60982    At the tail of the rainy season in the Mekong Delta, the canal water advances all the way to the front of the farmers' houses.

60983    The ripples from even a small boat going too fast will cause the earthen floors of farm houses to flood.

60984    We traveled slowly along the canal.

60985    After pushing our way through the tropical trees and water plants and slipping under a log bridge, suddenly the figures of little girls wearing pure white ao dai and abruptly standing come into view, as well as a church from the French colonial period.

60986    The farmer in the boat and the children playing in the tree shadows wave their hands in greeting.

60987    The people of the Mekong have lived in excellent harmony with nature.

60988    "Farmers on the delta have become rich, haven't they?"

60989    I had visited the village of Can Tho in 1980 when the shift to communism had begun after the end of the Vietnam War, so upon visiting the same village I was all the more surprised at the changes, because I remember the downcast expressions of the farmers.

60990    "No, that's not it," says Chan Tain Be, head of Can Tho University Farming Systems R&D Institute, replacing explanation by way of proffering several pieces of data.

60991    In the past several years, rapid increases in Vietnam's rice production have allowed it to earn a living off of the foreign currency made from exports.

60992    It is the fruit of the delta farmer's sweat and blood.

60993    Real income, however, is decreasing sharply.

60994    "After deducting taxes and pesticide and fertilizer costs and including the family's labor, a farmer makes only 1.7 dollars a day. This is as much as a cyclo driver in Ho Chi Minh City makes in one trip," he says.

60995    The tradition of the single crop cycle supported by family labor is being eroded by a sudden rise in agricultural chemical use and investment, leading to drops in production capacity, inadequate irrigation and land improvements, and a need for more modern machinery.

60996    The problems delta farmers are facing are extraordinary, and Chan laments, "We can't compete with modern farming like Japan's. It's only natural that more farmers will give up their land."