FOOD SELF-SUFFICIENCY IN VIETNAM - A SEARCH FOR A VIABLE SOLUTION

This article attempts to assess the effects on an agricultural resource system of policies to maintain food self-sufficiency in a centrally planned economy. Vietnam's case serves as an illustration. Experimentation with a system dynamics model of the food production system, incorporating relations concerning soil ecology and agricultural land management policy, serves as a basis for this assessment. Short-run policies to increase production appear to be detrimental to maintaining food self-sufficiency in the long run. It appears that a sustainable food production policy must incorporate soil conservation and improvement, and population control. Although difficult to implement in a market system, such a policy agenda may be feasible in a centrally planned economy.