Dynamics of land consolidation policy in Bac Ninh province, Vietnam: the case of Mo Dao commune

One of the serious agricultural problems in rural areas of Vietnam is the high level of land fragmentation. Since 1998 the central government made some radical efforts to encourage decentralized land consolidation programs, which are primarily understood as reducing the number of individual land plots held by each household through exchange of land, commonly known as Don Dien, Doi Thua (plot exchange) over the whole country, especially in the Northern part. However, to date the overall process of land consolidation has been quite slow and many provinces have not been active in implementing it due to the complexity of the process. This study identified Mo Dao commune, Que Vo District of Bac Ninh province where completed land consolidation successfully as the main research area for analyzing the dynamics of implementation. The paper provides a broad, multi-factor view to understand clearly the land governance in consolidation policies and to identify factors contributing to the success of this intervention—as well as the constraints the policy may have experienced. By analyzing the real dynamics of implementation, the views of local officials and perspectives of farmers on land consolidation, the paper has established that the land consolidation process in Mo Dao was implemented in a quite comprehensive and transparent way. The policy framework and arrangements appear to reduce the degree and the scope of mismanagement and corruption. It can be argued that the policy is a mixture of top-down and bottom- up approaches. Although the policy is initiated from the top management in the centre, and that it follows guidance from higher levels of management, key values of voluntary participation, equity and an active role of all farmers at the level of the village as a whole were seen to characterize the policy process. The paper brings out the key factors contributing to the success of this policy including well functioned system of decentralization; the interactive participation of farmers; flexible strategies of propaganda and awareness raising; an active role of local leaders; stable local policy context and comprehensive planning. However, not everything went well and there were issues that have limited the success of land consolidation policy including lack of detailed guidelines from provincial level; ambiguous legal framework; lack of financial support; lack of clear accountability and capacity issues.