【导读】作为稻米出口大国，越南的稻米产业如今遭遇了多重危机。
Rice farming in Vietnam
越南种稻
Against the grain
反种粮
Vietnam’s farmers are growing a crop that no longer pays its way
越南农民种稻都捞不回本啊
Jan 18th 2014 | HANOI AND CHAU DOC | From the print edition
THE prospect from Sam mountain, a rocky outcrop in southern Vietnam’s Mekong delta, is timeless. Paddy fields shine emerald. Irrigation canals reflect the sunlight like mirrors. Three times a year, farmers in surrounding towns put on their rubber boots and plant rice seedlings in the deep soil. A few months later they sell their sacks of grain to traders, who bring it to riverside mills for processing. In its essence, this activity is timeless, too.
越南南部，湄公河三角洲，岩层从地壳中突起——这是山姆山，这里的风景似乎亘古不变。稻田翠绿闪耀。水渠如镜反光耀眼。附近村庄的农夫穿上胶鞋，进入田里插秧，这事一年有三回。数月之后，农夫将一袋袋稻谷卖予商人。商人带着稻谷来到河边的磨房，进一步加工。本质上讲，这个运动也是亘古不变的。
Rice cultivation is deeply rooted in the Vietnamese psyche. In September 1945, a day after declaring Vietnam’s independence from France, Ho Chi Minh told his cabinet that dealing with a widespread failure of the rice crop was its priority. He later collectivised the paddies. In the 1980s his successors promoted hybrid seeds and modern irrigation. Today Vietnam’s $4 billion in rice exports (see chart) accounts for more than a fifth of the global total.
种稻根植在越南人的灵魂中。1945年9月，在宣布越南脱离法国统治而独立的一天后，胡志明吩咐内阁，处理广泛存在的水稻耕种危机是工作的重点。他随后将稻田集体化。80年代他的继任者推动了杂交水稻种植，并建设了现代化的灌溉系统。时至今日，越南出口的稻米达到了40亿美元【见图表】，比全球总量的五分之一还多。
Party officials trumpet their “rice first” agricultural policies. Yet, more and more, Vietnam’s rice farmers are being left behind. Part of the problem is that Vietnamese rice strains tend to be of low or middling quality—a contrast to the premium varieties grown in Thailand. The costs of fuel, fertilisers and pesticides are rising. And Vietnam’s rice-export sector is dominated by state-owned firms with links to corrupt officials. Some farmers, especially in the country’s north, are finding it more profitable to let their land lie fallow.
党内官员常高呼他们的“稻米第一”农业政策。然而，越南的种稻农民却正越来越被忽视。部分原因是越南的稻株质量中下——尤其是相比于泰国的高级品种。燃料化肥以及农药的花费正在上升。越南的稻米出口部门又为国有企业把持，与腐败的官员相勾结。有的农民（尤其北方）发现让土地闲置还能少亏点钱。
In An Giang province, at the heart of the Mekong delta, an average family earns just $100 a month from cultivating rice, or about a fifth of what coffee-growers earn in Vietnam’s Central Highlands, says Oxfam, an advocacy group. Tran Van Nghia, who farms near Sam mountain, says young people in his area supplement farm incomes by working as hotel porters or construction workers in Ho Chi Minh City and other urban centres.
安江省，湄公河三角洲的腹地。牛津饥荒救济委员会称，这里种粮户的家庭平均收入只有每月100美元，约为越南中央高地咖啡种植户收入的五分之一。在山姆山附近修地球的Tran Van Nghia表示，这里的年轻人要进胡志明市以及其等城市中心，做些旅馆搬运工与建筑工人的活来补贴种稻的收入。
Vietnam’s rice woes are likely to worsen. Myanmar, long ago South-East Asia’s rice basket, is emerging again as an export rival. The bulk of Vietnam’s crop is sold directly to other governments, but some of its biggest clients, including Indonesia and the Philippines, are boosting domestic production. Arup Gupta, a commodities trader in Ho Chi Minh City, adds that as a consequence of a crackpot and expensive campaign in Thailand to subsidise the country’s rice farmers, Vietnam is now being undercut as Thailand unloads stockpiles at bargain-basement prices.
越南的稻米危机似乎要恶化。曾经的东南亚稻米篮子缅甸，如今又一次成为了越南的出口对手。越南的大宗水稻是直接出售给他国政府的，而诸如印尼菲律宾等大客户如今正在推进稻米自产。胡志明市的商品期货交易员Arup Gupta表示，由于泰国正开展着一场疯狂又昂贵的运动补贴稻米种户，并以极低价出售粮食储备，越南如今处境艰难。
Scientists also warn that the Mekong delta, which produces about half of Vietnam’s rice, is showing signs of environmental stress. The earth dykes that were built to keep seasonal floods from inundating the rice paddies prevent the Mekong river’s alluvial floodwaters from bringing nutrients to the delta’s soil.
科学家也警告说，湄公河三角洲正显示着遭受环境压力的信号，而越南一半的稻米在这里生产。用来阻挡季节性洪水侵袭稻田的防护墙，同样也把营养成分挡在了土地外面。
Vo-Tong Xuan, a rice expert who has advised the government on agricultural policies, reckons that many soils in Vietnam’s rice-growing regions are now so poor in nutrients that they cannot immediately be put to other uses, such as cultivating maize. Other problems, he says, include a lack of farmer representation in the powerful Vietnam Food Association, and resistance by state-owned rice exporters to reforms that would eat into their profits. It does not help that Vietnam’s new constitution, which passed in late November, calls for state-owned enterprises to keep a central role in the economy.
稻米专家Vo-Tong Xuan曾担任政府农业政策顾问，他认为越南稻米种植区的土地如今是如此贫瘠，无法立即转作他用——比方说种玉米。其他的问题还有，譬如在比较有权的越南粮食协会里缺少农民代表，而改革会损害国有粮食出口商的利益，所以遭遇阻力。11月末通过的新宪法呼吁国有企业在经济中保持中心地位，所以不会有什么帮助。
The countryside, for the most part, is a patchwork of tiny plots. The average Vietnamese rice farmer cultivates a little over an acre (0.5 hectares), when two or three hectares is the ideal plot size.
大多数地方的农村土地是一小块一小块的。越南稻米种植户人均耕地面积仅有一英亩（0.5亩）多一点，而二到三亩才是理想规模。
Still, a new land law coming into force in July will give many farmers 50-year land leases, a big improvement over the current 20 years. The longer leases may help create larger farms producing crops other than rice. Yet the government stubbornly maintains a policy of preserving about 90% of existing rice land in perpetuity.
不过，7月生效的新土地法将给予农民50年的土地租期，相比现在的20年有很大提高。更长的租期有利于更大的农场发展，来种植除稻米以外的其他作物。但政府仍固执地要坚持永久保留90%稻田的政策。
That might make sense if Vietnam still struggled with crushing food insecurity, as it did in the early 1980s. Yet a third of its rice harvest is sold abroad—more, if unofficial exports to China are counted. Meanwhile, rice is falling as a proportion of the national diet; a rising middle class is developing a taste for meat and wheat. Next month in Ho Chi Minh City, the son-in-law of the prime minister, Nguyen Tan Dung, is scheduled to open the country’s first McDonald’s. Its local competitor, a fast-food chain whose speciality is the “VietMac”, a rice burger, has its work cut out.
如果越南仍然像80年代一样与粮食安全相斗争，那这种政策或许有意义。但越南有三分之一要粮食外销——还有更多非官方渠道出售给中国的没算进去。而且，稻米在国内饮食中的比重正在降低；发展中的中产阶级需要肉与小麦。下个月，在胡志明市，总理阮晋勇的女婿将开起本国的第一家麦当劳。而麦当劳的本土竞争者，一家连锁快餐店，已经停做了自己的招牌“VietMac”——一种米做的汉堡。
From the print edition: Asia