The pursuit of water-saving continues in Vietnam

Target area in northern Vietnam for dissemination of alternate wetting and drying or aerobic rice in the spring season, when irrigation water availability is insufficient to grow continuously flooded lowland rice in all fields.

Since 2005, the Water-Saving Work Group of the Irrigated Rice Research Consortium (IRRC) has established activities on water management and water-saving in rice in the Mekong Delta in collaboration with Vietnam’s Plant Protection Department (PPD).

After an initial field visit of staff from the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) to the Central Delta region and a 1-day workshop at Long Xuyen in An Giang Province in January 2005, the PPD and An Giang Department of Agriculture organized a series of training activities for farmers and established demonstration fields on alternate wetting and drying (AWD) technology.

Subsequent outreach activities resulted in 161 farmers testing AWD on 168 hectares in 11 districts of An Giang in the winter 2005/spring 2006 seasons, followed by around 1,500 farmers on 1,700 hectares in the summer of 2006. In Tien Giang, 31 farmers tried out AWD in the summer, while 51 tested it in the autumn of 2006. In central Vietnam, PPD also tested AWD in Quang Nam, Thanh Hoa, and Nghe An.

In outreach activities, AWD technology was integrated in the successful “Three Reductions, Three Gains” program, which proved to be a good example of the integrated crop management approach. By asking farmers to record all operations, inputs, and outputs obtained during the cropping season, this gave them an idea of the yield obtained and yield-contributing factors, and if there were any savings in water and irrigation (pumping) costs.

An initial analysis of data from around 900 farmer respondents in the summer of 2006 in An Giang confirmed that AWD reduced water use and pumping costs. AWD farmers had, on average, two pumping operations (to irrigate their fields) less than the regular practice of continuous flooding, saving around 200,000 Vietnamese Dong (US$13) per hectare. Yields were significantly higher with AWD (5.63 tons per hectare) than with the regular practice (5.36 tons per hectare), although in absolute terms, the differences were quite small. An important factor contributing to higher yields under AWD management seemed to be a decrease in lodging (rice plants falling over), which is often associated with wet seeding, commonly practiced in the Mekong Delta. With AWD, lodging was on average 10%, whereas, with standard practice, it was on average 19%.

In late 2006, an extensive baseline survey was done in the Mekong Delta area where farmers are adopting AWD, to determine their attitudes toward and practices for water management. With the initial promising results of AWD in the Mekong Delta, plans were developed to take water-saving technologies to other parts of Vietnam where water is scarcer than in the Mekong Delta.

On 6 March, Dr. T.P. Tuong, head of the Crop and Environmental Sciences Division of IRRI, gave a presentation on “Water-saving irrigation: from research to technology dissemination,” focusing on AWD, at the Soil and Fertilizer Research Institute (SFRI). The seminar was organized by the Vietnam Academy of Agricultural Sciences (VAAS) and was attended by some 30 leaders and scientists from VAAS, SFRI, PPD, the Directorate of Science and Technology of MARD, Food Crops Research Institute (FCRI), the Department of Agriculture, Department
of Agricultural Extension, and Hanoi Agricultural University.

On 3 May, Dr. Bas Bouman (IRRI), Dang Thanh Phong (provincial PPD), and Le Quoc Cuong (PPD) organized a 1-day training course and workshop on water management and water-saving technologies hosted by the Northern Regional Plant Protection Center in Hung Yen Province. Some 40 participants from provincial PPDs in the Red River Delta attended the training, as well as representatives from FCRI, SFRI, and World Vision.

The training included lectures on AWD and on sound water management practices such as land leveling, bund maintenance, and construction of field channels. After the lectures, a forum was organized, followed by a short brainstorming with the participants on the usefulness and potential dissemination of the presented technologies in their own regions in the Red River Delta. At the end of the day, posters and folders in Vietnamese and tubes to monitor field water depth to assist in the implementation of AWD were distributed to all the participants.

Extension materials developed by the Work Group have been translated into the local language and intensively used by extension workers and farmers in Vietnam.

Three VAAS institutes have expressed great interest in contributing to further research, scientific development, and dissemination of water-saving technologies in Vietnam (especially AWD): FCRI, SFRI, and the Northern Mountainous Agriculture and Forestry Institute (NOMAFSI). During a meeting at FCRI on 2 May, Dr. Bouman met with VAAS President Dr. Nguyen Van Bo, FCRI Director Dr. Nguyen Van Tuat, SFRI Director Dr. Bui Huy Hien, and several staff members to discuss further collaboration on water management.
The first research already began at SFRI in 2005 with field experiments that looked at the integrated effects of AWD and improved nutrient management on rice production at three locations in Vietnam. This was an activity with the IRRC Productivity and Sustainability
Work Group. In May 2007, plans were made to start field experiments on AWD under different water table depths at the research station of FCRI at Gialoc, Haiduong.

Exciting opportunities were identified to link the IRRC Water-Saving Work Group with another consortium
hosted by IRRI—the Consortium for Unfavorable
Rice Environments (CURE)—through collaboration
with VAAS-NOMAFSI in the mountainous regions of northern Vietnam. One of the projects under the umbrella of CURE is part of the Challenge Program on Water and Food. One of the project’s aims is to disseminate water management technologies for rice to increase water productivity and make better use of scarce water resources.

During a project field trip to Yen Bai Province on 4-7 May, technologies developed by the Work Group, such as AWD and aerobic rice, were identified as very promising options for farmers growing lowland rice in inland valleys or on terraces on sloping hillsides. Plans were drafted for the establishment of demonstration fields of AWD and participatory variety selection for aerobic rice for the spring rice crop in 2007 and 2008. Also, further experimentation on AWD and/or aerobic rice can be pursued at the research station of NOMAFSI at Phu Tho.

As follow-up to these developments on water-saving technologies at the VAAS institutes, a training course and planning workshop are set for September or October 2007.

Bas Bouman (b.bouman@cgiar.org), T.P. Tuong (t.tuong@cgiar.org), and Ruben Lampayan (r. lampayan@cgiar.org), photos by Bas Bouman                                      

Country Outreach Programs archive