Vol. 21 No. 6 (2023)

This study useddescriptive and comparative statisticsandsurveyed6 officials and 60 households growing Meoapples to solve the following objectives: (i) to assess the current situation of Meo appledevelopmentand (ii)to propose solutions to enhance the development of Meoapple production in Thuan Chau district, Son La province. Research results show that before 2019, Meoapplesbroughtsignificant income forthe ethnic minorities in the highland communes of Thuan Chau district, but since the end of 2019, the selling price of apples has decreased significantly. Since then, income from apple cultivation has decreased from VND 40to 65 million/ha to nearly VND 2 million/ha. The development of Meoapple production has many advantages, but there are still many difficulties related to planning, development support policies, market connection, and trademark. In order to strengthen the development of Meoapples in Thuan Chau district, it is necessary to implement solutions related to strengthening market connections, increasing processing and diversifying processed products from fresh apples, supplementing support policies for apple growers.

Urban agriculture plays a vitalrole in the socio-economicdevelopment of many countries, making an important contribution to achieving global food security.Urban agriculture not only provides fresh food and creates jobs and income for a part of the urban population, but also contributes to creatinglandscapes, reducing environmental pollution and improving urban community health.Thispaperpresentedthe results of an overview of some international theories and practices on urban agriculture developmentandon that basis, some solutions were proposed to develop urban agriculture towards green growth in Vietnam in the near future.The study results indicated that the development of urban agriculture faces difficulties and challenges including difficulties in accessing resources (land, water and creditand supporting infrastructure)andlack of effective planning, implementationand monitoring,leading to negative impacts related to health, productivityand environmental risks as well as market access.Research results have confirmed that the development of urban agriculture is inevitable.On the basis of assessing the current situation, the study proposes a number of solutions to develop urban agriculture in Vietnam.

This study aimed to reflect the situation of climate change and adaptation measures to climate change of farmer households in agricultural production in Moc Chau district.Primary data were collected through questionaires interviewing with 120 farmer households directly involved in agricultural production activities and in-depth interviews with 10 local staffs. The research results showed that to adapt many changes in local climate such as temperature and humidity raising, rainfall, sunshine hours reduction... as well as extreme weather phenomena such as chilling cold, biting cold, storms, floods, hails, hoarfrost..., Moc Chau farmer households have also taken several adaptationmeasures. These measures included shifting structure of crops and livestock, applying new varieties, adjusting farming techniques, repairing barns, moving cages, dredging mud, applying advanced technology to production, diversifying livelihoods... However, there were low application rate and non-homogeneous among households. The study also proposed some recommendations to improve adaptation to climate change in agricultural production of farmer households in Moc Chau in the near future.

Almost all nations in the world today pay increasing attention to sustainable development because of environmental issues and resources degradation. Reverse logistics plays an important role in achieving the sustainable development goals of any organization. The purpose of this study is to provide a literature review of effect of reverse logistics practices on sustainable development’s triple bottom line. Content analysis was used to analyse the selected papers. Results of the study reveal that reverse logistics has possitive impacts on sustainable development through 5 economic, 4 environmental and 5 social indicators. However, some studies has shown vague economic and social effects of reverse logistics.

This article aimed to assess the current status, then to propose solutions to improve labor quality in order to meet the demand for the development of hi-tech agriculture in Hanoi city. By synthesizing secondary data, the research results show that there was a serious shortage of labor force who could apply high-tech into agricultural production in Hanoi city. The number of agricultural workers who were recruited by enterprises after they took the vocational training on traditional occupation was only 2.3%. The main reasons are that the workers themselves were not aware of the importance of high-tech agricultural vocational training; vocational teachers had not been trained to improve their qualifications; training institutions were in shortage of practical equipment, and vocational training programs only focused on the field of production, not on product processing and marketing. Therefore, the necessary solutions to improve the quality of agricultural labor training for high-tech agriculture are to develop and update the training programs, to build capacity for vocational teachers, to strengthen social communication, to promote coordination among stakeholders, and to mobilize resources on high-tech agriculture training.

This paper presented the situation, economic benefits, and difficulties in linkages in pig raising of farm households in Tien Lu district, Hung Yen province. The source of data included the secondary and primary data which were based on the survey of 66 pig farm households in Tien Lu district. Research results showed that pig farm households linked in both formal and informal ways. Linkage activities included the purchase and sale of breeds, group purchase of feeds, veterinary services, access to credit and product selling. Pig farm households were linked with each others in formal way by joining cooperatives. Some benefits of joining the linkages were reduced input prices, guaranteed input quality, training and information sharing as well as access to preferential loans. Thus, households participating in cooperative had higher income, and improved economic efficiency compared to households that did not participate. However, the linkages were not diversified, which were mainly in the production aspect; otherwise, the linkages were still few and weak; and there was no distinction between linked and non-linked products.

This study aimed to identify the factors affecting the adoption of high technology in vegetable production of farm households in Hanoi, Vietnam. A total of 164 farm households consisting of 88 households applying high technology in their vegetable production and 76 farm households with traditional production practice from two representative districts of Gia Lam and Dong Anh were randomly interviewed for the necessary data collection. Logit regression model was employed to explore the effects of different factors on the high technology adoption in vegetable production. Findings indicate that the farmer’ education, households’ income, vegetable areas, access to extension services and access to credit had statistically significant and positive impacts on the adoption. Meanwhile the gender, age, total agricultural land areas and locations did not exert clear impacts. Based on the findings, the major solutions for enhancing the adoption of high technology in vegetable production of farm households in Hanoi were proposed.

Research on governance in agricultural cooperatives in Vietnam is not yet popular while the agricultural cooperative model is facing the requirement of changing governance to ensure the interests of cooperative members as well as other stakeholders to promote development. By synthesizing studies on reputable data systems, the article presents an overview on concepts and mainstream theories applied in research and models of governance in agricultural cooperatives, then discuss the possibility of applying relevant theories to appropriate types of cooperatives in Vietnam.

Food safety management is one of the top concerns in urban areas. The objective of the research is to assess the food safety management and factors affecting the state management of food safety in the research areas. Based on the research findings a set of solutions is proposed. The study conducted a survey of food business households, food safety managers and consumers at some markets in Cau Giay district. Research findings show that the district has implemented several measures to propagate and foster knowledge for managers and business people, but the method, organizational time, and training content were not appropriate. There were not enough staff working in the district’s food hygiene and safety management, and physical infrastructure at markets and equipment for food safety management were still limited. Many consumers have not paid attention to food hygiene and safety. Although the inspection and handling of violations were carried out regularly, there were still problems that need to be resolved. In order to improve the state management of food hygiene and safety in Cau Giay in the near future, it is necessary to have effective solutions for enhancing communication, improving facilities and strengthening inspection work.

Vietnam's rice sector plays an important socio-economic role and is oriented to develop according to certified standards. This article aims to systematize the theoretical basis for certified rice cultivation standards in Vietnam, including the concept, role, and factors affecting the decision to participate in certified rice cultivation as well as current situation in Vietnam and international experience in developing rice production according to certified standards. From the results of the literature review, the article shows that rice production according to certified standards has great potential to help reduce material costs and increase profits for farmers. There are internal and external factors affecting people's participation in certified rice production, but the economic benefits from this production are still the most concerned factor. In order to promote rice production according to certified standards in Vietnam, the government needs to support farmers in the transition process from traditional cultivation to certified cultivation, build a complete traceability system for certified products, and focus on standards recognized by the main consumer market.

Agritourism is a popular type of tourism in developed countries, but it has been only paid attention to by developing countries including Vietnam recently. Developing agritourism brings much benefits such as diversification of agricultural activities, economic growth, preservation of cultural identity, production, and reduction of environmental pollution, but remains some limitations. This paper presents the results of the overall analysis of experiences in developing agritourism in the world, opportunities, and challenges for agritourism development in Vietnam. From there, some suggestions on the policy for agritourism development of Vietnam in the coming time are proposed.

This study aimedto determine the factors affecting the decision to produce carrotstowards export standards of farmers. This study was based on the survey data of 87 carrot growing households in Cam Giang district to identify the factors affectingthe decision oncarrot production towardsexport standards. The research results showed that the affecting factors belonged to household head, namelyage, education, training and technical guidances, carrot growingarea and the wish of selling their products positively affectedthe farmers' decision to produce carrot towardsexport standards in Cam Giang district, Hai Duong province.