ABSTRACT
Agricultural cooperatives were an essential tool in combatting poverty in the 1950s and today play a crucial role in promoting effective allocation of resources and efficiency in production in Vietnam. However, ever since the birth of the cooperative movement in the agriculture sector, the development and evolution of this form of economic organization have not been an easy process. The present day concept of agricultural
1. Introduction Agriculture has long be n an important sector in the Vietnamese economy. In 201 , earnings from the agriculture sector, which includes farming, forestry and fishery, ac ounted for 2 .02% of Vietnam’s gros domestic product (GDP) (GSO 2012). The agriculture sector’s share of economic output has declined in recent years, falling as a share of GDP from 40.49% in 19 1 to 25.7 % in 19 7 and to around 20% since 20 5, as growth in other sectors of the economy has gained pace. However, Vietnam can be still called an agricultural country, as this sector remains the major source of employment (Wolz and Pham 2010). About 50% of the Vietnamese labour force work in the agricultural sector (Nguyen 2012). In 2012, 68% of the total population live in rural areas (GSO 2013a, 2013b, 63).
