Author : Nguyen Quoc Chinh

Summary : In Vietnam, corn ranks second after rice in annual crop production. The improvement in corn productivity has significant contribution to food security for the country. However, corn production has to increase in response to the projected increase in demand for food and feeds. The study attempts to examine the two sources of productivity growth, e.g., technological change (TC) and technical efficiency (TE) of corn sector in selected areas. Corn production had decreased up to the 1970s, then had gradually increased in 1970-1190. Corn had the highest growth rate in the 1990s due to the adoption of HYV. Significant factors affecting corn production differed from variety to variety, depending on the difference in input requirement, and socioeconomic and natural conditions. Nitrogen was the most important macro-nutrient affecting corn production but farmers were found to practice imbalanced fertilization HYV had about 1.50 times higher yield than TV and became main factor in the corn production growth.