Agricultural Land Distribution in Vietnam: Emerging Issues and Policy Implications

This paper examines the current distribution of the agricultural land, the issues causing landlessness in Vietnam, assesses present governmental policies and methods and presents key options. The paper relies on the Vietnam Living Household Standard Survey (VHLSS) that were conducted by the General Statistics Office in 2002 and 2004, and qualitative evidence from other studies. It is found that land inequality is increasing. Poor households have small areas of agricultural land and aquacultural water surface, and their lands are also of low quality. Landless poor are dependent on low income and unstable income from labouring in agricultural production. Policies to assist the landless have had limited impact.Land distribution, landless, poverty, Vietnam, Asia

Tenants under administration: canvassing the options for relief against forfeiture

Appointment of an administrator over company assets under the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) is a means by which company property may be protected for the benefit of creditors and shareholders in the face of actual or anticipated insolvency. Creditors' and shareholders' interests in or claims upon company property are often in conflict with those of third parties – such as lessors of real property who might seek to forfeit the company's lease and regain possession of property. In these circumstances, the tenant company in administration may make a claim for relief against forfeiture or call upon the application of a s444 moratorium. As two recent cases show, such a moratorium may be extended beyond the expiration or termination of a deed of company arrangement. This paper examines the decisions in Kelly and Morris v Hedz Pty Ltd (voluntary administrators appointed) (receiver and managers appointed) [2010] QSC (30 July 2010) and Strazdins v Birch Carroll & Coyle 178 FCR 300 to examine the extent to which s444 declarations can be considered to align with or augment equitable relief

Agricultural Land Distribution in Vietnam: Emerging Issues and Policy Implications

This paper examines the current distribution of the agricultural land, the issues causing landlessness in Vietnam, assesses present governmental policies and methods and presents key options. The paper relies on the Vietnam Living Household Standard Survey (VHLSS) that were conducted by the General Statistics Office in 2002 and 2004, and qualitative evidence from other studies. It is found that land inequality is increasing. Poor households have small areas of agricultural land and aquacultural water surface, and their lands are also of low quality. Landless poor are dependent on low income and unstable income from labouring in agricultural production. Policies to assist the landless have had limited impact

Participatory and Pro-Poor Local Contribution Mechanisms in Poverty Reduction Program: Evidence from Vietnam

Labour contributions provided by villagers are central to government policy on rural infrastructure development in Vietnam. This brief report is an initial step to assess problems and provide analysis of the contribution system, and outline the minimum required to ensure that the poor access employment opportunities in local poverty reduction projects with equitable working conditions, participate in decisions about contribution schemes, and a framework that clearly outlines conditions where the poor are partially or completely exempted from contributing. This involves a range of issues such as improving the use of participatory processes, understanding the vulnerability of the poor, capacity building, institutional change, political will, developing the regulatory framework and planning process, and better monitoring and evaluation

Impact of Provincial Rural Roads on Inclusive Development: Evidence from Vietnam

Rural roads are very important for economic development, especially in rural areas. This study provides an impact assessment of a rural road project in Northern Mountain of Vietnam using both quantitative and qualitative methods. The most visible evidence of economic benefit identified by all respondents was the reduction of transportation cost of goods and products, and the reduction in the time and cost for traveling. This was significantly important in areas of intensive agriculture production and remote areas in Northern Mountains

Prevalence of wasting among under 6-month-old infants in developing countries and implications of new case definitions using WHO growth standards: a secondary data analysis

Objectives To determine wasting prevalence among infants aged under 6 months and describe the effects of new case definitions based on WHO growth standards.Design Secondary data analysis of demographic and health survey datasets.Setting 21 developing countries.Population 15 534 infants under 6 months and 147 694 children aged 6 to under 60 months (median 5072 individuals/country, range 1710-45 398). Wasting was defined as weight-for-height z-score < -2, moderate wasting as -3 to <-2 z-scores, severe wasting as z-score <-3.Results Using National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) growth references, the nationwide prevalence of wasting in infant under-6-month ranges from 1.1% to 15% (median 3.7%, IQR 1.8-6.5%; similar to 3 million wasted infants < 6 months worldwide). Prevalence is more than doubled using WHO standards: 2.0-34% (median 15%, IQR 6.2-17%; similar to 8.5 million wasted infants < 6 months worldwide). Prevalence differences using WHO standards are more marked for infants under 6 months than children, with the greatest increase being for severe wasting (indicated by a regression line slope of 3.5 for infants < 6 months vs 1.7 for children). Moderate infant-6-month wasting is also greater using WHO, whereas moderate child wasting is 0.9 times the NCHS prevalence.Conclusions Whether defined by NCHS references or WHO standards, wasting among infants under 6 months is prevalent in many of the developing countries examined in this study. Use of WHO standards to defi ne wasting results in a greater disease burden, particularly for severe wasting. Policy makers, programme managers and clinicians in child health and nutrition programmes should consider resource and risk/benefit implications of changing case defi nitions

Teaching Special Relativity using Virtual Reality

Learning Special Relativity is a highly anticipated experience for first year students; however, the teaching and learning of Special Relativity are difficult tasks. Special Relativity, while fundamentally and mathematically simple; has apparently bizarre implications and deals predominately with situations outside everyday experience. Understanding relativity requires one to accept that there is less that is absolute than was once believed and to accept a model of time and space that is strange and unfamiliar (Mermin 2005). As such, modifying everyday concepts of motion, time and space to develop accurate constructs of the theory of Special Relativity is extraordinarily difficult (Scherr, Shaffer and Vokos 2001; 2002; Scherr 2007). While Special Relativity is often featured in introductory physics courses, Scherr (2001) indicates many students fail to develop fundamental concepts in Special Relativity even after advanced instruction. To address these issues there has broad variety of efforts to determine the conceptual misunderstandings and develop activities to address them (Belloni, Christian and Dancy 2004; Carr, Bossomaier and Lodge 2007; Gamow 1965; Mermin 2005; Scherr 2007; Taylor 1989). Real Time Relativity (RTR) is a virtual reality simulation of Special Relativity. Giving learners real time control of how they explore and test the optical, spatial and time effects of near-light-speed motion in a realistic environment enables a constructivist approach, previously unavailable, for learning Special Relativity. Given the hands-on nature of RTR, it has been incorporated into the experimental laboratories of first year physics courses at the University of Queensland (UQ) and the Australian National University (ANU). These experiments enable students to explore relativistic effects without requiring a detailed understanding of the theoretical framework. RTR experiments have been developed with an active learning approach (Hake 1999; McDemott and Redish 1998) in which students learn by developing, testing and refining their constructs with their peers. The RTR system and experiments are currently being refined in a model inspired by the Physics Education Technology group at the University of Colorado (Adams, Reid, LeMaster, McKagan, Perkins and Wieman 2008) and evaluated through a multimethods research approach (Schutz, Chambless and DeCuir 2004). This paper outlines our current point in a continuing development and evaluation project

Northern grazing carbon farming – integrating production and greenhouse gas outcomes 1 : Climate Clever Beef Final Report

This project targeted three large and diverse regions across northern Australia: the Queensland Gulf, the Queensland Fitzroy Basin and the Northern Territory (Victoria River District, Douglas Daly and Barkly Tableland regions). Eleven grazing businesses across three broad regions were engaged as case studies to undertake demonstrations and evaluations within their businesses. These businesses manage more than 1,281,000 ha and 97,600 cattle. The project provided an excellent opportunity to capitalize on established networks and genuine producer interest and participation built up in recent initiatives (e.g. CCRP Climate Clever Beef (Bray et al. 2014), Northern Grazing Systems project (Phelps et al. 2014), RELRP, SCaRP, SavannaPlan, CQ Beef). The project team included research and extension professionals with decades of combined experience working with northern beef producers. The knowledge and analytical tools developed during previous projects identified practices to: reduce the greenhouse gas emissions impact of beef businesses, manage climate variability, improve land condition and increase business profitability