Hue University Journal of Science: Agriculture and Rural Development ISSN 2588–1191 Vol. 128, No. 3B, 2019, P.59–69; DOI: 10.26459/hueuni-jard.v128i3B.5078 Corresponding: nguyenvanthanh83@huaf.edu.vn Submitted: December 16, 2018; Revised: January 02, 2019; Accepted: April 22, 2019 ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE OF RICE PRODUCTION TOWARDS VIETGAP IN PHONG BINH, PHONG DIEN, THUA THIEN HUE Nguyen Van Thanh*, Nguyen Thi Dieu Hien, Chau Viet Dung University of Agriculture and Forestry, Hue University, 102 Phung Hung St., Hue, Vietnam Abstract: This study assesses the economic efficiency of rice production of households towards VietGAP in Phong Binh, Phong Dien, Thua Thien Hue. The authors use semi-structured questionnaires to survey 90 rice households (45 households towards VietGAP and 45 conventional households) and hold a focus group discussion to accumulate the data. The results show that households practising VietGAP use only seeds, phosphate, NPK fertilizers as guided by the agricultural co-operatives. In the Winter-Spring crop 2017–2018, these households produce about 6.67 t/ha. The rice production profit of the VietGAP mode is relatively low, about 14,079,320 VND/ha, which is 948,200 VND/ha higher than that of the conventional mode. The profit-cost ratio of rice production with VietGAP is not significantly higher than that with conventional rice production. Keywords: economic efficiency, rice household, VietGAP, conventional rice production 1 Introduction Being aware of the importance of the increasing demand of consumers and exporters to produce grains with better quality, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Vietnam issued a standard called Vietnamese Good Agricultural Practices (VietGAP) in 2008. VietGAP consists of different criteria for different agricultural products including vegetables, rice, fruit, etc. It is the principles, orders, and procedures to guide organizations and individuals to produce, harvest and ensure safer products, improve product quality; ensure social welfare and the health of producers and consumers; protect the environment and trace the product origin. VIETGAP is based on 4 groups of criteria: Assurance of food safety; environmental protection; health assurance of workers and social welfare; and product quality assurance. The emergence of VietGap is an indispensable trend, laying the foundation for sustainable agricultural development. It has been considered as a “conversion period” towards organic production [1, 4]. In recent years, VietGAP rice production has been implemented in many localities in the whole country [11]. In addition to improved outcomes, such as improved output quality, increasing production efficiency and improved production environment, rice production under VietGAP standards also has many difficulties like the control of the product quality, price, and output markets [4, 5].