3.1. Livelihood Assets: Land and Its Utlization
Farmers of Bo Hon village lost land for crop cultivation, including upland rice (
Table 1). The crop land area of Bo Hon village before resettlement was 78.3 ha, which was reduced to 10 ha after resettlement (
Table 1). As a result, the reduction of land for dryland crops and rice was an average loss of 1.5 ha per household. Bo Hon villagers had also lost 61 ha of Lồ Ô bamboo land, but in relocating the village in Binh Thanh commune, they were allocated 74 ha of land to grow acacia and with these lands received a land use right certificate.
Before resettlement, there were 41 households fishing regularly on the river, but when relocated to the new village location only 10 households continued fishing. Due to living further away from the river, and fewer people fishing the amount of fish caught was markedly reduced from 6430 kg to 653 kg (
Table 2). A trend of decreasing access to common pool resources after resettlement has also occurred with non-timber forest products (NTFPs). Currently, harvesting of NTFPs is limited to three households harvesting rattan and five households collecting honey, compared with 27 households and 13 households before resettlement respectively were collecting these NTFPs (
Table 2). Lồ Ô bamboo plantations were also lost due to the flooding of the land after hydroelectric dam construction (
Table 2). In addition, the reduction in harvesting of common pool resources was due to increased distance to travel to harvesting area compared with before resettlement, as the village is now located 15 km further down the river towards Hue City, and away from the forest area.
The household surveys also examined over a year the income sources of Bo Hon households, and with resettlement where the main income sources were derived from (
Figure 2). The loss of income from selling bamboo product had a significant impact on Bo Hon villagers with only two households earning any income after resettlement compared with 41 households before resettlement (
Figure 2,
Table 3). Nevertheless, for those few households who can still harvest bamboo, it is a significant source of income, at almost 92% of the average annual income (
Figure 2,
Table 3). The only area that recorded an increase in participation was employment, but despite the increase in participation, the income derived from this source was still lower than before resettlement (
Table 3).
The main source of employment is working in acacia production forests, which at time of the study had yet to produce their first harvest. After resettlement each household in Bo Hon village received 0.15 ha on average for cultivation, but to increase their land area they also used their residential land to make a home garden for growing produce. This area was used to plant six types of crops, however, cassava, lemongrass, and pineapple were the most commonly planted (
Table 4).
In Bo Hon village, each household planted on average of 0.1 ha of a new variety of cassava (KM94). Planting lemongrass and pineapple were also of interest to farmers. Partly because of poor land quality and limited land availability the resettled households have focused on these crops. Before settlement, only three households planted lemongrass, but now due to good financial returns from lemongrass, it has been grown by most households (
Table 4). The area planted to lemongrass and pineapple was on average 0.05 ha per household, so it does not require a large area of land.
Other fruit trees such as banana, lemon, and orange were still grown by farmers but the land area was reduced. Due to land shortage, rice and maize production did not continue in the new location. Currently, there remains only two households growing rice. In short, in comparison with before resettlement, the nature of cultivation has changed due to less land area available, and limiting the type of tree crops that can be grown.
Cassava, lemongrass, and pineapple were intercropped. Old varieties of cassava did not grow well in the new location due to poor soil quality, and the villagers had started growing a new variety, which was initiated by a former village leader, and shown to have better productivity, fetched a good price and was easy to sell [
15]. To remedy the poor soil quality, many households have begun to use fertilizers to maintain productivity. Both manure and chemical fertilizers have been used by local farmers. However, they only used fertilizer for top dressing (additional fertilizer was applied after cassava plants were well-developed), rather than applying fertilizer to land before planting. Fertilizer was usually used one month after planting tree crops. Cassava was usually planted first, followed by lemongrass and then pineapple. People no longer cultivate through slash and burn techniques as before, and this practice will reduce water erosion risk.
Dealers come directly to each household to buy produce. Cassava and lemongrass were sold by the kilogram, while pineapple was sold by the number of fruit. The average price for cassava was 1000 VND/kg that was only sold as fresh cassava, which can be further processed into a higher value commodity. Lemongrass was purchased for 1000 VND/kg on average and pineapple was sold for 500 VND/fruit.
The main livestock raised, and the shifts in type of livestock are shown in
Table 5. Overall, the participation in animal husbandry has fallen by 38%, and most notably in poultry: chickens and ducks (
Table 5). Before resettlement, all pigs were free-ranging, but in resettled village location pigs were raised in enclosed conditions, fed with cassava and forest vegetables combined with commercial food. In the process of raising pigs before resettlement, famers were not concerned about inoculation against disease, and would only call on commune veterinary staff for treatment after disease outbreaks occurred. Also, in the previous village location, pigs took 11–12 months to reach 40–50 kg, whereas in the new settlement, pig raising time had been more than halved, with a weight at maturity of 50–60 kg. In some cases, there were households whose pigs gained 70–75 kg in only in 3.5 months.
Before resettlement, Bo Hon people only raised local chicken varieties, these were allowed to roam freely, and over 8–10 months grew to 1–1.2 kg. After resettlement chicken varieties were mainly from commercial stock. Chickens were often purchased when they were 15–20 days old. Captive breeding of chickens were combined with free-range farming. Chickens were fed for 2.5–3 months to reach a weight of 1.8–2.0 kg per bird. In Bo Hon village people usually raised two clutches per year. While before resettlement only one clutch of local chicken variety would be raised per year. Ducks are allowed to roam freely and were fed on a mix of corn, banana, and old rice. Ducks were raised over a period of 3–4 months, and at maturity would weigh 1.5 to 2.0 kg. Each year, local farmers raised ducks twice a year, on nearby open water.
Cattle production is not a major livestock enterprise in Bo Hon village with 21% of households having cattle before resettlement, and 15% of households having cattle after resettlement (
Table 5). In terms of cattle raising, some households own a small farm through forest encroachment and raised cattle there. For those who did not have their own small farm for grazing their cattle, they would take them to the protective forest under management by government, and left them to graze there, before herding them back to the village. The current method of cattle husbandry in Bo Hon village has not altered substantially from the practices used before displacement. Cattle were not vaccinated and their natural grass feed supplemented with commercial feed. In the new village location, the trading conditions were more convenient, with all agricultural products sold through dealers. The dealers would come to each household to purchase. Some small livestock such as chickens, ducks, and pigs were purchased by weight in kilograms. However, due to lack of technology to weigh cattle they were purchased based on estimated weight. The weight was estimated by the dealer through examining length and, height of cattle to calculate the weight of cattle before payment.
3.2. Rating of Livelihood Assets by Villagers
Bo Hon villagers together with research team derived four basic criteria for selecting livestock enterprise. The criteria were: appropriate land capability in terms of climate and land at the locality; small capital investment required; high profitability; and low technical input required. Using these four criteria, and by scoring each criteria from 1 to 10, with the higher the score the more important the criteria are in terms of selecting an enterprise the villagers rated livestock enterprises. At the meeting each participant would score independently, and the final score was averaged across the participants for every criteria. Local people were most inclined to raise chickens (7.5 points), followed closely by pigs (7 points), and ducks (6.8 points), while buffalo (6 points) and cattle (5.8 points) were not as favored by villagers. Pigs and chickens were two suitable livestock types to develop in the village. As for raising chickens, it was an activity that could be easily combined with the home garden (especially using local chicken varieties).
The ability to acquire more sows was not keeping pace with demand for raising pigs in the Bo Hon village. As a result, developing a sow breed that would limit disease outbreaks as well as promote out-scaling pig husbandry strategies. Other support that the villagers requested was building raised cages to ensure less chance of disease acquisition and meet appropriate living conditions. Other skills which would improve animal husbandry were techniques on vaccination and selection of breeds.
Cassava was an easily sold product, and dealers would sell fresh cassava for Binh Thanh or Phong Dien starch factory. Lemongrass and pineapple were often sold directly to retailers at market or to restaurants. Based on four criteria (profit, sustainability, ease of selling, and regular income), Bo Hon villagers selected lemongrass (8.2 points) as the first priority crop to develop, as it was viewed as more sustainable, profitable, and provided a regular income compared with pineapple (7.2 points) and cassava (6 points). Villagers considered the production of cassava was less sustainable due to poor land quality at new location, but the new variety used (KM94), had been shown to be more resilient to poorer quality soils and drought.
3.4. Impacts of Displacement on Religion, Ceremonial Rituals, and Family Relationships
Religion is a critical aspect of mountainous ethnic minorities. After the upland rice is harvested, Bo Hon villagers often celebrated with the new rice ceremony. The ceremony is usually organized at two levels—community and household level. For the community level, the ceremony was held at the community house with the participation of all villagers who would contribute rice, pigs, chickens, and labor for the ceremonial event. However, after resettlement Bo Hon people had abandoned this ceremonial dinner because they were no longer undertaking paddy rice cultivation.
Hunting is also associated with a series of ceremonial rituals, showing the role of men, especially the village patriarch. Meat from the hunted animal is served to the whole community and divided among households in the village. Before resettlement, this ceremony was undertaken, but since the resettlement, due to economic difficulties as well as outside impacts, this ceremonial ritual is no longer performed. After resettlement the meat obtained from hunting was sold outside for financial gain.
Religious ceremonies also marked major stages of human development into adulthood. In particular, the main ones being: marriage and funeral ceremonies. Before resettlement, on these occasions and other big events in the village, community members often gathered together to show their solidarity and prayed to be blessed by spirits. However, after resettlement, these religious ceremonies were less communal, and only close relatives came to the ceremony and other people from the village did not attend.
The religious activities and beliefs of Bo Hon villagers altered after resettlement, with 40% becoming Kinh from Ka Tu (an ethnic minority). This change was viewed as inevitable as influences from the outside world were becoming stronger. For instance some of the religious beliefs changed to those that were more likely to receive non-governmental agency support such as Buddhism or Christianity. However, it is also necessary to maintain the cultural rituals of Ka Tu people in Bo Hon village.
The villagers stated that bonding social capital (76%), sentimental relationship (61%), and labor relationship (72%) had deteriorated since resettlement. In terms of bonding social capital, before resettlement when a household did not have a breeding animal or seedlings other households were willing to lend without expecting anything in return. But since resettlement, this relationship has suffered. After resettlement many people faced difficulties in building an income, so more energy has been spent on developing income sources rather than maintaining bonding social capital within the village. People did not have enough land for production development, hence they did not mobilize cooperation in production as before (cultivating the soil, seeding, carrying rice, and so on) and labor sharing was greatly reduced.
3.5. Relationship Between Village Community and Other Organizations
The importance of the relationship between Bo Hon village community and other organizations was evaluated by villagers by asking them to rank an individual with a certain role, organization, or group from 1 to 11, with the higher the rank the greater the level of importance.
Prior to resettlement in Bo Hon village the village patriarch’s or elder was considered the most important person in the community, with power and influence over villagers. However, after resettlement the elder’s role was supplanted by the village head who became the most important person (
Figure 3).
Before resettlement, Binh Thanh People’s Committee (PC) was ranked ninth by villagers, because the community was relatively isolated from the outside world (
Figure 3). However, the importance of Binh Thanh People’s Committee improved to a rank of fourth when people were resettled to a new location (
Figure 3). The importance of healthcare has also clearly changed since resettlement with easier access to Hue city. It was ranked tenth before resettlement and moved to sixth after resettlement (
Figure 3).
In addition, other organizations such as: agriculture extension advice; youth union; and veteran affairs experienced changes in importance level, but these changes were not markedly different from before. In terms of livelihood support for villagers the low ranking of agricultural extension advice is a concern that should be addressed if agricultural practices need to be improved or altered.