Land reform, de-collectivization, and the opening of the agricultural sector to market forces converted Viet Nam from a country facing chronic food shortages in the early 1980s to the second-largest rice exporter in the world. Besides rice, key exports are coffee, tea, rubber, and fisheries products. Agriculture's share of economic output has declined, falling as a share of GDP from 42 per cent in 1989 to 20.4 per cent in 2006, as production in other sectors of the economy has risen.

• The number of tractors has increased by 5.8 times since 1990.
• Domestic manufactured diesel engines have increased by 6.3 times since 1990.
• Electricity provided for agriculture production has increased 3.2-fold.
• The number of other farming, animal husbandry machines, and rural transportation means has considerably increased.
• The percentage of cultivated area prepared by machines annually is 54 per cent.
• Total of power supplied merely by engines for agriculture, forestry production and agro-products processing is nearly 14 million horse powers.
• Average 0.5 horse power per one cultivated hectare.
• Positive changes have been made in the processing industry of agricultural and forestry products.
• Average growth rate of gross production value of the processing industry has been 8.3 per cent over the past 5 years.
• The processing industry made 30 per cent of the total industrial production value.
• A number of processing industries with advanced technologies and equipment (rice, sugar, coffee, rubber, tea, etc.) have emerged, making structural changes and raising export turnover.

Area:
total: 329,560 sq km
land: 325,360 sq km
water: 4,200 sq km

Climate:
tropical in south; monsoonal in north with hot, rainy season (May to September) and warm, dry season (October to March)

Terrain:
low, flat delta in south and north; central highlands; hilly, mountainous in far north and northwest

Elevation extremes:
lowest point: South China Sea 0 m
highest point: Fan Si Pan 3,144 m

Natural resources:
phosphates, coal, manganese, bauxite, chromate, offshore oil and gas deposits, forests, hydropower

Land use:
arable land: 20.14%
permanent crops: 6.93%
other: 72.93% (2005)

Irrigated land:
30,000 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
occasional typhoons (May to January) with extensive flooding, especially in the Mekong River delta

Current environmental issues:
logging and slash-and-burn agricultural practices contribute to deforestation and soil degradation; water pollution and overfishing threaten marine life populations; groundwater contamination limits potable water supply; growing urban industrialization and population migration are rapidly degrading the environment in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City