Rethinking Knowledge Provision for the Marginalized: Rural Networks and Novel Extension Approaches in Vietnam

Abstract

The Agricultural Knowledge and Information System (AKIS) in Vietnam has undergone massive changes over the last decades. Initially triggered by an economic reform process (Doi Moi) initiated in 1986, the system was formalized by the first decree on agricultural extension in 1993 (GSRV (Government of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam) (1993) Nghị Định 13/CP Về Công Tác Khuyến Nông (Decree 13/CP (2 March 1993) on the establishment and function the national agricultural extension system). Hanoi) and gradually liberalized over the following years. Along with this liberalization, new spaces opened that allowed a growing plurification of knowledge system actors. However, the traditional orientation towards technology transfer was maintained. In the era of rapid growth since that time, an unprecedented experimentation with different approaches to extension has been set-up, with the government’s willingness to allow a more diverse AKIS particularly reflected in the second and, more recently, the third decree on extension. Topics such as food security, income and poverty alleviation have come more into focus, as the move towards a full liberalization of the extension system has continued. The general aims of this chapter are to (a) provide an overview of the historical development of rural advisory and knowledge provision in Vietnam, and how legal frameworks have changed over time, (b) demonstrate how more client-centered extension approaches can be translated and utilized at the field level, and (c) focus on examples of novel approaches to knowledge generation and diffusion, those currently evolving due to initiatives driven by state, private and NGO actors, or developed within the framework of the Uplands Program. The final section provides an outlook on where the extension system stands at this point and what still needs to be done, drawing a differentiated but basically positive conclusion about the willingness to reform and the pace of the reform process in Vietnam.