Helping farmers in central Vietnam

Imagine being the program coordinator for a relatively new but dynamic approach to nutrient management called site-specific nutrient management (SSNM). You organize provincial and regional workshops, and training for farmers, researchers, and extension specialists. Taking 6-hour train rides or bumpy motorbike trips to visit field sites is a routine. You meet with local authorities to try to expand your program. And, perhaps the most difficult part is you teach farmers how to apply the technology, and encourage them enough so that they continue practicing it in the long haul.

One lady scientist, Dr. Tran Thi Thu Ha, doesn’t need to imagine; she has been doing all these things on a regular basis since 2005, as the program coordinator for SSNM activities in central Vietnam.

Dr. Ha is a soil scientist and head of the Soil Science and Environment Department at the Hue University of Agriculture and Forestry (HUAF) in Vietnam. Aside from research, she also teaches land evaluation, fertilization, and soil fertility to HUAF students. And she enjoys doing both.

Since 2005, she has overseen the SSNM program in central Vietnam. “I do not feel any difficulty as an SSNM program coordinator because the farmers here are very happy benefiting from the program,” explains Dr. Ha. “I understand that it is not easy to be a good coordinator, but I know that Dr. Roland Buresh and Ms. Marianne Samson (of the Irrigated Rice Research Consortium’s Productivity and Sustainability Work Group) are always beside me. I constantly receive help from them, which is why I am able to do my duties well.”

Dr. Ha (right) and Dr. Buresh facilitate an SSNM workshop in October 2005 in Hue, central Vietnam. (Productivity and Sustainability WG photo)

Ms. Samson reveals that Dr. Ha is exceptionally devoted to her work and has great rapport with the farmers. “She’s very dedicated to helping central Vietnam farmers increase their rice yields,” says Ms. Samson. “She spends time working with farmer-leaders, visiting their sites, and patiently teaching them how to take measurements and do other activities.”

Starting with the first rice-cropping season of 2005, Dr. Ha introduced nutrient omission and addition techniques to a farmers’ cooperative in Huong Tra District, Thua Thien-Hue Province, teaching them to diagnose their own fields’ fertilizer needs. For the first time, farmers became aware of their soils’ zinc deficiencies and other nutrient needs. Soon, four more cooperatives became interested and, in 2006, formed a club where they shared information on nutrient and crop management for rice. Some farmers have even stopped using insecticide and fungicide on plots that have been treated appropriately with nutrients because insect and disease occurrences have been reduced.

SSNM recommendations for different soil types in Quang Nam and Thua Thien Hue provinces were developed and evaluated in 2006. Likewise, SSNM activities expanded to Binh Dinh Province in 2006.
Despite her demanding role, she takes it all in stride. After all, she’s had enough training herself as a team leader. She was the program coordinator in central Vietnam of the Balanced Fertilization for Better Crops, supported by the Potash and Phosphate Institute and the International Fertilizer Industry Association.
In 2001-04, she headed a nongovernment organization-supported land evaluation program, advising local decisionmakers on sustainable land use in Da Nang.

At home, she also leads her special team as mother to her 20- and 22-year-old sons, Huy and Hung. A typical nonworking day for Dr. Ha means cleaning the house in the morning and doing some gardening. Afterward, she goes to the market, then prepares lunch. In the afternoon, when all the housework is done, she listens to country or classical music, especially if it’s by her favorite pianist, Richard Clayderman.

She also loves to read after a busy day. Try giving her her favorite Leo Tolstoy novel, Anna Karenina or War and Peace, and you’ll be surprised to know she can read the original version in Russian! This is because she spent 9 years at Krasnodar University in Russia working toward her BS and MS in soil science. She earned another master’s degree in agronomy at Chiangmai University in Thailand and a PhD in agronomy and soil science at Hue University in Vietnam.

As for the future, Dr. Ha says, “I want to establish a network of farmers who are interested in soil fertility conservation and agriculture environment protection by using balanced fertilizer application, to ensure sustainable agricultural development in central Vietnam.”

Trina Mendoza (t.mendoza@cgiar.org)
 

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