When water policies derail livelihood aspirations: farmers’ agency in everyday politics in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta

Figures & data

Figure 1. The map of Ben Tre Province and the study areas: Thanh Tri and Thanh phuoc communes (in red shades) in Binh Dai District. Source: adapted from Tran et al. (2022).

Table 1. Description of the study areas.

Description	Study areas in Binh Dai District
	Thanh Tri	Thanh Phuoc
Total land area (ha)	2,390	5,315
Agriculture land area (ha)	1,112	890
Aquaculture land area (ha)	971	2,798
Population (persons)	7,493	9,130
Density (persons/km^2)	313	172
Location	Freshwater zone (upstream river)	Salinity zone (downstream river)
Ecological characteristics	Partly exposed to saltwater intrusion Endowed with the year-round freshwater supply by the scheme	Directly exposed to saltwater intrusion and tidal systems
Main livelihood activities	Dominant cultivation of freshwater crops (e.g. bananas, coconuts, rice) Freshwater aquaculture (e.g. giant freshwater prawn) Intensive white-legged shrimp farming mixed with the peripheral cultivation of freshwater crops	Upland crops (e.g. pumpkins) Brackish aquaculture (e.g. white-legged shrimp) Shrimp-mangrove integrated farming Wild capture fisheries and coastal aquaculture (e.g. blood cockles^2) Salt farming

Sources: Binh Dai Statistical Agency (2018); Focus group discussions and in-depth interviews with local respondents.

Table 2. Summary of qualitative data collection.

Data collection methods	Individuals and institutions	Location	Number of FGDs and INTs undertaken	Number of respondents
FGD	Agrarian communities in freshwater areas	Thanh Tri Commune	3	14 (11 females, 3 males)
FGD	Agrarian communities in salinity areas	Thanh Phuoc Commune	3	19 (11 females, 8 males)
INT	Southern Institute of Water Resources Research (SIWRR)	Ho Chi Minh City	1	1
INT	Southern Institute for Water Resources Planning (SIWRP)	Ho Chi Minh City	1	1
INT	Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD)	Ben Tre Province	1	1
INT	Department of Natural Resources and Environment (DNRE)	Ben Tre Province	1	1
INT	Centre for Agricultural-Aquacultural Extension, DARD	Ben Tre Province	1	1
INT	Office of Agriculture and Rural Development (OARD)	Binh Dai District	1	1
INT	Office of Natural Resources and Environment (ONRE)	Binh Dai District	1	1
INT	Government official	Thanh Tri Commune	1	1
INT	Government official	Thanh Phuoc Commune	1	1
INT	Environment expert from Can Tho University	Can Tho City	1	1
INT	Farmer (gardening and rice cultivation)	Thanh Tri Commune	1	1
INT	Farmer (blood cockle cultivation)	Thanh Phuoc Commune	1	1
Total			18	45

Notes: FGD = focus group discussion; INT = interview.

Figure 2. The Ba lai sluice scheme amidst water-livelihood contestations. Source: illustration by the first author.

Figure 3. The main Ba lai sluice gate (a) and shrimp farming hidden in the freshwater zone of Thanh Tri Commune (b). Source: the first author.

Tran, T. A., H. V. Tran, J. Pittock, and B. Cook. 2022. “Political Ecology of Freshening the Mekong’s Coastal Delta: Narratives of Place-Based Land-Use Dynamics.” Journal of Land Use Science 17 (1): 471–486. https://doi.org/10.1080/1747423X.2022.2126907.

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Binh Dai Statistical Agency. 2018. Binh Dai Statistical Yearbook in 2017. Binh Dai District: Binh Dai Statistical Agency.

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