After 40 years of Doi Moi (Renewal), Vietnamese agriculture has risen from a state of food shortages to become a solid pillar of the national economy, placing the country among the world’s leading exporters of food and agricultural products, the Nhan Dan newspaper reported. 

Across today’s fields, that powerful foundation is being continuously renewed through science and technology, digital transformation, and the journey toward green agriculture and high-tech farming in a new era of development.

Before 1986, Vietnamese agriculture operated under a centralised, bureaucratic, subsidised model. Cooperatives played the dominant role, but rigid management mechanisms stifled labour incentives. 

Land was collectively owned, products were distributed based on work points, and farmers had no right to decide on crop varieties, cropping seasons, or market outlets. 

During the late 1970s and early 1980s, the national poverty rate reached nearly 70 percent, and Vietnam had to import millions of tons of food each year to avert hunger. Agriculture — the livelihood of the majority of the population — became the biggest bottleneck of the economy.

The turning point came with grassroots experiments in “informal contracting,” followed by Directive 100 in 1981 and culminating in Contract 10 (Resolution 10) in 1988. For the first time, farm households were recognised as autonomous economic units and granted long-term land-use rights and decision-making rights in production. 

According to the Nhan Dan, productive capacity was unleashed almost immediately. Just one year after the implementation of Resolution 10, Vietnam shifted from a food-deficit country to a rice exporter — a historic turning........

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