Gender equality has been a political issue in view of human rights and welfare since several decades. Therefore, many countries have developed Gender Action Plans (GAPs) that support equal access of both sexes to education, employment and finance. Two workshops on GAPs in aquaculture and a literature review brought about the question: what's missing in Asian sectoral GAPs. Not all reviewed Asian countries have GAPs for fishery/ aquaculture, but all encountered constraints to achieve their goals regarding equal access for women. Women's contribution in aquaculture tends to go beyond the traditional gender divide. For example, women may lead in the area of production because they can combine aquaculture with their homebound tasks and own vertically integrated companies. However, skewed perceptions on the role, status and perception of women and men, more so in strong than weak patriarchies (the former accept the subservient role, while the latter exercise the dominant role) limit women's access to training opportunities on new aquaculture technologies. Women are also left out in policy-and decision-making processes; and in the value chain, women receive lower wages than men. Their role is underestimated by lack of disaggregated data, as reflected in post-disaster interventions and industrial development programs. To be effective sectoral GAPs, based on disaggregated data, should have budgets, plans and target indicators for which leaders could be held accountable. These GAPs, however, can't address the required radical change in attitude toward women; unless deliberately planned educational media campaigns are embedded into the national GAPs.

The research investigates the impacts of female migrants on household’s farming and its implications on rural household autonomy under the context of economic reform in Vietnam. The different forms of internal and external household arrangements related to the production and distribution processes of turning land to livelihood are designed to understand the land tenure change under the context of migration. This research focuses on the migration patterns, the volume and usages of remittance to understand the ways in which the different households allocate their resources on farm and non-farm sectors. The findings suggest that female migrants have a greater contribution in agriculture production both in remittance investment and time spending on agricultural maintenance while male migrants increase household earnings by accumulating capital from non-farm business. Migration, therefore, rather than creating agricultural regression, amplifies the autonomy of peasant families and their units of production as they respond to the modernization process.

Increasing industrialization in Vietnam has transformed numerous fields of farmers to industrial zones, especially in the RedRiver Delta in Vietnam. This process forces farmers to change significantly their livelihoods. Affected same changes, farmers have to start new livelihoods. However, in many industrializing regions, inequality and social differentiation are increasing higher than before among farmers practicing new livelihoods. This implies that new livelihoods of partly farmer groups are not as good as those of others. Such farmer groups have faced difficulties preventing them to have better livelihoods, and creating hidden social stratification. From perspective of human development as capabilities expansion, this research identifies difficulties and farmers' capabilities during the process of starting new livelihood. As preliminary results, there are farmer groups having limited choices for new good livelihoods. Main difficulties in transition livelihoods are lack of financial resources, new working skills, market information, market linkages, and constraint of age. Such problems create deprivation of capability or freedom in starting new good livelihood. Of methodology, the research examines changes in livelihoods of farmers who are affected from agricultural land conversion for industrialized zones in Red River Delta, Vietnam. In-depth interview and group discussion are taken to understand transition in livelihoods, and farmers 'capabilities in starting new livelihoods. This research contributes to human development discourse from aspect of livelihoods. Also, identifying difficulties is useful for explaining inequality and social differentiation under industrialization. The research is helpful for policy makers and state staffs who design and implement policies of agriculture and industrialization.

Nghiên cứu tác nhân gây bệnh khô lá trên giống dâu tây Mỹ Đá (Fragaria x ananassa Duch.) được thực hiện tuân theo các bước của định đề Koch. Kết quả phân lập từ 150 mẫu bộ phận của cây bệnh thu thập từ 3 vùng khác nhau (Phường 7, Phường 8 và Phường 12) tại Đà Lạt thu được 327 mẫu vi sinh vật thuộc 6 loài nấm. Tất cả các mẫu nấm phân lập từ các bộ phận bị bệnh đã được định danh là Pestalotiopsis sp., Verticillium sp., Botrytis cinerea, Cylindrocacpon destructans, Fusarium oxysporum, và Rhizoctonia sp.. Trong đó, Pestalotiopsis sp. là loài có tần xuất hiện diện cao nhất ở tất cả các bộ phận cây bệnh của cả ba vùng lấy mẫu. Tính gây bệnh của Pestalotiopsis sp. cũng được đánh giá trên cây dâu tây giống Mỹ Đá và kết quả cho thấy Pestalotiopsis sp. chính là tác nhân gây bệnh khô lá trên cây dâu tây tại Đà Lạt. Đây được xem là báo cáo đầu tiên về Pestalotiopsis sp. gây bệnh trên cây dâu tây tại Việt Nam.

It is no doubt that industrial zones leverage economic development in many countries. However, migrant workers who are main labor forces in industrial zones faced to some vulnerable situations easily related to both working and non-working environment. Base on the survey of 190 migrant workers in two industrial zones in Bac Ninh, this study found that labor sustainability is threaten by going on the foot loose of traditional development of industrial zones. Migrant workers in these zones faced a trade-off between accepting a hard life and accumulating capitals as well as experiences for an expected better one afterward. They are going to be circular and leave these zones after staying several years on their works.