How to Enhance Circular Agriculture Models at Micro-Level in Vietnam? A Review

Abstract

Vietnam's agricultural sector has achieved remarkable progress in recent years, ensuring both food security and export turnover for the country. However, the current focus on productivity and output alone is wasteful and detrimental to the environment. To address this, a shift from linear to circular agriculture is advocated, encompassing not only production but also consumption. While circular economy (CE) in agriculture is a new concept in Vietnam, various stakeholders at the micro-level, such as farmers, cooperatives, and enterprises, have been practicing circular agriculture for some time. Nevertheless, most of these models have emerged spontaneously without cohesive development across regions. Although the Vietnamese government have introduced policies promoting green production and CE, they have provided little guidance on promoting circular agricultural models at the micro-level. This paper presents a concise overview of CE in agriculture, synthesizes typical micro-level models of CE in Vietnam, and proposes policy recommendations to enhance existing circular agriculture models, including raising awareness among stakeholders about circular agriculture, encouraging investment in circular agriculture, enhancing the capacity of agricultural producers in recycling and reusing by-products, and establishing an appropriate legal framework.