Farmers’ Assessment on Implementation of Agricultural Support Policy for Poverty Reduction in Van Xuan and Ngoc Phung Communes, Thuong Xuan District, Thanh Hoa Province

This research study reportsassessments of 250 farmhouseholdsin thetwo extremely difficult communesinThuong Xuan district, Thanh Hoa province on implementation of agricultural support policy for poverty reduction. Findings indicate thatthe majority of farmers expressed positive viewpoints on beneficiary identification process, accessibility, supports received and appropriateness of agricultural supportive policies for poverty reduction. Farmers also perceived that supportive policies have strong impacts on poverty reduction. However, poverty rate in the communes remainedhigh and reduced slowly. The situation was ascribedtoimproper beneficiary identification process, low accessibility of the poor, inappropriate planning, weak capacity for policy implementation and shortcomings in supportive policy design. The research also pointedout some measures to improve effectiveness and efficiencies of supportive policies for poverty reduction such as improvement of planning, renovating policy implementation process, propaganda of policies, enhancing implementers’ capacity, mobilizing resources and renovation of policy from free input subsidies to support a development of a full value change in agricultural productionandsettingout relief from supportive policies