Measuring the Impact of Cash Crops on Household Expenditure and Poverty in Rural Viet Nam

This paper measures the impacts of cash crops on household consumption expenditure and poverty in rural Viet Nam using data from the Viet Nam household living standards surveys (VHLSSs) of 2002 and 2004. It has been found that revenues from cash crops have positive and statistically significant impacts on per capita expenditure. More specifically, an increase of 1 Viet Nam dong (VND) in rice revenues leads to an increase of 0.019 VND in per capita expenditure, and the corresponding figures for revenues from annual crops, perennial crops and fruits are 0.038, 0.040 and 0.036, respectively. As a result, crop sales have positive and statistically significant impacts on poverty reduction for crop-growing households and the rural population. The poverty-reducing impacts are found to be positive for all three Foster-Greer-Thorbecke poverty measures.