Not much arable land
On October 24, 2024, the Minister of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE) signed and issued Decision No. 3411/QD-BTNMT approving and announcing the results of land area statistics of the whole country in 2023.
According to this decision, as of December 31, 2023, the total area of agricultural land (also known as cultivated land) is 27,976,827 hectares (including agricultural land, forestry land, aquaculture land and other agricultural land).
Thus, compared to 2019, the country's cultivated land area decreased by about 9,163 hectares. Five years ago, according to the 2019 land area inventory data published in Decision No. 1435/QD-BTNMT of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, the country had 27,986,390 hectares of cultivated land.
The Northern Midlands and Mountains is the region with the second largest agricultural land area in the country (after the North Central and Central Coast), with 8,061,999 hectares; of which only 2,275,463 hectares are agricultural land, the rest is forestry land.
In ethnic minority and mountainous areas, according to the results of the third survey and collection of information on the socio-economic status of 53 ethnic minorities in 2019, the total land area is 7,389,000 hectares; mainly concentrated in rural areas, with an area of 6,855,200 hectares.
Thus, although it is an area with a large natural area (accounting for ¾ of the country's natural area), the cultivated land area in mountainous areas and ethnic minority areas only accounts for about ¼ of the country's cultivated land area.
After 5 years (2019 - 2024), the cultivated land area in ethnic minority and mountainous areas will certainly decrease. The reason is that the area of ethnic minority areas has decreased. In 2019, according to Decision No. 582/QD-TTg, the whole region has 5,256 communes; of which 1,935 communes are in area III, 2,018 communes are in area II and 1,313 communes are in area I.
In the period of 2021 - 2025, according to Decision No. 861/QD-TTg, ethnic minority and mountainous areas have 3,434 communes; of which there are 1,673 communes in area I, 210 communes in area II and 1,551 communes in area III.
In addition, from 2021 to present, implementing the National Target Program on Socio-Economic Development in Ethnic Minority and Mountainous Areas for the 2021-2030 Period (National Target Program 1719), many areas of cultivated land have been arranged to construct works serving production and daily life.
This has led to a further decrease in the area of ethnic minorities and mountainous areas, which do not have much arable land. The area of arable land in this area was collected in the fourth socio-economic survey of 53 ethnic minorities in 2024, expected to be announced in July 2025.
The collection of information on cultivated land area of communes/wards/towns as of July 1, 2024 was carried out in 51 provinces with communes in ethnic minority and mountainous areas according to Decision No. 861/QD-TTg and 03 provinces and cities with communes/wards/towns with many ethnic minority people living there: Ho Chi Minh City, Long An and Ha Tinh.
Ensure that the provisions of the law are enforced
To institutionalize Resolution 18-NQ/TW, dated June 16, 2022 of the 13th Party Central Committee on continuing to innovate and perfect institutions and policies, improving the effectiveness and efficiency of land management and use, creating momentum to turn our country into a high-income developed country, the 2024 Land Law (amended) has specific provisions on land policies for ethnic minorities.
In particular, Article 16 of the Land Law (amended) clearly stipulates the State's responsibility for land for ethnic minorities. The Law specifically stipulates policies to ensure community life; land allocation and land lease for ethnic minorities lacking residential land and production land.
In particular, the 2024 Land Law (amended) stipulates policies to create conditions for ethnic minorities directly engaged in agricultural production in rural areas to have land for agricultural production. Provincial People's Committees shall develop and submit to the People's Councils at the same level for promulgation of local land support policies for ethnic minorities in accordance with local conditions and organize implementation.
Along with collecting information on cultivated land area, the socio-economic survey of 53 ethnic minorities in 2024 also collected data on irrigated cultivated land area. This is necessary data to implement infrastructure investment for production under the National Target Program 1719 in the coming period.
Implementing the provisions of the law, many localities have issued Resolutions of the Provincial People's Council on land policies for ethnic minorities, such as: Resolution No. 19/2024/NQ-HDND dated November 13, 2024 of the Binh Thuan Provincial People's Council; Resolution No. 21/2024/NQ-HDND dated November 9, 2024 of the Lao Cai Provincial People's Council; Resolution No. 87/2024/NQ-HDND dated October 14, 2024 of the Cao Bang Provincial People's Council;...
The land policies for ethnic minorities that have just been issued by localities are all based on the actual conditions of each locality, but basically follow the provisions of the Land Law (amended) 2024 on ensuring land policies for ethnic minorities, especially ensuring cultivated land.
Although many localities have issued resolutions to put the provisions of the 2024 Land Law (amended) on land policies for ethnic minorities into practice, how they will be implemented in practice depends on the implementation plans of the local authorities.
In particular, the policy of ensuring arable land for ethnic minorities is not an easy issue. For example, Cao Bang is a mountainous, border province, the terrain is mainly hills, and there is not much arable land.
Therefore, for a long time, Cao Bang has had difficulty implementing policies to support ethnic minority households that do not have (or lack) land for production. Even with the National Target Program 1719, the implementation of the policy of direct support for production land under Project 1, most of the province was forced to switch to supporting job conversion.
Therefore, to implement Resolution No. 87/2024/NQ-HDND dated October 14, 2024 of the Provincial People's Council, the Provincial People's Committee and localities in the area must review the land fund, especially the cultivated land fund, to balance it appropriately. During the implementation process, Cao Bang province as well as other localities need to refer to data from the survey, collect information on the socio-economic situation of 53 ethnic minorities in 2024, especially when the data has been compiled by the General Statistics Office, analyzed by the Ethnic Committee and related units and organizations, and is expected to be announced in July 2025.
Identifying the socio-economic situation according to the commune survey: Looking back at vocational training (Part 6)
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