Vol. 3 No. 3 (2020): Vietnam Journal of Agricultural Sciences

The aim of this article is to assess the importance and development of high-tech agriculture in Vietnam under the context of industrialization and urbanization. Due to pressure from international economic integration and climate change in recent years, high-tech agriculture seems to be an affordable direction for Vietnam to renovate the agricultural sector. Although high-tech agriculture has existed in different locals and sub-sectors of agriculture such as crop, livestock, and aquaculture, and Vietnam has obtained initial achievements in adopting high-tech agriculture, this country has to face a number of challenges related to land, credit, information technology, and human resources in the process of developing high-tech agriculture. Lastly, policies are recommended to facilitate the development of high-tech agriculture in Vietnam.

Group-based lending is a form of loan provision for individuals and households in rural areas for production and consumption purposes. Proceeding from the imbalance between demand and supply on small-scale capital, and also Government policies on sustainable poverty reduction, the Vietnam Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Agribank) has coordinated with its local authorities and socio-political organizations to provide loan services via group lending. The purpose of this paper was to evaluate the status of group lending development of the Agribank-Bac Giang Branch II. The paper used secondary data collected from the branch and primary data gathered from 50 representative customers and 10 credit officers related the group lending of the branch. Data analysis methods consisted of descriptive statistics and comparative analysis, incorporated with the measurements for bank performance and quality. The findings show positive prospects in both the bank and customers for the development of group lending activity and obstacles in the group lending development of the branch. The paper also proposes some solutions for the branch to tackle difficulties and promote the development of group lending in the branch in Bac Giang province.

In the context of international integration, managers’ knowledge plays an important role as a valuable organizational resource from a strategic perspective and a foundation for competitive advantage in business environment. The aim of this paper was to build assessment model and attest it in the case of Vietnam’s Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) regarding manager’s knowledge in preparing the information on financial statements. By analyzing current relative standards (including international and national systems) and two basic assessment models (ASK by Bloom et al. (1956) and BKD by Shinseki (1999)), the study developed to identify the assessment criteria of the manager’s knowledge as one main research objective. The research data of 71 SMEs in the sample showed that: (i)The relationship between managers’ background and their understanding about information on their financial statements was a negative linkage; (ii) The number of managers using their financial statements to make a business decision was very low; and (iii) The most important criteria on the financial statement in their views were profits and revenues.

Situated in the Northern Mountain Region, one of the most climate-vulnerable regions of Vietnam, Yen Bai province is exposed to many climate risks. This study investigated how well Yen Bai farmers were aware of the impacts of the changing climate on production and their livelihoods and how they referred support programs from the central and local governments to make decisions on adaptation and resilience strategies. Data were collected through direct interviews of 488 cassava households in six communes of Van Yen district. Descriptive statistics, One-way ANOVA, and Chi-square test were used to statistically analyze the data. In addition, we employed the Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) to study the relationships of three identified independent variables: (i) understanding of support programs/policies; (ii) access to weather information; and (iii) experience of climate risks and impacts, and farmers’ perceptions of climate impacts. Results from the PLS-SEM model showed that farmers with higher positive scores in the three independent variables above had better perceptions of climate change and its possible impacts, from which better adaptation decisions and strategies could be derived. These research findings emphasized the need for improving the understanding of climate change that could impact farmers’ livelihoods, farmers’ access to accurate near-time and medium-term weather forecasts, and thoroughly using local knowledge on climate risks and effective native adaptation measures for better adaptation and mitigation strategies and actions in rural climate-vulnerable communities in Vietnam.

Nowadays, the value chain financing (AVCF) is considered as an effective agricultural financing approach in the world, however, its prevalence is still limited in developing countries, like Viet Nam. This paper analyses the financial gap between the demands and the actual credit obtained of the Seng Cu (SC) rice chain participants in Lao Cai. Cross-sectional data were collected from 160 face-to-face interviews with SC rice producers and from in-depth interviews with 31 other stakeholders involved in the chain (demand-side) and the representatives of district-branch banks (supply-side) in 2016 - 2017. Overall, almost chain actors had high financial demands, especially upland rice producers and the leading chain actor (TPC). However, they faced many credit constraints related to the strict risk-avoidance strategy and the collateral requirement of banks. Even the SC rice chain confirmed its high potential and many supportive linkages among them developed, the decision-making of banks on credit disbursements still depends on the individual capability of each chain actors, not the entire chain.  Thus, the recommendations for policymakers, producers, and agribusiness are suggested to enhance the financial sources going in the chain and the effectiveness of chain actors in the locality.

This study was conducted to examine general information of tax obligations and perceived tax compliance for small and medium enterprises in the district of Gia Lam district. To achieve these objectives, 150 small and medium enterprises were randomly selected and analyzed using descriptive analysis and Principal Component Analysis (PCA). The results show that most of enterprises got difficulties in register, declare and pay taxes, and nearly half of them had submitted taxes lately. Besides, perceived tax compliance of enterprises could be divided into five key factors, including: "Quality of tax services"; "society norms"; "Technology Application"; "Enterprise responsibility "; and "Quality of tax officials". Based on these results, some recommendations could give to the tax authorities in order to improve tax regulations and policies.

The objective of the paper was to analyze factors influencing the green purchase intention of students through a case study at the Vietnam National University of Agriculture (VNUA), Hanoi, Vietnam. The primary data were collected from a survey of 121 undergraduate students in 2020. The study employed descriptive statistics, exploratory factor analysis (EFA), and multiple regression analysis. The survey indicated that VNUA students were highly concerned about the environment. Their green buying intention was significantly and positively affected by two groups of factors, including: (i) social influence and product knowledge; and (ii) environmental concerns and subjective norms; in which, the later group of factors has shown greater effects in this study. The study would help managers in formulating and implementing key measures to encourage students’ green purchase.

Financial accounting information has impacted the operation of enterprises, especially SMEs. With the development of technology, digital accounting applications are playing an increasingly important role in minimizing mistakes, and ensuring the accuracy and timeliness of accounting information. Using multiple discriminant analyses, this study confirmed the significance of accounting software in reducing frauds and errors in SMEs’ businesses despite some drawbacks. It showed that the managers’ ability to access the software and the decentralization of power in accessing the  accounting software were the two key factors deciding the success/failure of applying accounting software to control frauds and errors. In addition, smart applications of the accounting software positively contributed to the elimination of frauds in enterprises. Based on these results, recommendations are drawn for SMEs, such as investing more in smart applications of accounting software, as well as updating knowledge about accounting for management, in order to get more advantages from accounting software applications for their business in the long term.

Research on consumer needs for safe foods under the willingness to pay (WTP) approach based on consumer behavior has been performed widely and has contributed greatly to the development of safe foods, assisted enterprises’ decision-making processes in improving agricultural and food products, and provided orientation to policymakers in improving public health as well as in fostering sustainable economic growth. Some of the methods used for measuring WTP for safe foods, such as contingent value (CV), choice experiment (CE), and auction experiment (AE), have made significant contributions to the evaluation of consumers’ WTP for food safety. Moreover, the application of these models has helped to estimate the effects of many factors such as demography, consumer habits, continuation of food safety, individual characteristics, promotion, and product attributes, etc., on the WTP for food safety. The trend of safe food consumption in Vietnam has distinct characteristics, some of which come from national cultural identities; therefore, Vietnamese researchers may approach the empirical studies on this issue all over the world in order to find proper methods for studying consumer needs for safe foods in Vietnam.