Food sovereignty: International experience and practice to ethnic minorities farmers in Vietnam

Center for Agricultural Research and Ecological Studies (CARES) under the Vietnam National University of Agriculture, with financial support from the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung (RLS) of Germany, conducted the research on the impacts of participating in an intensively large-scale agricultural commodity production model following market orientation to the livelihood of the ethnic minority farmers in Vietnam. The research focuses on answering questions:

1) What are the advantages and disadvantages to the ethnic minority smallholding farmers when shifting from traditional production with native crops to intensively large-scale market-oriented agro-commodity linkage production model?
2) How is the food sovereignty or self-determination of the ethnic minority smallholding farm households affected when participating in the linkage model?
3) How to ensure the best food sovereignty for the involved farm households, especially the poor ethnic minority smallholding farmers?

The study used data from various primary and secondary sources. International reports and discussions on food sovereignty; statistics data from the General Department/Department/Sub-Department of Statistics, General Department of Vietnam Customs, Department and Division of Agriculture and Rural Development, Department of Industry and Trade, People's Committees of districts and communes in the study area; and reports, survey data of other organizations and individuals, are secondary sources of information used in the report.