Dragons with Clay Feet?

Transition, Sustainable Land Use, and Rural Environment in China and Vietnam

Contributions by Connie Chan-Kang, Cheng Zhigang, Nguyen Huu Dung, Shenggen Fan, Stein Holden, Gideon Kruseman, Erno Kuiper, Marijke Kuiper, Xiubin Li, Yousheng Li, Changhe Lu, Hualiang Lu, Reimund Roetter, Ruerd Ruben, Xiaoping Shi, Minghong Tan, Shuhao Tan, Nguyen Do Anh Tuan, Marrit van den Berg, Herman van Keulen, Guanghuo Wang, Xiaobo Zhang, Funing Zhong, Jing Zhu, Peixin Zhu Edited by Max Spoor, Nico Heerink, Futian Qu

Publication date:

16 February 2007

Length of book:

356 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

ISBN-13: 9780739113691

Dragons with Clay Feet? presents state-of-the-art research on the impact of ongoing and anticipated economic policy and institutional reforms on agricultural development and sustainable rural resource in two East-Asian transition (and developing) economies—China and Vietnam. The contributions to this volume focus on the regional and sectoral impact of transformational policies, farm household decision making under a changing economic and institutional environment, and potential trade-offs between agricultural growth and sustainable land management in the two countries. The analysis of household responses to economic policies and changing institution, and their implications for agricultural production and sustainable resource use in East-Asian transition economies, is a relatively new research field. This collection by a group of Chinese, Vietnamese, and international researchers reflect the rapid progress that is being made in this important research field.

Chapter 1 Transition, Economic Policy and Institutional Reforms in China and Vietnam: The Impact of Sustainable Land Use
Part 2 Regional and Sectoral Impact of Economic Reform
Chapter 3 Regional Inequality in China: Scope, Sources, and Strategies to Reduce It
Chapter 4 Fiscal Decentralization, Nonfarm Development, and Spatial Inequality in Rural China
Chapter 5 The Contribution of Diversification to the Growth and Sustainability of Chinese Agriculture
Chapter 6 Growth and Regional Inequality in Asia's "New Dragons": China and Vietnam Compared
Chapter 7 Land Policy in Vietnam's Agrarian Transition — A Case Study of Namdinh Province
Chapter 8 The Effects of Economic Policy Reforms on the Economic Environment of Farm Households in China: An Empirical Analysis for Jiangxi Province
Part 9 Farm Household Decision Making under a Changing Economic and Institutional Environment
Chapter 10 Farm Household Responses to China's New Rural Income Support Policy: A Village-Level Analysis
Chapter 11 Marketing Chains, Transaction Costs, and Resource Management: Efficiency and Trust within Tomato Supply Chains in Nanjing City
Chapter 12 Off-Farm Employment, Factor Market Development and Input Use in Farm Production — A Case Study of a Remote Village in Jiangxi Province, China
Chapter 13 Land Fragmentation and Smallholder Rice Farm's Production Costs in Jiangxi Province, China
Chapter 14 Intensification of Rice Production and Negative Health Effects for Farmers in the Mekong Delta during Vietnam's Transition
Chapter 15 Public Investment, Agricultural Research and Agrochemicals Use in Grain Production in China
Part 16 Agriculture and Sustainable Land Management
Chapter 17 Sustainability Issues in East Asian Rice Cultivation
Chapter 18 Agricultural Technology and Nitrogen Pollution in Southeast China
Chapter 19 China's Farmland Use: A Scenario Analysis of Changes and Trends

Transition has brought about considerable environmental degradation in the rural countryside, with rural resources such as land, forests, and water suffering at the expense of these transitions. This book takes up the challenge to examine what the impacts have been of these transformations for farmers in China and Vietnam. The authors as a whole investigate rural inequality and a range of farm decision-making processes through a predominantly economic lens. In sum, the twenty-eight authors involved—and it is positive to note that many are from China or Vietnam—through their sixteen chapters, bring to light new, in-depth case studies and analyses on agricultural diversification, production growth, urban encroachment, and the widespread use of agro-chemicals.