RIV

Reducing inequalities to face crises

Reducing inequalities to face crises: vulnerabilities and adaptation among smallholder farmers and fisher communities in Vietnam (RIV)

This project led by Steve Déry at Université Laval and funded through the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), Canada aims to contribute to reducing socioeconomic inequalities through an increased understanding of the vulnerability of Vietnamese smallholder farmers and fishers at different scales. This includes integration of these local farmers and fishers into the global market, their transformations and adaptations, and their resilience. In fact, through this initial pilot project, we demonstrate the relevance of targeting vulnerabilities and adaptation to obtain an impact among small farmers and fishers, and open the political feasibility of implementing such a project at a larger scale.

The objectives of this project include:

1. National level. Understand integration trajectories of peripheral regions of Vietnam to the national economy and to the world market, from 1994 to 2024
2. Regional and provincial levels. Ascertain locally territorialized agriculture and fishery strategies (e.g., resilience, circumvention, adaptation, marginalization) by formulating a multi-scalar portrait and a comparative typology in the provinces of Lam Dong and Phu Yen in Vietnam, a mountainous province and a coastal province, respectively.
3a. Provincial and local levels. Highlight the roles of locally territorialized agriculture and fishery strategies, and in particular the local knowledge that concerns them, to stabilize local ecological and equitable economies, and in its territorial anchoring.
3b. Provincial and local levels. Contribute to a more inclusive and equitable rural development of agriculture and fisheries through the involvement of local knowledge holders, as well as local and provincial decision-makers in the research process.

Co-investigator of RIV project are Lisa Hiwasaki (URI) and Nguyen Ngoc Thuy (Nong Lam University), and Han Truong Ngoc Le (URI) assists with the research.