subsistence farmers may find themselves unable to share in the marketbased growth for lack of skill and labour which would suggest that aid interventions upgrading skills through better extension services could greatly improve market participation and commercialisation by smallholders ngo confirms the importance of literacy and numeracy skills as preconditions for agricultural growth calculating the effect of educational attainment on rice productivity in vietnam the author finds that the returns to literacy and to holding upper secondary diplomas on rice yields are and respectively