Multistakeholder Consultation on Agroecology Workshop

Farmer’s AE innovations in Lam Dong province:

policy implications for Vietnam

Pham Van Hoi

Center for Agricultural research and Ecological studies

Vietnam National University of Agriculture

phamhoi@gmail.com

Content

1. Cases of AE innovators and performance in Lam Dong

provinces

2. Policy implementation

3. Implications for future policies

IPM (partially)

1. Increased uses of manures / composts

2. Adding fungus Trichoderma, lime to soil

3. Using insect traps (thrips)

4. Rotating pesticides mixed with orange oil

5. Daily farming activity records

6. Received technical training from: Fresh Studio, provincial and district

dept of agriculture

Farmer’s group (Suoi Thong

B2, Da Ron commune):

- 18 members

- 30 ha of vegetable growing

area (20 ha certified by

VietGAP)

- Sell to Metro: 6-7 ton/day

Integrated farming

Farmer’s group (Thon 1, Da Ron

commune):

- 30 members

- 30 ha of land (60% for vegetables; 40%

for elephant grass)

- 400 milk cows (Av. 800 litters of

milk/day).

- Fish pond: 100 sq.m/HHs

- Manure tanks: manure + excrete (for

vegetable crops).

- Vegetable rotation

- Traps (for thrip, yellow fly, Cylas

formicarius).

- No VietGAP: time-consuming for

daily farming activity records

Integrated farming + soil conservation

Ngo Duc Ke, B’Lao commune, Bao Loc:

- Pepper garden: integrated with sweet

potato, and bonsai weed to control soil lost.

- Pig raising: 40 heads,

- Fish pond: 200 sq.m

- Starting selling pepper seedlings to farmers

nearby with technical guides.

Conservative agriculture: coffee & weeds

Thanh Huong 1, Loc Thanh-Bao Loc

- Started coffee growing from 1987

- 1999: yield of 2.5 tons/ha (with soil

degradation visualized)

- Remained weeds (selected: co mat)

with coffee, but crop and yield not

improved much.

- 2005: cutting weeds (2-3 times/year)

and applying compost: 1 ton/ha with

additional 6 times of (reduced)

fertilizers/year yield: 4

tons/ha/year.

- From 2009: no pests & diseases

- 70% of 530 HHs in 3 villages

adopting similar system

Agroforestry

Dinh An village, Hiep An-Duc Trong:

- Mixed garden: coffee, cinnamon,

mango, durian

- Started coffee in 1996 (yield: 5-6

tons/ha/year)

- Use paraquate 1-2 times/yr to

control weeds

- No insecticide & fungicide

application so far

- Attending technical training: extensioner delivered fungicides with

suggestion to use for disease prevention (but did not use).

- Wrong assumption that: remained weeds in dry season (to reserve water

for coffee); and control weeds in rainy season (to minimize fertilizer

lost).

Organic farmer, if motivated: Ward 7, Da Lat City:

- Waste-grilling machine inventor for

biocompost production

- Self-producing bio-compost (use

of 100 m3/year: cheap, highly

effective).

- Major crops: strawberry & flowers

- Rainy season: leafy vegetables

(part of land) – no fertilizers

needed.

- Still using pesticides (even limited) for controlling pests and diseases

(no demand for trying not using pesticides)

- About 200 HHs nearby (with about 100 ha) are adopting his machine

and formula of bio-compost production.

- No promotion of local governments for his techniques.

Organic farm: Da Lat Organik

- Started in 2005

- Area under farming: 3 ha (no

expansion since 2005)

- Required to pay landuse tax (for

50 years) when applying for joint-

venture company certification

- Considered as “Organic symbol”

of Da Lat (and Vietnam), but no

supports from governments so far.

- Supplying vegetables to restaurants and shops in Hanoi, Sai Gon, Da

Nang, and Nha Trang

- Farmgate price: 20% higher than normal mkt price surplus is for

charity.

- Needs: loans but no access (because of no land-use right certificate)

Policy formulations and implementations

Vietnam is still remained with top-down & bureaucracy policies:

aiming at regulating & directing farming & business activities

(i.e., technical & product standards).

• Low effectives for dealing with complexity in agricultural

production, and locally characterized.

• Corruptions & influences of large-chemical companies impeding

possible expansion of AE techniques discovered and adopted by

creative individual farmers.

• Agricultural techniques designed from the top are rather

bureaucratic & less effective at local level

Policy for future AE development

1. Top-down policies can not work effectively for agriculture of

complexity in nature.

2. Policy at central level should be only with hard technical

standards (instead of pursuing concrete details) – which will

adapted with further details at local governments. For this:

AE innovative farming practices initiated by local farmers could

be adapted into policy and promoted at local level.

3. This needs to be done together with more freedom in massmedia

and information flows (to deliver truths to the publics and exploit

public pressure to minimize bad farming practices, bureaucracy &

corruptions…)