“In the beginning the land allowed us to feed the six people in the family and send the children to school,” said Le Thi Thoi. “But now I have to return it since the income from growing rice is very low.”
Although Vietnam is the largest rice exporter in the world, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development plans on converting 200,000 hectares of rice fields in order to grow more profitable crops such as maize or corn, hoping to attract farmers back to their land and improve their incomes. The move has won support from experts.