Regulations on Donation of Agricultural Land Use Rights

Households and individuals who are leased agricultural land by the State have the right to inherit their assets attached to the leased land. The inheritors may continue to lease the land by the State for the determined purpose.

The procedure for inheriting agricultural land use rights is as follows: the inheritor submits a will; a record of inheritance division; a judgment or decision resolving a dispute over inheritance of land use rights by a People's Court that has come into legal effect; a request from the inheritor in the case where there is only one inheritor; a land use right certificate or one of the types of documents on land use rights specified in Clauses 1, 2 and 5, Article 50 of the 2003 Land Law.

The land use rights registration office shall correct the issued land use rights certificate or carry out procedures for issuing a land use rights certificate in cases where a new certificate must be issued.

According to the provisions of Article 113 of the 2003 Land Law, in case the inheritor is a Vietnamese residing abroad and is subject to the provisions of Clause 1, Article 121 of the 2003 Land Law, he/she is entitled to inherit the land use right; if he/she is not subject to the provisions of Clause 1, Article 121 of the 2003 Land Law, he/she is entitled to enjoy the value of that inheritance; however, when implementing this provision, the inheritor does not have sufficient legal capacity to transfer the land use right to collect the inherited value.

2.1.5. Regulations on donation of agricultural land use rights

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Households and individuals using agricultural land that is not leased land or households and individuals who were leased land by the State before July 1, 2004 (the effective date of the 2003 Land Law) and have paid land rent for the entire lease term or have paid land rent in advance for many years and the remaining paid land lease term is at least five years, have the right to donate land use rights to households, individuals or overseas Vietnamese who are subject to the provisions of Clause 1, Article 121 of the 2003 Land Law.

Gifts must be accompanied by conditions:

Firstly, households and individuals who are first allocated agricultural land by the State without collecting land use fees but have transferred or no longer have land for production, if the State allocates agricultural land without collecting land use fees for the second time, shall not be given land use rights within ten years from the date of the second land allocation.

Second, households and individuals living in the strictly protected zones and ecological restoration zones of special-use forests but are not yet able to move out of those zones will only be given the right to use forest land combined with agricultural, forestry and aquaculture production for households and individuals living in those zones.

Third, households and individuals who are allocated agricultural land by the State in protective forest areas may only donate the right to use agricultural land to households and individuals living in that protective forest area.

Fourth, organizations, households and individuals are not allowed to receive land use rights as gifts in cases where the law does not allow the donation of land use rights.

Fifth, households and individuals who do not directly produce agriculture are not allowed to receive gifts of land use rights for rice cultivation.

Households and individuals who are leased agricultural land by the State have the right to donate their property attached to the leased land. The person to whom the property is donated may continue to be leased land by the State for the determined purpose.

The procedure for donating agricultural land use rights is as follows: the parties prepare a document, contract, or decision to donate land use rights, notarize or authenticate the contract; submit the document or contract of donation or decision to donate land use rights, land use rights certificate or one of the types of documents on land use rights specified in Clauses 1, 2, and 5, Article 50 of the 2003 Land Law. The land use rights registration office shall correct the issued land use rights certificate or carry out procedures to issue a land use rights certificate in cases where a new certificate must be issued.

However, in reality, there have been some cases of giving away land use rights to the wrong people. The State needs to have stricter regulations to limit these cases, especially the case of giving away land to religious establishments.

2.1.6. Regulations on mortgage or guarantee using agricultural land use rights

Land use rights. Conditions for mortgage and guarantee using land use rights include: having documents on land use rights; land is not in dispute, not seized to ensure execution of judgment; land is within the term of use. The land price when mortgaging or guaranteeing will be agreed upon by the land owner and the lender.

The procedure for mortgaging and guaranteeing agricultural land use rights is as follows: the parties make a mortgage contract, guarantee land use rights, notarize or authenticate the contract; submit the mortgage contract, guarantee land use rights, land use rights certificate or one of the types of documents on land use rights specified in Clauses 1, 2 and 5, Article 50 of the 2003 Land Law.

The Land Use Rights Registration Office under the Department of Natural Resources and Environment or the Department of Natural Resources and Environment shall register mortgages and guarantees in cases where the mortgagor or guarantor is a domestic household or individual. The registration of mortgages and guarantees shall be carried out on the land use rights certificate.

The Director of the District Land Use Right Registration Office or the Head of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment in areas where there is no Land Use Right Registration Office is authorized in writing to the commune cadastral officer to carry out mortgage and guarantee registration for land plots that have been granted certificates in order to promptly meet the mortgage and guarantee needs in rural areas far from the district center.

After completing the mortgage or guarantee using land use rights, the parties submit a confirmation of debt payment; mortgage or guarantee contract, land use rights certificate; the Land Use Rights Registration Office shall delete the mortgage or guarantee registration.

Mortgage and guarantee contracts are drawn up by the parties themselves or agreed upon by notaries, other organizations or individuals to be drawn up and notarized before registration at the Land Use Rights Registration Office; the mortgage and guarantee are legally valid for third parties from the time of registration to the time of deregistration.

The order of payment priority among the joint mortgagees and collateral holders is determined according to the order of registration at the Land Use Rights Registration Office.

Mortgage or guarantee activities using land use rights are closely related to the capital market, financial market, and stock market; they are one of the factors promoting the operation of the land use rights market, and are a part of the market.

important part of the real estate market. This is a sensitive activity that requires reasonable regulation by the State. However, the current land law stipulates that cases of land use rights mortgage depend on the land user, form of land use and type of land; in which there are many cases of leased land, land users have land use right certificates but do not have the right to mortgage or guarantee with land use rights. In addition, administrative procedures in implementing land use rights mortgages are still quite numerous, lengthy, and go through many agencies, affecting investment opportunities due to the inability to borrow capital by mortgaging land use rights in a timely manner.

The State needs to review some regulations to ensure mortgages such as: mandatory notarization of mortgage contracts; mortgage registration at the Land Use Rights Registration Office as prescribed in the 2003 Land Law; the lender holds the land use rights certificate as prescribed in the 2005 Civil Code. Accordingly, the State should regulate a unified mortgage registration procedure with a "one-stop mechanism" when registering a mortgage contract at the Land Use Rights Registration Office; study the expansion of mortgage rights for land owners, including leased land but with assets attached to the land; lenders, not only including domestic credit institutions, joint ventures, and foreign branches in Vietnam; loan purposes, not only including production and business purposes.

The State needs to have specific regulations on land use rights and assets attached to land that are inseparable from each other. The rights to use and ownership must be expressed in the same type of document. The Land Use Rights Registration Office is the unified agency to manage and exploit information and documents.

2.1.7. Regulations on capital contribution using agricultural land use rights

Households and individuals using agricultural land that is not leased land or households and individuals who were leased land by the State before July 1, 2004 (the effective date of the 2003 Land Law) and have paid land rent for the entire lease term or have paid land rent in advance for many years and the remaining paid land lease term is at least five years, have the right to contribute capital in the form of land use rights with organizations, households, individuals, and overseas Vietnamese to cooperate in production and business.

Households and individuals who are leased agricultural land by the State have the right to contribute capital with their own assets attached to the leased land during the land lease term.

with organizations, households, individuals, and Vietnamese people residing abroad to cooperate in production and business.

The procedure for capital contribution using agricultural land use rights is as follows: the parties draw up a capital contribution contract using land use rights, notarize or authenticate the contract; submit the capital contribution contract, land use rights certificate or one of the types of documents on land use rights specified in Clauses 1, 2 and 5, Article 50 of the 2003 Land Law. The land use rights registration office shall register the capital contribution in the cadastral records, correct the issued land use rights certificate or carry out procedures for issuing a land use rights certificate in cases where a new certificate must be issued.

When the capital contribution ends, the parties submit the capital contribution termination contract and the land use right certificate. The land use right registration office shall delete the capital contribution registration in the land records and correct the land use right certificate. In case the land use term ends at the same time as the capital contribution ends, if the capital contributor wishes to continue using the land, he/she shall carry out procedures to request an extension of land use according to regulations; if the capital contributor does not request an extension or is not granted an extension of land use, the natural resources and environment agency shall carry out procedures to reclaim the land according to regulations.

However, current law does not stipulate that households and individuals have the right to contribute capital in the form of agricultural land use rights directly to foreign organizations and individuals; this also leads to limiting cases of self-negotiation, increasing the burden on the State in implementing land recovery.

More specific regulations are needed to protect the rights of agricultural land users in cases where land use rights are used to contribute capital to economic organizations to jointly implement investment projects under an agreement mechanism.

In short, for most Vietnamese farmers, land is the main asset and the basic component of their wealth. The 2003 Land Law allows agricultural land users the right to use, transfer, lease, inherit, mortgage, donate and contribute capital using land use rights. Agricultural land users cannot convert agricultural land to non-agricultural purposes; land users specializing in wet rice cultivation must be permitted by local authorities to use rice land for other agricultural purposes. The regulations on agricultural land use rights are the strictest and most complete compared to other types of land in the land law system.

The current land law has thoroughly grasped the Party's viewpoint of ensuring that agricultural producers have land for cultivation. This demonstrates the State's concern for the rights of agricultural land users and the State's strict protection of land used for agricultural production.

2.2. Regulations on some types of land in the agricultural land group

2.2.1. Regulations on rice-growing land

Based on the purpose of use, the 2003 Land Law classified rice-growing land into the group of agricultural land for growing annual crops.

This is the main type of land in the agricultural land group of Vietnam. The accumulation process of wet rice cultivation techniques associated with the supporting infrastructure system of wet rice cultivation techniques such as irrigation and drainage canal systems, intra-field traffic systems, terraced fields... has formed a wet rice civilization, originating from the Red River Delta, gradually spreading to the plains along the Central rivers, and finally the Mekong Delta, becoming a solid foundation for an agricultural country with wet rice as the core. Therefore, the protection and exploitation of wet rice land fund is not only of economic significance, ensuring national food security, but also of significance in protecting and exploiting the wet rice civilization and culture, serving the goal of sustainable development [27].

Article 74 of the 2003 Land Law affirms: "The State has a policy to protect land specialized for wet rice cultivation and to limit the conversion of land specialized for wet rice cultivation to non-agricultural purposes. In case it is necessary to convert a part of the land area specialized for wet rice cultivation to other purposes, the State shall take measures to supplement the land area or increase the efficiency of the use of land specialized for wet rice cultivation."

In addition, the State has policies to support and invest in building infrastructure and applying modern science and technology to the planning area specializing in growing high-yield, high-quality rice.

When using land for rice cultivation, land users specializing in wet rice cultivation are responsible for improving and increasing the fertility of the land; they are not allowed to convert it to use for the purpose of growing perennial crops, afforestation, aquaculture and non-agricultural purposes without permission from competent state agencies.

In the past two decades, the strong urbanization and industrial development have significantly reduced the area of agricultural land. During this period,

In the period 2005 - 2010, the total rice growing area of the country decreased by 37 thousand hectares. Among the provinces and cities, 41/63 provinces decreased the rice growing area, typically the provinces of Tay Ninh, Soc Trang, Dong Nai, Binh Duong, Tien Giang. The main reason for the decrease is the conversion from ineffective rice growing land to other types of agricultural land such as land for growing vegetables, colors or industrial crops, ornamental plants, fruit trees, aquaculture and other types of non-agricultural land [7].

Although the reduction of rice-growing land area due to conversion to other purposes has been prevented, the situation of converting rice-growing land, especially rice-growing land with high agricultural potential to non-agricultural purposes, has not been carefully considered. The situation of reclaiming rice-growing land for the development of industrial and urban areas but being slow to put the land into use, leaving it fallow, causing waste, is still common. In some localities, there is a phenomenon of farmers "holding land" waiting for the State to plan and reclaim it for compensation without paying attention to land improvement and enrichment, leading to a state of land quality degradation.

In 2010, the whole country had 4,127 thousand hectares of rice land, accounting for 12.47% of natural land area and 15.75% of agricultural land area, of which land specialized in wet rice cultivation was 3,302 thousand hectares, other wet rice cultivation land was 703 thousand hectares, and upland rice land was 122 thousand hectares [7].

To ensure the national food security target by 2020 [22], according to Conclusion No. 53-KL/TW dated August 5, 2009 of the Politburo and Resolution No. 63/2009/NQ-CP dated December 23, 2009 of the Government, the planned rice land area is determined to be 3.812 million hectares, land specialized in wet rice cultivation (2 crops or more) is 3.222 million hectares, of which: the Northern midland and mountainous region is 521 thousand hectares, the Red River Delta region is 509 thousand hectares, the North Central region is 370 thousand hectares, the South Central Coast region is 261 thousand hectares, the Central Highlands region increased by 172 thousand hectares, the Southeast region is 143 thousand hectares, the Mekong Delta region is 1,836 thousand hectares.

In the next 20 years, in order to meet the socio-economic development goals and make breakthroughs in infrastructure construction, rice-growing land will continue to be converted to non-agricultural purposes by an estimated 450-500 thousand hectares (especially in the delta). In addition, to ensure national food security in the short and long term, our country needs to maintain a stable rice-growing land fund of about 3.8 million hectares by 2020.

However, lessons from the Philippines show that in exchange for industrial zones, the country lost many fertile rice fields and had to import 1.5 million tons of food each year.

Our country has a large population, of which more than 70% live in rural areas, with little arable land, and if calculated per capita, it is at the lowest level in the world. According to forecasts, the nutritional structure of Vietnamese people in the coming time will change in the direction of gradually reducing the demand for starch, but with an average population growth rate of 1.2%/year, plus the demand for food for processing and livestock will increase sharply, so the total demand for domestic food consumption will increase in the next few decades.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, to meet the consumption needs of about 130 million people in 2035, 36 million tons of rice will be needed. And to achieve this output, Vietnam needs to maintain at least 3 million hectares of land specializing in double-crop rice cultivation to have 6 million hectares of cultivated land. On the other hand, natural disasters, epidemics, and the impact of global climate change can cause seawater to intrude and encroach on cultivated land. It is estimated that our country's total food output may decrease by about 5 million tons under the influence of climate change, crop failure, natural disasters, floods, pests, etc. Therefore, ensuring food security is an urgent issue that always receives special attention.

Food security

not only threatened by resource degradation

land resources that are strongly affected by population growth and change

change land use structure towards decreasing area

agricultural land

by the way

The industrialization and urbanization process has been taking place strongly. To ensure that by 2020, 3.8 million hectares of rice-growing land (a reduction of 308 thousand hectares) are maintained, and to reduce 450 - 500 thousand hectares by 2030 [22] is a big challenge; overcoming the situation of rice production on fragmented fields, carrying out land accumulation and concentration with large-scale production is one of the solutions to strongly exploit the current land use potential.

2.2.2. Regulations on forestry land

According to the provisions of the 2003 Land Law, forestry land is classified into agricultural land with three types:

Firstly, production forest land is mainly used for production and trading of wood, other forest products, forest specialties, and forest animals combined with protection and preservation of the ecological environment.

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