Vietnam has undergone a series of land and productivity policy changes that have been accompanied by farmer strategies to meet production needs, ensure the future of their families, and attempt to better their economic positions. But it is not policy alone that drives farmer behavior, it is also expectations based on tradition that help mold these strategies. This article looks at the intersection of policy and farmer behavior focusing on the nature of transactions and farmer reasoning for the accumulation and disposal of agricultural land. Farmers accumulate and dispose of land by way of outright purchase, mortgage, land leasing, and giving to children as inheritance despite the illegality of these transactions during the survey years 1988 to 1992.

Keywords: land, policy, agriculture, gender; Vietnam