Sino-Vietnam Regional Cooperation For Food Security Based On Raising Food Production Ability

The prospect of China’s food security is not optimistic at all. Adhering to the policy of self-sufficiency will not only impose heavy pressure on farmland resources and water resources but lead to high cost and low efficiency as well. Therefore, it is necessary for China to improve its food security by trying different ways. Vietnam, a neighboring country of China, share a common preference for main food-rice; Vietnam has established rice production and export as an important economic sector, whose development matters a lot for increasing its farmers’income and improving their life; Vietnam is being confronted with similar threats to its food security like China, such as population explosion, decreasing farmland and others. Under these circumstances, it is a visional choice for two countries to promote regional cooperation for food security by bringing their comparative advantages into full play.This thesis conducts its research in the following procedures. First of all, it analyzes the common challenges faced by China and Vietnam and to prove the necessity and possibility for China and Vietnam seeking regional cooperation. An analysis is also made into the complementarities in rice production between China and Vietnam. Then an empirical study into Vietnam’s rice production and export is conducted to show its historical trend and spot the key factor in raising Vietnam’s producing ability and export capacity. The constraints on raising Vietnam’s rice production are also discussed here. After that, this thesis will discuss the mechanisms, activities and issues of current SinO-Vietnam cooperation for raising food production capacity. The thesis also put forward some models to deepen the cooperation between two countries. Finally the thesis will conduct policy designing and propose practical measures for cooperation.The following results are produced from this research; China and Vietnam are facing some common challenges with regard to national food security and complementary factors constitute the basis for their regional cooperation. The key factor of raising Vietnam’s rice producing ability and export capacity lies in the improvement of rice yield, which depends largely on the wide adoption of high yield rice and the improvement of agricultural infrastructures. However, the improvement of raising rice yield is confronted with many challenges:slow progress in research into hybrid rice, weak ability to produce hybrid seeds, inadequacy of producing materials, and lack of know-how and so on. Fortunately, China enjoys advantages in these aspects. Therefore, as long as China and Vietnam set up effective cooperation mechanism and make out practical cooperating measures, the former may procure a stable supply of rice, while the latter may benefit from China’s know-how to maintain and raise its producing ability and export capacity in rice. This cooperation is sure to lead to a win-win situation.There are three innovative points in this thesis. First of all, a comprehensive review is made of the literature concerning regional cooperation for food security. Such a review will help researchers to have a full grasp of the method and areas of regional cooperation. Secondly, a full analysis is made into the production of Vietnam’s rice production, which clearly shows the characteristics and trends of Vietnam’s rice production. This effort will play an important role when researchers conceive practical measures for regional cooperation for food security. Finally, the thesis comes up with the view that regional cooperation for national food security can adopt various models and a detailed analysis should be made into each member country beside setting up cooperation system and making mechanism arrangements. Only in this way can regional cooperation be realized in practical efforts.