ABSTRACT
This paper attempts to assess the effect on the agricultural resource system of the past and presently planned policies to maintain food self-sufficiency in a centrally-planned economy. Vietnam’s case serves as an illustration. Experimentation with a system dynamics model of the food production system incorporating relationships concerning soil ecology and agricultural land management policy serves as a basis for this assessment. Short-run policies to increase production appear to be detrimental to maintaining food self-sufficiency in the long-run. It appears that a sustainable food production policy must incorporate soil conservation and improvement, and population controls. Although difficult to implement in a market system, such a policy agenda may be feasible to consider in a centrallyplanned economy.
