As stated previously, the liberalization of Vietnamese agriculture has proceeded in a series of small steps rather than a big bang approach—with land-tenure reform being a key element to encouraging individualized decisionmaking and a new entrepreneurial spirit (Pingali and Xuan 1992). In the beginning, reforms that responded to rising food insecurity, farmers’ unrest, and insufficient nutritional status had to be pushed ahead. Already in the early 1990s, Pingali and Xuan (1992) stated that encouraging the family contract system had a significant effect on rice productivity, transforming Vietnam from a rice importer to one of world’s largest exporters. Annual growth in rice yields per hectare of land had risen by about 32 percent in North Vietnam and 24 percent in South Vietnam from 1980 to 1984 (Pingali and Xuan 1992). Most of this growth had been attributed to increases in yields per hectare rather than expansions in cultivated areas. During this period, annual rice output per capita increased by about 40 kg for the whole of the country, underlining the newly generated potential for improved food security and nutritional status.