Focus on Arts and Ecology

Son La is a poor and underdeveloped province in North-western Vietnam, bordering Laos and 350km away from Hanoi. It has a population of 1.696 million, of which 87% live in rural areas and 94% are ethnic minorities. Son La has a mountainous landscape with over 87% of land on steep slopes of at least 25 degrees. Son La has a tropical monsoon mountainous climate, with cold dry winters and hot rainy summers. The geography and climate of the region makes it highly vulnerable to climate change and prone to natural disasters such as droughts, floods and frosts.

Son La’s people rely on agriculture for their livelihoods with 58% of land used for agriculture or forestry. Rice is the main food crop, but farmers generally do not produce enough rice for their own consumption, or to sell at nearby markets. To generate a supplementary income, farmers grow corn, coffee and plums or raise chickens and pigs. Low incomes and income instability due high reliance on agriculture and weather reinforce high poverty rates which are equal to 40–58% at the project sites.

Farming communities are poor and lack technical knowledge and methods to sustainably manage the land and the biodiversity. It leads them to not have enough food between the rice seasons and it reinforces barriers to development.

Farmers in the villages of the project only have about 0.008–0.018 hectares (80–180 m2) of agricultural land per household due to steep mountain slopes and low-quality soils. The limited flat land only available in valleys and along watercourses makes it difficult to grow high volumes of rice.

Son La’s agricultural diversity has declined in recent years. Farmers have increasingly switched from traditional and culturally important rice varieties to monocultures of modern varieties which are not adapted to the local environment. These crops are sterile, discourage diversity, and require chemical inputs which reduces biodiversity and gradually creates resistance among pest population.

Farmers’ rice production is highly reliant on the weather because their crops are rainfed and exposed to extreme temperature, precipitation and natural disasters. In 2014, heavy rain and floods occurred during the rice flowering period and affected rice development and production. In 2016, newly sowed rice was damaged by heavy frosts and sleet. Weather extremes are becoming more frequent due to climate change and they cause significant lost to agricultural production and therefore farmers’ incomes.

Food insecurity occurs between rice seasons when harvests are impacted by extreme weather. When agricultural harvest is low, farmers often have to find off-field work or sell other products to generate an income. However, this is generally insufficient, and they often must borrow rice or small amounts of money with a 10–20% interest rate. Farmers also need to borrow money to afford the costly seeds and chemical inputs that modern nonnative rice varieties require to grow well. It generally takes more than one season to pay back the loan which increases when their income is insufficient e.g. after poor crop yields caused by extreme weather.

Poor farmers have limited adaptive capacity because their food production lacks agrobiodiversity. Many lacks the knowledge and skills needed to adapt and diversify their food production to climate change. For example, they have lost the knowledge needed to rehabilitate genetically degraded local traditional varieties which show higher yielding, self-seeding and growth rate.

Women are in a position where they are rarely allowed to influence household decisions even though they have a large share of domestic and livelihood responsibilities. This makes it difficult for women to participate in capacity building and other activities that improve their personal and household situation.

All the activities carried out by SRD included training sessions and capacity building. A training session on business planning was organized for the members of the management boards of the village so they can exchange their new knowledge to all villagers interested to start a business. Gender talks were organized as well to discuss the role of women in the household and gender equality, these talks enabled women to participate in farmers interest groups and discover new ways to contribute to household livelihood.

Subsequently, farmers interest groups were organized around different topics and trainings.

Climate Smart Rice production

The first farmers interest group was focused on rehabilitating the two local traditional sticky rice varieties “Tan Lanh” and “Tan Nhe”. Farmers are currently dependent on external supplies of pure breed and hybrid rice varieties. This put them at risk during the season when they do not know if they have good varieties. To conserve and develop agro-biodiversity, there is a focus to protect farmers’ rice varieties through rehabilitation and gradually reduce their dependence on outside varieties through seed selection toward saving and exchanging seeds among the communes.

Mr. Cường’s rice production has continuously been impacted by an increase in sunny days, and a decrease in precipitation. While he could previously predict seasonal weathers, he now finds that the climate patterns are quickly changing. In addition to the climate change impacts, Mr. Cường was also struggling to find an effective method to cultivate his rice efficiently. While using his traditional methods, many of his crops were getting diseases, and he also had to spend his income to purchase pesticides.

Nevertheless, in 2017, he decided to join SRD’s Climate Smart Rice (CSR) initiative, for the project “Agrobiodiversity conservation and development for poor communities in response to climate change”. CSR has been widely introduced by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Food and Agriculture Organization, Climate Change Agriculture and Food Security program, and various NGOs. It is an approach that has improved climate change resilient agriculture in order to support development and food security. SRD’s training focuses on sharing these CSR methods to help farmers reduce their use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and ineffective use of seed and water, while responding to climate change and improving the rice productivity and quality.

“I have participated in the project activities since 2017 and I am really keen on the project because it brings me many benefits. Firstly, it provides me with many techniques of growing rice which help me grow rice more effectively. Secondly, it helps increase rice productivity thanks to growing rice appropriately. Thirdly, it helps increase income, which enables my family and I to have a more stable life”

Through his participation, Mr. Cường has been able to address the numerous factors impacting his agriculture, while further supporting his family with his increase in income. He has also implemented agricultural methods that are not only adapting to climate change, but mitigate it.

“I realized the effect of growing rice on climate change. That is why I have tried to reduce the amount of fertilizer, or pesticide on rice field. I see myself as a factor who can contribute to emission reduction, to not make the climate worse…which contributes to protecting the environment, and I am really proud of that”

Climate change resilience is necessary for sustainable rural development and agricultural production. Mr. Cường has been able to use the CSR innovation to advance his skills, further support his family, all while protecting the environment. He hopes that SRD’s project will continue to expand, so that other local people can increase their knowledge through the trainings, and ultimately improve their livelihoods.

Chicken raising

Farmers currently raise chickens naturally without vaccination or veterinarian intervention for their own consumption. However, chicken meat is a high value product for income generation. The project therefore will organize training on chicken raising using bio-padding and vaccination to improve farmers’ incomes. Bio-padding models reuse manure as organic fertiliser and therefore decrease environmental pollution. The project will conduct 6 trainings in two communes for 180 farmers. Those farmers will be a human resource to develop chicken raising in their communes and then support others to apply.

Mr. Thu is from Nguong, one of the 8 villages dealing with high rates of poverty in Son La. He lives in a household of six people, including his parents, his wife, and his two children. In order to continue supporting his family, Mr. Thu wanted to utilise the most effective means to increase his household income. At first, his plan was to raise pigs but he realized that their selling price was quite low. As a result, he decided to focus on raising chickens.

Currently, Mr. Thu has nearly 100 chickens. However, before joining SRD’s project in 2018, he only had about 30 to 50 chickens. A variety of factors prevented him from increasing his chicken population. Not only did he not have enough money or experience to raise this many chicken before, he also found that many of his chickens were getting diseases.

As part of the project, SRD implemented trainings that supports farmers to improve their skills and quality of chicken raising. The trainings introduced farmers as to how to carefully calculate the types of expenses when they want to raise chickens, how to protect their chickens by keeping them in their cages when the weather is cold or rainy, and how to vaccinate them to prevent diseases.

“I have learned a lot from the SRD project. Firstly, I learned how to give vaccine for chickens to prevent them from getting diseases. Besides that, I learned how to pick chickens to increase the population….it increased my knowledge about raising chickens effectively.”

While Mr. Thu has significantly improved his knowledge and abilities, he has also increased his income.

“After a long time of raising the chickens, and then selling them to the market, I am very happy when I can earn a large amount of money from them. My record income from selling was 8–9 million dong”.

Our goal is that when farmers, like Mr. Thu, join our trainings, they can share their knowledge, in order to empower local communities to sustainably manage their livelihoods for the long term. Through this, we also hope that more families will be able to increase their income, ensure food security, and improve their livelihoods.

Village saving and loan associations

Village saving and loan associations (VSLA) support poor farmers to save and access small but flexible loans for production and livelihoods. VSLA mobilize community-managed funds to gain income security, meet predictable expenses, reduce livelihood shocks, facilitate household cash-flow management and make short-term investments in income generation activities. Furthermore, VSLA are simple and beneficial for women and the poor.

The project will set up 8 VSLA, one in each village, to introduce its principles and how to enable savings, deliver loans and calculate interests.

When Ms. Biển thinks back to her life before joining SRD’s Village Saving and Loans Associations (VSLA) group, she recalls a time where her main role was doing chores around the house.

“In the past, I just spent time doing household chores…every day I just walked around my house”.

However, since joining the VSLA, Ms. Biển has gained practical skills, allowing her to take on a new leadership role and run her own business. Through the trainings, SRD’s project introduces participants to successfully mobilize and manage their capitals, loans, and to self-operate the activities. The trainings then also provide the members with the means to start their own VSLA group.

Now, on the 17th of each month, Ms. Biển and her VSLA group meet at 8:00 am, sharp. To start the meeting off, all members put their savings together. Ms. Biển generally saves her money from selling animals and rice. Once all the money has been collected, and with the input of the group, the VSLA manager delegates who will receive the funds.

“Whenever I am in need of money, I now have a place to borrow money from rather than struggle to find a place to borrow money”.

And on January 25th, 2019, Ms. Biển was one of the group members who decided to take a loan. She borrowed 1 million VND in order to buy piglets and their food. In two weeks, she was able to sell some of these pigs. From a loan of just 1 million VND, she has now received up to 14 million VND.

“My income has increased, that helps my family to have fewer disputes. Especially, my husband and I now have an equal role in the family”.

Moreover, from her participation in the trainings, she has seen a change in her business skills and abilities.

“After joining the group, I got to know how to organize my time effectively, I am especially self — aware of saving, and then manage my money better”.

Ms. Biển hopes that more people in her community can get involved in the VSLA, as she believes it can improve their income and time management skills. She is an inspiring example who demonstrates that women who acquire relevant skills can be empowered to truly transform their lives.