Agriculture and rural development has continuously been a hot debate and received significant attention from literature. In this context, endogenous development is considered to be basic approach for rural development strategies in many countries of which the Japanese model namely One Village One Product (OVOP) is a successful one. This paper studies the OVOP movement and analyzes its early adaption in Vietnam, the so-called One Commune One Product (OCOP). This question is addressed by reviewing the existing literature on OVOP following by a case study in Quang Ninh province, Vietnam. The results, reveal, in practice, despite some criticism, OCOP strategy in general generate employment opportunities, incomes; enhance creativity and capability of local people.

The study was conducted in Xuan Thuy National Park to provide a comparative assessment of different farming systems under the context of the coastal zone development of Vietnam. Based on a sample of 234 farmers in this area, SCP (Structure–Conduct–Performance) analysis revealed three farming systems: integrated aquaculture–mangrove (IAM), intensive shrimp (ISH), and rice-based (RB) farming. The evaluation of farm performance among the systems indicated that ISH incurred the highest values of variable cost and sustainable family income. Meanwhile, IAM obtained the lowest production cost due to the availability of allocated natural resources. The imbalance of applying synthesized fertilizers and an overdependence on nitro-based fertilizers were reported in the case of RB systems. In comparison with the other coastal areas of Vietnam, these farming systems achieved a lower level of production efficiency. It is urgent for policy makers to take action to promote sustainable farming practices in accordance with the stringent enforcement of environmental standards to reduce potential impacts and strengthen the coexistence of systems. Additionally, the purpose of securing rural livelihood under coastal development is aligned with the recommended solutions for economic improvement in this study.

Dak Lak province, Central Highlands, Vietnam presents an interesting case in perennial crop systems, of which coffee and black pepper are the two premier commodities and contribute a large part to economic growth provincially and at the national level. In recent years, in addition to mono-cropping systems, intercropping systems for diversification have developed quickly. This paper focuses on (1) comparing the economic efficiency of mono-coffee systems (MCSes), mono-pepper systems (MPSes), and coffee and pepper intercropping (CPI) by analyzing startup cost, annual cost, and profits; and (2) identifying the main factors affecting farmers’ decisions to convert their crop systems. The study was carried out by investigating 90 perennial crop samples using the three perennial crop systems (MCSes, MPSes, and CPI) in 2017–2018. Additionally, in-depth interviews and focus group discussion (FGD) methods were applied to collect more information about the operations of each system. Another survey with 37 samples (new plantations) was carried out to compute the startup cost. The findings showed evidence that MCSes had the lowest startup and annual costs, whereas MPSes had the highest costs of the three perennial crop systems. MCSes used less manure or compost in the initial setup and overused chemical fertilizer in annual production. Similarly, MPSes had high pesticide-stimulant costs in the production process to sustain crop development. The study indicated that CPI not only had the highest economic efficiency, but also created the best family employment opportunities of the three systems. Additionally, the study found some social factors that strongly influenced farmers’ decisions to shift their cropping system: These included ethnicity, education, training, and crop failure, in addition to economic factors (profits).