RT Vol. 3, No. 2 Crying time

7/31/2019 RT Vol. 3, No. 2 Crying time

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ARIEL JAVELLANARice TodayApril 2004

When they comecalling in a village,

Truong Thi NgocChi and TranThi Ngoc Mai

ing the refres hments. They do

is because the poor rice-farmingomen who rece ive them would berd pressed to offer nuts and rice

As migrant worker

across Asia leave

farmwives home

alone, three wome

in a poor Vietname

village shed light on

the socioeconomic

and food-security

implications alo

with a few tears

cakes to nibble on while sharinginformation, tea and sympathy. Chi,

an associate scientist at the CuuLong Delta Rice Research Institute,and Mai, a researcher at the sameMekong Delta-based institute,

are researching how Vietnamesewomen cope wi th the demands ofrice farming when their husbands

migrate away to earn extra income.Were looking at how farm

families are bearing up as modernforces restructure rural economiesacross Asia and redene the place ofrural people in national societies,

explains Thelma Paris, a genderspecialist in the Social SciencesDivision of the International Rice

Research Institute (IRRI), who coordinates the

in Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia and India.The results have implications for formulatingpolicies to manage change in a way that broadlymaintains and improves social welfare. And the

research should provide early warning if rapidchange in the countryside is undermining thenational and regional food security that weve

Story and photography by Peter Fredenburg

THACH THI SEUs

husband and eldest

son left her to run the

family farm in 1996

when they took up

farm wage labor in the

next province, visiting

home 3 or 4 times

per year.


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13Rice TodayApril 2004

fertilizer and hauling sacks of grain often going into debtto do so.

Still, they feel vulnerable to theft and violence,says Chi. Many cant manage water as efciently as theyshould because theyre afraid to go out to their elds aloneat night.

Just sad

Thach Thi Seu describes her farm management as onlyso-so since 1996, when her husband and eldest son starteddoing farm labor mostly threshing and hauling rice half a days drive away across the Mekong Delta inCantho Province. Her husband visits 3 or 4 times per year,staying for as many days each time. He remits $20 permonth, which Seu goes to Cantho to collect when there isno convenient traveler to deliver the money. She dependson neighbors and shopkeepers for advice on fertilizers andpesticides, which she hires labor to apply.

Mostly Im just sad because my husband is absent,says the 46-year-old mother of ve. But I have to bearit because were poor. I used to worry that he might be

unfaithful but not any more.En route to the next interview, Chi quietly laments

that the head of the hamlet womens association is sitting

TRAN THI NGOC MAI takes notes as Thach Thi Seu tellsof life as a home-alone farmwife; (inset, from left) Mai,a neighbor child, Seu and Truong Thi Ngoc Chi pose infront of Seu's house. (Continuing clockwise) Chi en-rolled in a recent course on leadership for Asian womenin agriculture research and development in the TrainingCenter at IRRI; a woman rows produce to market in BacLieu Province; Chi interviews Phan Thi Be.


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14 Rice TodayApril 2004

in, precluding discussion of suchhighly personal concerns as sexuallytransmitted disease. Ill come back forthat another time, she says.

Phan Thi Be is thin and visiblyweak, her spindly neck bandagedwhere a tumor was recently removed.Despite her frail appearance and

wistful manner, this 52-year-oldmother of three makes most of thedecisions regarding her familys0.65 ha of rice land and does much ofthe work. After her two grown sonsand hired hands do land preparationand planting, she lls the gaps inplanting and pulls the weeds. And,after they harvest and thresh the rice,she dries it.

My husband didnt have anyskills when he migrated, she recalls.We grew rice and raised ducks, but

disease killed most of the ducks 3years ago. That left us in debt, somy husband decided to migrate. Heand my daughter went to Ho ChiMinh City. A neighbor knew aboutconstruction work there. The bossassigns my husband easy jobs likecleaning bricks because hes 49 andtoo old for heavy work. The mailservice is slow, so we write only ifsomeone can hand-carry the letter.He comes home once a year duringthe Tet holiday for a week or 10 days.

Our daughter was also doingconstruction, but now she works in abakery, she adds. She doesnt makeenough to send home money, but shecomes to stay with me when Im sick.

Be who lives with her youngerson, his wife and their 2-year-olddaughter regrets that her husbandswork comes irregularly and thathe can remit only $20-25 every 4or 5 months. All of the money goesto repaying the family debt, which

peaked at $500 and is now down to$300, despite 6% monthly interestand a new loan last year for acorrugated berglass roof to replaceleaking thatch. We cant spend thismoney, she says. I worry becauseof debt. She pins her hopes on heryounger sons plan to raise shrimp,a venture perhaps inspired by hisseasonal work in the neighboringprovince of Soc Trang, where heoperates pond-digging machinery.

I feel overworked, admitsanother interviewee, Nguyen Thi Le,an apparently healthy and energetic36-year-old mother of four, aged 5 to16, whose husband has spent mostof the past 5 years building houses25 km away from Gia Tieu. Besideshousework and taking care of the

children including helping themwith their lessons in the evening I have to manage most of the ricefarming. After my clothes get dirtyfrom working in the eld, I just wearthem in the canal while netting sh.Fishing isnt difcult, and each time

I get a bowl of small sh, which isenough for a meal with vegetablesthat I gather from around thehomestead. I also do farm labor forothers, mainly hand-weedingand gap-lling. We own a boat,so when the weather is fair I ferrypassengers usually students and

other villagers to the road.Les husband returns once

or twice a month for 1 or 2 days coming home more frequently andstaying longer when it is time to sowor harvest their 0.78 ha of rice. Heraspirations? Id like to earn enough


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15Rice TodayApril 2004

so that my husband could stay here allof the time, so we could be together asa family, she replies. And I hope mychildren can nd steady jobs.

Children leaveLes desire to see her childrenleave rice farming echoes theresults of a parallel preliminarystudy, funded by the DanishInternational Development Agency,in northeast Thailand. Dr. Parisand Nongluck Suphanchaimat, herThai collaborator, note that labor

migration to the nonfarm sectoris common among young laborersaged 15 to 20, and this will continueto take educated persons awayfrom agriculture. How the statusof farming has evolved in northeastThailand may offer a foretaste of whatto expect in less-developed Vietnamand later in Cambodia and Laos.

Weve completed extensivestudies to monitor the socialconsequences of male labor out-

migration in selected villages in India,Philippines and Indonesia, Dr. Parisreports. With funding from theAustralian Center for InternationalAgricultural Research for 2004 to2006, were conducting similarlyextensive studies in Vietnam andnortheastern Thailand. We need tounderstand more fully the impact of

migration on the efciency of Asianrice production. Finally, we need toexpand our efforts to provide thesewomen with proper training inimproved farming methods.

Meanwhile, every day sees morewomen in Vietnam and other Asian

learn how to cope alone.

NGUYEN THI LE tends her fields (shown here afterthe harvest with Chi), ferries travelers between theroad and the village (below), and casts a net fordinner (opposite) then musters the energy tohelp her children with their lessons.

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RT Vol. 3, No. 2 Crying time