“The government considers rice a staple, so they invest a lot of resources in it. But most government subsidies go to the traders. Farmers earn the least and are sometimes at the losing end,” says Eduardo Sabio, regional representative at VECO Vietnam, an NGO working on sustainable agriculture. “They earn very little, the price is controlled and dictated, the land area is very small and the quality is low. If they go to the city to find work, they earn much more.”