowing large-scale farmers to use a designated portion of land to build storage facilities, grain dryers, seedling nurseries, and other agricultural infrastructure serving production. Without warehouses, workshops, machinery, and farming equipment, we could not store rice. Without grain storage facilities, there is nowhere to keep thousands of tons of paddy. If freshly harvested paddy cannot be dried in time and several days of prolonged rain come along, it will sprout and be completely ruined," large-scale farmer Do Van Dan said.

$1 = VND 26,250 - Source: Vietcombank