Farmland Loss and Poverty in Hanoi‘s Peri-Urban Areas, Vietnam: Evidence from Household Survey Data
No 4/2013, December
Abstract
Using a dataset from a 2010 field survey involving 477 households, this paper has contributed to the literature by providing the first econometric evidence for the impacts of farmland loss (due to urbanization and industrialization) on household poverty in Hanoi‘s peri-urban areas. Factors affecting poverty were examined using a logit regression model. Our econometric results indicate that the one and two-year effects of farmland loss on poverty are not statistically significant. These results, therefore, confirm that farmland loss has had no impact on poverty in the short-term. This study also found that factors contributing to poverty reduction include households‘ education, access to credit, ownership of productive assets and participation in nonfarm activities before farmland loss. We propose some policy implications that can help households escape poverty and improve their welfare.
Keywords
Farmland loss, poverty effects, household welfare, peri-urban areas.