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The Ministry for Agriculture and Rural Development has primary responsibility for agricultural policy, preparing draft legislation, implementing the legislation, supporting production, and regulating inputs to and outputs from the agriculture sector. It is also responsible for the forestry, fisheries , and salt subsectors. The Ministry's structure is set out in Decrees No. 01/2008/ND-CP and No. 75/2009/ND-CP. A number of divisions are responsible for specific subsectors and/or cross-cutting issues such as planning, science and technology, and the environment. Also under the Ministry are several agencies responsible for the delivery of agricultural services, such as the Centre for Informatics and Statistics, the National Centre for Agriculture and Fisheries Extension, and the National Centre for Rural Water Supply and Environmental Sanitation

Other ministries responsible for some aspects of agricultural policy are: the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, responsible for land-use.

Product-specific plans set out objectives and general policies for some crops and other agricultural products. For example, a new plan for the development of the coffee was approved in August 2012 by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. Like the Master Plan for agriculture, the coffee plan sets objectives for areas and yields. In addition to improving infrastructure, government policy is to improve productivity by replacing spent trees and expanding Arabica planting, as well as assisting farmers to obtain third-party certification for sustainable production. Similarly, the Cotton Development Master Plan for 2015-20 sets targets for areas (in this case, an increase in area planted) and states that assistance will be provided through low-interest loans and improved infrastructure.

Both the aquaculture and marine catches have increased steadily for the past few years although the rapid increase in the value of the fisheries sector is due to higher prices as well as greater volumes (Charts 4.2 and 4.3). However, inland catch declined from a peak of 244,000 tonnes in 2001 to 203,000 tonnes in 2011 due, to some extent, to pollution as well as to excessive exploitation, including inappropriate fishing methods such as electrocution and chemicals.

Viet Nam has a large trade surplus in fisheries products as both marine catch and aquaculture production and exports have increased over the past few years, particularly aquaculture, as the value of production nearly doubled from 2005 to 2011. The fisheries sector is dominated by small-scale production for both the aquaculture and catch subsectors. Public policy aims to complete a database on aquatic resources, to increase production of aquaculture, to improve sustainability through better resource management, and to enforce compliance with laws and regulations on sustainable fishing.

Although the fish capture subsector is based on small-scale fishing vessels operating in shallow waters, it has been reported that, since 1986, catch has exceeded the maximum sustainable yield.

In 2009, a number of problems were identified that affected the sustainability of fishing in Viet Nam:
-a lot of fishing gear did not comply with regulations, such as mesh size, leading to high discards and depletion of juveniles;
-inappropriate fishing techniques, such as explosives and chemicals were being used;
-overcapacity in inshore waters;
-and pollution by fishing boats and waste management in fishing villages.

According to a 2009 report, the Government of Viet Nam had not implemented measures to cope with overfishing and destructive fishing in the country, and overfishing remained a serious problem particularly excessive catches of crustaceans, cutter- fish, and octopus. However, the authorities pointed out that under Prime Minister's Directive No. 01/1998/CT-TTg the use of explosives, electrocution, and toxins to exploit aquatic resources was strictly banned and the Ministry of Fisheries (now the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development), in coordination with other ministries, established a Central Steering Committee to implement the ban. Since then the Committee has issued a number of documents on the implementation of Directive No. 01/1998/CT-TTg, including Document No. 481CV/BVNL of 18 February 1998, which requested the provincial and city peoples' committees to implement the Directive and establish local committees for this purpose. These committees include representatives of the fisheries sector, public security, military, culture, and information agencies. As of May 2013, 43 of the 63 provinces and cities with seas and rivers had established steering committees. The Department of Fisheries Resources Surveillance was established in January 2013 by Decree No. 102/2012/ND-CP under the Directorate of Fisheries.

The principle legislation on fisheries is the Law of Fisheries (No. 17/2003/QH11) along with Decree No. 53/2012/ND-CP which amended a number of earlier decrees on fisheries , including Decree No. 59/2005/ND-CP on aquatic resources production, No. 33/2010/ND-CP on fishing activities in marine areas by Vietnamese entities, No. 32/2010/ND-CP on fishery activities by foreign ships, and Decree 52/2010/ND-CP on imports of fishing vessels. The Law of Fisheries covers a broad range of fishing -related issues including marine fishing , aquaculture, conservation , ports, markets, processing, domestic and international trade, quality, and international cooperation.

Under the Law, fisheries resources are owned by the people and managed by the State with exploitation rights set out in legislation. The Law emphasises the role of regional authorities in resource management and sustainable development of fisheries and aquaculture by providing, inter alia, for:
-effort and gear restrictions (including closed areas, seasonal closures, size limits, annual allowable catches, and prohibited species;
-assessments of fisheries resources ;
-requirements that fishing vessels larger than 0.5 tonnes have licences indicating, inter alia, the type of gear, allowed fishing times, and allowed fishing grounds. It also provides for the conditions under which licences may be withdrawn; and
-requirements to keep fishing reports and logbooks.