Agricultural production, the backbone of Vietnam's main development strategy lollies, varied considerably from year to year following the national reunification in 1975. A particularly strong performance in agriculture was recorded in 1976—up more than 10 percent from 1975. However, production dropped back to approximately 95 percent of the 1976 level in 1977 and 1978, and recovered to a level higher than that of 1976 only in 1979.