Accumulation without Dispossession? Distributional Impacts of Shrimp Aquaculture in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta

• In Event: 1248 - The Curse of Resources: Commodifying Development, Developing Commodities

Abstract

In recent decades, many agricultural regions of the Global South have shifted from staple grain production to that of high-value commodities for export to the Global North. This paper examines whether and how one such shift — the move from rice agriculture to shrimp production in Vietnam — has increased inequality and accelerated the dispossession of small-scale producers or, conversely, created new opportunities for smallholders, thus closing the gap between rich and poor. Drawing on longitudinal survey and interview data from the province of Bac Lieu, I compare patterns of distributional inequality in two villages, one in which intensive rice agriculture remains the dominant form of production, and one in which rice was abandoned in the early 2000s for shrimp farming. The first section of the paper compares the distribution of land in these two villages, finding a parallel trend in both towards the increasing concentration of holdings. The second section of the paper examines the distribution of income, finding that despite similar trends in land concentration, the distribution of income has become much more unequal in the rice-growing village than in the shrimp-farming one. In conclusion, I offer two possible reasons for this apparent divergence, arguing that pathways for intensification exist in shrimp aquaculture that allow for high levels of production on small parcels of land, and that the growth of the aquaculture sector has created ancillary income opportunities for landless and land-poor households.

Author

• Timothy Gorman, Montclair State University