Vietnam plans to restrict the growth of new golf courses encroaching on rice farms to ensure national food security and protect thousands of poor farmers, state media reported yesterday.

More than 140 golf courses, either operating or in the planning stages, would take up almost 50,000 hectares of land, the Vietnam News daily quoted a Ministry of Planning and Investment report as saying.

New golf courses had been licensed at a rate of more than one per week since the beginning of 2006, when foreign investor interest surged in the "emerging tiger" economy, which saw growth of 8.5 percent last year.