Tracing IRRC tracks in Vietnam

The IRRC has been involved in collaborative research with Vietnamese partners for the past 10 years. Research covers site-specific nutrient management (SSNM), insect management, crop establishment, postharvest management, water management, weed management, rodent management, and integrated crop management. These collaborations are indeed impressive and have contributed significantly to the sustainable growth of rice production in Vietnam.

Postharvest technologies in Vietnam and beyond
When it comes to outreach activities, the IRRC Postproduction Work Group (PPWG) has certainly made its mark in the region. In October 2005, Martin Gummert’s team organized a hands-on training workshop on grain-drying systems and dryer fabrication conducted by Dr. Phan Hieu Hien, then director of the Center for Agricultural Energy and Machinery at Nong Lam University in Ho Chi Minh City. This training was a catalyst for the seven participants from Myanmar, Lao PDR, Cambodia, and Vietnam, who are now making dryers and dryer components in their countries.

That same year, the PPWG, along with Dr. Hien’s team from NLU, produced commercial prototypes of rice husk furnaces that can be fitted into commonly used flat-bed dryers with a 4-ton paddy capacity. Rice husk is a cheaper and more environment-friendly alternative to kerosene, which is used in conventional mechanical dryers. By August 2006, three commercial furnaces had been installed—two for 4-ton paddy dryers in Long An Province and one for a peanut dryer in Tay Ninh Province.

The research team plans to monitor the commercial furnaces to check their durability and the possibility of upscaling the furnace design to a rice husk capacity of 50 kilograms/hour for use with 8-ton dryers. They also see the technology being transferred in the future to other countries such as Lao PDR, Cambodia, Myanmar, and possibly Indonesia.

Other activities include the participatory evaluation of hermetic storage systems with 5-ton and 50-kilogram capacity with seed producers and farmers in the Mekong Delta, Hue, and Nam Dinh Province; collection of market information about rice and rice bran in three markets in South Vietnam; evaluation of two rice mills; and testing and adaptation of the IRRI moisture meter.

The PPWG has also spearheaded the introduction of laser-leveling technologies for rice fields. Better leveled fields reduce production costs, save water, and lead to more even maturing and thus better quality rice. By providing demonstration equipment, hands-on training, and advice, the PPWG had helped NLU build a team of local laser-leveling experts. The Bac Lieu Seed Center also received support for setting up a laser leveler and leveling its seed plots. In the meantime, a strong interest in laser leveling has developed in the private and public sectors and, in collaboration with NLU and some private companies, the PPWG is continuing to help establish the local availability of the equipment and the introduction of the technology for the farmers’ benefit.

Looking at impacts in nutrient management work
Cultivation practices for irrigated rice vary greatly across Vietnam. The wet seeding of relatively short-duration rice varieties common in the Mekong Delta of the south requires very different crop and nutrient practices for high yield and profit as compared with the intensive cropping of transplanted rice, often with hybrids and typically with the use of manure, in the north. Research on the development and evaluation of SSNM started in the Mekong Delta in the mid-1990s, and, in 1997, the research expanded to the Red River Delta in the north. In late 2004, research started in central Vietnam. This led to the development of a series of locally adapted SSNM practices tailored to specific rice cultivation practices, soils, and regions in the country. The guidelines for the locally adapted SSNM practices are available on the SSNM Web site (www.irri.org/irrc/ssnm).

The locally adapted SSNM practices have been widely evaluated, promoted, and disseminated through provincial and regional extension initiatives in the Mekong Delta and in northern Vietnam. In northern Vietnam, farmers using SSNM in five rice-growing areas increased their rice yield by as much as 15% during the dry season and by 8% in the wet season, realizing a net benefit of US$150 per hectare per year. Training on SSNM together with best crop management had been provided to local extension in 11 provinces in northern Vietnam by 2006.

The national integrated pest management program in Vietnam incorporated nutrient management based on the SSNM approach into the curriculum for farmer field schools, and distributed 50,000 leaf color charts to farmers and farmer groups in Vietnam. In August 2007, the impact of SSNM on farmer livelihoods was assessed through household surveys of more than 250 families in Ha Nam and Ha Tay provinces. This was done through an independent consultant in collaboration with Hanoi Agricultural University.

In October 2005, through a planning meeting in Hanoi, the PSWG initiated research collaboration on integrated crop management at five locations across Vietnam with the aim of better understanding the scientific principles for selecting the best possible combination of plant population, water management, and nutrient management to increase rice yield and profit in the major rice-growing areas of Vietnam.

In 2006, two experiments were established on contrasting soils in the Red River Delta, two were established for contrasting rice-cropping systems in the Mekong Delta, and one experiment was established in Binh Dinh Province in central Vietnam. This research draws upon scientific principles established through research on healthy crop canopy in China. The research findings are now (in late 2007) being interpreted and used to guide the identification of best integrated crop, water, and nutrient management practices for dissemination in 2008.

In central Vietnam, activities to identify and disseminate improved crop and nutrient management practices have been carried out at a feverish pace since 2005, through the coordination of Dr. Tran Thi Thu Ha, professor at Hue University of Agriculture and Forestry. The project has been responsible for catalyzing the formation, technical training, and empowerment of farmer clubs as a vehicle for developing and disseminating technologies. Diseases and insect pests and nutrient deficiencies associated with high seed rates for wet-seeded rice and unbalanced fertilizer use have been identified as constraints.

Activities to optimize seed rate and ensure balanced fertilization through application of zinc fertilizer and the use of SSNM are implemented in farmers’ fields through two farmer clubs in Thua Thien Hue Province, two farmer clubs in Quang Nam Province, and one new farmer club in Binh Dinh Province. One of the achievements of the project has been the uptake of a new seed rate of 3 kg of seed/sao (60 kg of seed/hectare) as the new provincial recommendation for wet-seeded rice in Quang Nam Province.

Zinc deficiency is now increasingly recognized as a constraint to rice production, and some farmers using zinc with optimal seed rate and SSNM have even stopped applying insecticide and fungicide because insect and disease occurrences have declined. The project is now partnering with organizations to ensure a supply of zinc fertilizer at affordable costs to farmers.

Scaling up ecologically based rodent pest
management
Unfortunately, although some disease and insect incidence decreased with proper nutrient application, rats continue to reign as one of the top three pests in the country. Since 2001, scientists from IRRI, the Plant Protection Research Institute (PPRI), the Institute for Agricultural Sciences, and Cuu Long Delta Rice Research Institute (CLRRI), in collaboration with extension staff from the Plant Protection Department (PPD) and World Vision Vietnam, and scientists from CSIRO, Australia, have been involved in farmer participatory action research.

The integration of findings from social and natural sciences provided an excellent foundation to develop, refine, and promote ecologically based rodent pest management (EBRM) in Vietnam. A new project on sustainable implementation of EBRM was launched in February 2006 to sustain the benefits gained from previous projects. Scaling-up of project activities to government and nongovernment organizations and institutions in other districts is the top priority for 2007, with dissemination to farmers set for 2008. Farmers in these provinces practice collective action to control these pests, such as flooding rat burrows and setting up community trap-barrier systems.

Water management team brings AWD to Vietnam
And, speaking of flooding, water-saving activities continue to be a high priority in Vietnam. The IRRC Water-Saving Work Group (WSWG) and its collaborators introduced safe alternate wetting and drying (AWD) in 2005 in An Giang through seminars and demonstration fields. The 161 farmers who used AWD in 2005 increased to 1,500 farmers (on 1,700 hectares) in 2006. AWD farmers had, on average, two fewer pumping operations (to irrigate their fields) than the regular practice of continuous flooding, saving around US$13/hectare. Yields were also higher with AWD (5.63 tons/hectare) than with the regular practice (5.36 tons/hectare). One reason for the higher yields was a decrease in lodging (rice plants falling over), which is often associated with wet seeding. With AWD, lodging was on average 10%, whereas, with the standard practice, it was 19%.

Lectures and seminars on water management and water-saving technologies have been held, and extension materials in Vietnamese have been developed and distributed to participants. Plastic tubes used to monitor water depth in AWD fields have also been given to participants and farmers. The WSWG will work with the Consortium for Unfavorable Rice Environments to test and introduce AWD in the mountains of northern Vietnam. (See RIPPLE Vol. 2, No. 3.)

Weed management work combats shift in weed species
About half of the rice area in the Mekong Delta is irrigated with three growing seasons, and the crop is mainly direct-seeded. With direct seeding, reliance on herbicides is high, resulting in an undesirable shift in weed species and concern about environmental contamination. The collaboration of the Labor Productivity Work Group (LPWG) with CLRRI has had a strong focus on changes in weed species and their population dynamics resulting from the transition to direct-seeded rice from transplanting. This work is continuing and is the forerunner of similar projects in India and Bangladesh.

The research collaboration on weeds has also involved the characterization of weedy rice, management strategies, and determining the potential for gene flow between domesticated and weedy rice varieties. Weedy rice was first detected in Vietnam in 1994. Recently, the LPWG began a study with the Plant Protection Research Institute in northern Vietnam to examine the amount of herbicide contamination in drainage waters around rice areas. This is intended to provide some baseline studies that will help guide future practice and policies.
 

Trina Mendoza (t.mendoza@cgiar.org),
Bas Bouman (b.bouman@cgiar.org), Roland Buresh (r.buresh@cgiar.org), Martin Gummert (m.gummert@cgiar.org), David Johnson (d.johnson@cgiar.org), Ruben Lampayan (r.lampayan@cgiar.org), and Grant Singleton (g.singleton@cgiar.org)

Country Outreach Programs archive