Chu, LongNguyen, HoaKompas, ThomasDang, Khoi KBui, Trinh2023-09-122023-09-122405-8440http://hdl.handle.net/1885/299432Agricultural land protection (ALP) is a standard policy response to a desire for food security. However, ALP may result in a misallocation of resources. Examining rice land policy in Vietnam, we determine the optimal level of rice land protected against other crops using a stochastic optimization model built on top of a general equilibrium framework, combined with sequential micro-simulations on household data. We find that converting part of protected rice land enhances economic efficiency. Nonetheless, the policy is relatively pro-rich, implying a trade-off between poverty reduction and economic efficiency, making some households in already poor areas worse off. Our approach can be applied to land-use planning generally, highlighting the relevant tradeoffs and the search for needed optimal land-use policies.This work was supported by the Restructuring for a more Competitive Vietnam Project, the Australian Department for Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) and College of Asia and the Pacific, the Australian National Universityapplication/pdfen-AU© 2021 The authorshttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by-nc-nd/4.0/Farmland protectionLand policyRiceVietnamInequalityHousehold welfare202110.1016/j.heliyon.2021.e067542022-07-31