Socio-economic effects of agricultural land conversion for urban development: Case study of Hanoi, Vietnam

Agricultural land conversion for urban development is a major process in the vicinity of many cities in Vietnam. This causes problems for the fabric of local society. In this paper, we evaluate four agricultural land’s acquisition projects in two areas (Hoai Duc district and Thanh Oai district) in Hanoi, Vietnam to examine two primary questions: (1) how do farmers obtain any economic benefit from urban development projects? And, (2) how are socio-economic livelihoods of the farmers effected by land conversion? The investigation relied on a market land price's survey using a structured-interview method, in which 395 land-acquired households were randomly selected. The responses indicate that there are unequal benefits among the various stakeholders. On average farmers tend to benefit the least. Although the farmers have the possibility to transform their agricultural livelihood into a non-agricultural one with probably a higher income, they are actually faced with many difficulties in maintaining non-agricultural activities, in finding stable alternative livelihood activities, and in using the compensation for investments.