Internship
Risk management in rice farming in Vietnam
In Vietnam, farmers have the option to organize themselves in cooperatives. Such cooperatives offer a number of benefits to the farmer, most prominently that they are better embedded within the value-chain (so-called vertical coordination). This vertical coordination has been seen as an important development strategy for Vietnam’s policy makers to enhance its export reputation. Agricultural cooperatives play an important role in organizing production for small scale farmers. They ensure quality certification, access to markets and businesses within the value chain.
Rice farmers in Vietnam can freely decide to become a member of a farming cooperative, or not. However, this decision making is currently not well understood, nor are the characteristics of farmers that make this decision. Research on this topic is important because farmer cooperatives offer valuable entry points, for instance, for extension services to make rice farming more sustainable.
In this project, you will work at IRRI (International Rice Research Institute) in the Philippines with dr. Melanie Connor to design qualitative research aimed at contributing to the research described above. The study can either be part of a MSc thesis or a MSc internship.
Contact person: dr. Marijn Poortvliet (CPT).