Viet Nam

Area equipped for irrigation in Viet Nam was 4 585 500 ha in year 2005, while the area harvested on irrigated fields was 8 728 192 ha in the same year, which indicates a high cropping intensity [VN01]. Area equipped for irrigation in 8 regions was derived from the AQUASTAT country questionnaire and further downscaled to province level according to the extent of paddy fields (4 130 940 ha in total) reported by the agricultural census 2006 for each province [VN02]. The irrigated area per province estimated that way is visible in the table below and also can be downloaded as Viet Nam irrigation areas in PDF or Viet Nam irrigation areas in Excel.

Digital maps of irrigated areas (polygon dataset) [VN03] and irrigation projects (point dataset) [VN04] were used as compiled by the Mekong River Commission. However, these inventories covered only the part of the country that belongs to the Mekong River watershed. In the other part of the country, irrigated area was distributed according to the GlobeCover landcover map [VN05] to areas classified as irrigated or rainfed cropland. These areas fitted well to maps showing the irrigation infrastructure of the country [VN06].

According to the AQUASTAT country profile [VN01], area equipped for irrigation with groundwater is 1 percent of total AEI, and the whole AEI was irrigated in year 2005.

References

[VN01]: FAO. 2012. AQUASTAT country profile of Viet Nam, version 2010. FAO, Rome, Italy.
[VN02]: General Statistics Office of Viet Nam. 2007. Results of the 2006 Rural, Agricultural and Fishery Census. Volume I – General Results. http://www.gso.gov.vn/default\_en.aspx? tabid=515&idmid=5&ItemID=8058, 09/03/2010.
[VN03]: Mekong River Commission Secretariat. 2003. People and environment atlas of the Lower Mekong Basin. CD-Rom. Phnom Penh, MRC.
[VN04]: Mekong River Commission Secretariat. 2009. Irrigation dataset 2009. http://portal.mrcmekong.org/, 18/04/2012.
[VN05]: ESA. 2008. Regional Globcover Land Cover – Central Asia. Version 2.2. http://postel.mediasfrance.org/en/DOWNLOAD/, 24/03/2009.
[VN06]: World Bank. 1996. Vietnam - water resources sector review. East Asia and Pacific Region, Report No. 15041-V. Agriculture and Environment Division, Country Department I.