Having studied Vietnamese food production a good amount, this is absolutely true and I'd like to add some things that only highlight the point that centralized production fails to respond to systemic crises. https://twitter.com/homemadeguitars/status/1254437021784956929

First, keep in mind that Vietnam is one of the most fertile places on Earth—with 2-3 growing seasons, lots of water, regular flooding from Mekong & Red River leaving lots of silt...

Despite this, VN suffered from a famine that killed 1-2 million people in 1945. It was entirely due to colonial mismanagement, both by the French and the then-occupying Japanese imperial forces. In short, production was oriented toward plantations and profit.

The Viet Minh first came to power in an uprising during the famine. They encouraged everyone to grow as much food on every piece of soil they could. The communist slogan at the time was "tấc đất tấc vàng", meaning "a piece of land is a piece of gold".

Ho Chi Minh directed people to fight two enemies: the colonizers, and the "hunger enemy". Decolonization involved a policy of decentralized food production.

However, on winning the US-Vietnam War, the Viet Minh started imposing a stricter, more centralized food system based on planned production and rationing for each family. Household production was strictly forbidden.

In the 1970s and 80s Vietnamese people faced regular food shortages and local authorities were forced to look the other way as households began to produce their own food. Without this local food production, there would have likely been (more widespread) famine.

The Vietnamese government was facing a legitimacy crisis: strapped for cash with the failure of the USSR, a hungry population, they began to open up their economy. Since then VNese agriculture has featured a mix of informal and profit-oriented production.

Up until early 2000s 40-60% of food consumed in cities came from peri-urban areas. But this is changing rapidly today with urbanization of peri-urban farmland and increase in exports and imports as a result of free trade agreements.

Yet with widespread food safety fears around pesticide use, Vietnamese people are returning to subsistence farming & informally organized organic food networks. Household food production & informal networks now offer safe alternatives to centrally distributed retail food for many

All in all, from what I know of Vietnamese food systems, centralized food production—whether it's capitalist, colonialist, or state communist—often cannot respond to crises and fails to work with people's ability to creatively respond to them.