Agricultural Growth and Poverty Pockets (AGROPOP)

Professor Henrik Hansen  is PI of the research project 'Agricultural Growth and Poverty Pockets'. The Danida funded project is in collaboration with Professor Niels Fold from the Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management  and Dr. Vo Thanh Danh, Dean of the School of Economics and Business Administration, Can Tho University.

Background

Several countries in Asia have experienced rapid growth and diversification of agricultural production due to combined demand from both the domestic and the global markets. The growth and diversification processes take place in agricultural growth regions, where state policies (infrastructural expansion, institutional strengthening, etc.) and private commercial activities (creation and development of agriculturally-based value chains) have favourably interacted. Interestingly, however, such agricultural growth regions often embed geographically concentrated areas (‘pockets’) where poverty prevails. The main objective of the project is to understand this co-existence of high agricultural growth and poverty pockets. The project aims to develop robust technical methods to identify and assess poverty pockets and to produce policy guidelines for alleviating the local poverty.

The project is implemented in the Mekong River Delta (MRD) in Vietnam where production of rice has dominated for centuries but now is being supplemented by production of fruit sea-food and cocoa.  The MRD has experienced high agricultural growth for a prolonged period resulting in an impressive poverty reduction. Even so, poverty rates vary greatly across the provinces and even within the provinces. This makes the MRD an ideal place to study the co-existence of local growth miracles and poverty pockets.

Overall objective

The overall objective of the project is to provide a better understanding of the processes that create and shape geographically concentrated areas ('pockets') of poverty in regions marked by agricultural growth and diversification.

The objective will be approached by looking into the following set of interlinked, immediate objectives:

  • To conceptualize poverty pockets in agricultural growth regions
  • To theorize the relationship between the (local and global) drivers of agricultural growth regions and the development of poverty pockets
  • To develop cross-disciplinary methods to identify and explain poverty pockets using both qualitative and quantitative approaches
  • To assess the nature of poverty traps, i.e. potentially persistent poverty pockets

Empirically, the aim of this project is to examine the poverty dimension of the agricultural growth and diversification process that unfolds in the Mekong River Delta in Vietnam.

Participating Researchers

Henrik Hansen (Professor, Department of Economics)
Niels Fold (Professor, Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management)
Vo Thanh Danh (Dean, SEBA, Can Tho University)
Mai Van Nam (Associate professor former Dean, SEBA, Can Tho University)
Troung Dong Loc (Associate professor, SEBA, Can Tho University)
Le Dang Trung (Postdoctoral fellow, Department of Food and Resource Economics)

Neda Trifkovic (PhD Candidate, Department of Food and Resource Economics)
Mads M. Hauge (PhD Candidate, Dept. of Geosciences and Nat. Resource Management)
Tran Ba Tri (PhD Candidate, SEBA, Chan Tho University)
Nguyen Huu Tam (PhD Candidate, SEBA, Chan Tho University)
La Nguyen Thuy Dung (PhD Candidate, SEBA, Chan Tho University)
Nguyen Quoc Nghi (PhD Candidate, SEBA, Chan Tho University)

Publications

Nguyen Huu Tam (2013)  “Financial performance of production and marketing of cocoa in Ben Tre province, Viet Nam”, Journal of Science, Can Tho University, Vol 26, pp. 9-14, 

Neda Trifković (2014)  “Certified standards and vertical coordination in aquaculture: The case of pangasius from Vietnam”, Aquaculture, 433, pp. 235-246, 

Neda Trifković (2014) “Governance Strategies and Welfare Effects: Vertical Integration and Contracts in the Catfish Sector in Vietnam”, Journal of Development Studies, 50,  pp. 949-961.

Henrik Hansen and Neda Trifković (2014) “Food Standards are Good – for Middle-Class Farmers”, World Development, 56,  pp. 226-242.

Henrik Hansen and Neda Trifković (2016) “Food Standards are Good – for Middle-Class Farmers”, AGROPOP Policy Brief.

Nguyen Quoc Nghi and Mai Van Nam (2014) “Market accessibility of pineapple growing households in Tan Phuoc district, Tien Giang province”, Journal of Science, Can Tho University, 35d,  pp. 24-33. 

Nguyen Huu Tam and Luu Thanh Duc Hai (2015) “Investigating the cocoa value chain in Ben Tre province, Vietnam”, Journal of Science, Can Tho University, 35d,  pp. 8-15.

Nguyen Quoc Nghi and Mai Van Nam (2015)  “Productive efficiency of pineapple growing households in Tan Phuoc district, Tien Giang province”, Journal of Science, Can Tho University, 36d, pp. 1-9.

Nguyen Quoc Nghi (2015) “Evaluate to economic efficiency of poor household in pineapple cultivation in Tan Phuoc district, Tien Giang province: Approach to profit function estimation of stochastic frontier analysis”, Journal of Agriculture and Rural Development, 6,  pp. 16-22, 

Nguyen Quoc Nghi (2015) “Analyzing pineapple value chain of poor farm households in Tien Giang province”, Journal of Science, Can Tho University, 40d, pp. 75-82. 

Nguyen Quoc Nghi and Mai Van Nam (2015) “Impact of production resources on technical efficiency of poor pineapples farming in Tien Giang province”, Journal of Agriculture and Rural Development, 19,  pp. 11-15, 

La Nguyen Thuy Dung and Mai Van Nam (2015) “Analysis of the financial performance of rice producing households in the model associated with the enterprise in An Giang”, Journal of Science, Can Tho University, 36d,  pp. 92-100, 

La Nguyen Thuy Dung and Mai Van Nam (2015) “Household capacity of market access in business linkage in An Giang province”, Journal of Science, Can Tho University, 38d,  pp. 25-33, 

Nguyen Huu Tam and Luu Thanh Duc Hai (2016) “Financial efficiency analysis of factors in cocoa value chain in Ben Tre province”, Science and Technology Journal of Agriculture & Rural Development, 2,  pp. 11-17, 

Neda Trifković (2016) “Vertical coordination and farm performance: evidence from the catfish sector in Vietnam”, Agricultural Economics, 47,  pp. 547-557, 

Le Dang Trung and Remco Oostendorp (forthcoming) ”Regional Labor Market Integration, Shadow Wages and Poverty in Vietnam”, World Development. 

Mads M. Hauge (2015) “Mind the GAP: Vietnamese Rice Farmers and Distal Markets” in Land Use Competition. Ecological, economic and social perspectives, Niewöhner, J., Bruns, A., Hostert, P., Krüger, T., Nielsen, J.Ø., Haberl, H., Lauk, C., Lutz, J., Müller, D. (Eds.), Berlin: Springer, 

Neda Trifkovic (2014) "The Role of Food Standards in Development: An Empirical Perspective", PhD-Thesis, University of Copenhagen  

Mads Martinus Hauge (2015) “Strategic Coupling Based on Natural Resources – Globalized Development of the Mekong River Delta Region”, PhD-thesis, Dept. of Geosciences and Natural resource Management.  

Henrik Hansen and Neda Trifkovic (2013) “Food Standards are Good – for Middle-Class Farmers”, IFRO Working paper, No. 2013/19, Department of Food and Resource Economics, University of Copenhagen.

Neda Trifkovic (2013) "Governance Strategies and Welfare Effects: Vertical Integration and Contracts in the Catfish Sector in Vietnam", IFRO Working paper, No. 2013/20, Department of Food and Resource Economics, University of Copenhagen.

Neda Trifkovic (2013) "Food Standards and Vertical Coordination in Aquaculture: The Case of Pangasius from Vietnam", IFRO Working paper, No. 2014/01, Department of Food and Resource Economics, University of Copenhagen. 

Le Dang Trung and Henrik Hansen (2013) AGRPOP Project document, “Agropop Household Survey Documentation Report”, Mimeo, University of Copenhagen.

Tobias Mynborg and Mads M. Hauge (October 2014) ”Det lugter af fisk og penge: Et vietnamesisk fiskeeventyr med socioøkonomiske konsekvenser”, Globale Værdikæder, Geografisk Orientering