Welcome to the Homepage of the Vietnam SRI Project!

 SRI is a set of effective, eco-friendly rice farming practices proven to increase crop productivity, while at the same time reducing inputs such as seed, water, fertilizer and pesticides. Though effective, SRI represents a radical break from traditional farming practices in most rice-growing regions, and requires effective education and awareness building among farmers before it can be implemented successfully. When adopted, though, SRI can bring dramatic improvements to the livelihoods of rural communities.

Over the past year, three program partners, Oxfam Quebec, the Plant Protection Department (PPD), and the Centre for Sustainable Rural Development (SRD), have, with funding from Oxfam America, worked to develop a collaborative initiative that aims to support small-scale rice farmers through SRI implementation. The initial implementation of the SRI program in Vietnam took place in 12 communes, distributed among six provinces: Ha Tay, Yen Bai, Phu Tho, Thai Nguyen, Nghe An and Ha Tinh. This initiative is part of Oxfam America’s broader Livelihood and Income Security program in the Mekong Sub-region (including Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam).

Watch this space for more information and updates on the program’s progress.

New Vietnam SRI Posters

Below please find a series of posters that the Vietnam SRI team has prepared on SRI, our work in Vietnam, and our strategic objectives. You can also download the posters in PDF format here.

Vietnam SRI Update

A new Vietnam SRI Update is now available for download in PDF format. This update summarizes the current state of SRI in Vietnam, the achievements we’ve had thus far with SRI,  and the challenges that lie ahead. We’ve also included two case studies, which provide a more detailed picture of the impact SRI is having on farmers’ livelihoods and the enthusiasm and capacity for innovation that we have seen at the grassroots level.

Some of the charts from the report, along with pictures from the field, are included in the slideshow below. Enjoy!

SRI in Laos

In addition to Vietnam and Cambodia, SRI is also starting to catch on in Laos as well. A Japanese NGO called Pro-Net 21 is working to promote SRI there, and they’ve recently been featured in the local press.

Here are some pictures from the Pro-Net 21 website:

Mr. Shimazaki from Pro-Net 21 promoting SRI at a national development conference

Local weeding methods

Vietnam SRI in the News

The successful uptake of SRI in Ha Tay has become international news!

Please check out this article from the New Agriculturalist.  Besides mentioning Vietnam, it also provides a nice overview of SRI and its successes so far.

Land Accumulation: Opportunity or Threat for Small Farmers in Vietnam?

Vietnam is a nation of small farmers, with average holdings of paddy land under 0.5 ha per household.

Private land tenure only recently returned to rural Vietnam, with the dismantling of the collective farms in the 1980s and 1990s, and remains heavily restricted. Agricultural land is still technically owned by the state, and farmers  receive use-rights for 20 year terms. There is a proposal on the table, however, to further loosen restrictions on land ownership, with the aim of fostering land accumulation and defragmentation of holdings. The fear, however, is that an unfettered land market could have negative consequences for the poor, leading to rising landlessness and inequality.

Since our work is focused on improving the livelihoods and competitiveness of small farmers, we are watching this issue closely. If you would like to learn more about land accumulation, please read the article below (or at its original location here).

Report on Hybrid Rice in Vietnam

Here’s another interesting item, this time from GRAIN on hybrid rice in Vietnam:

Vietnam: Farmers not benefiting from hybrid rice

Posted:  08 April 2009

http://www.grain.org/hybridrice/?lid=217

A new study of farmer experiences with hybrid rice in Vietnam raises questions about the merits of the Vietnamese government’s support for hybrid rice.

Tran Duc Vien and Nguyen Thi Duong Nga of the the Center for Agricultural Research and Ecological Studies at the Hanoi University of Agriculture conducted a survey of 100 farm households in Ha Tay and Nam Dinh provinces of the Red River Delta in the spring and summer seasons of 2007. The Red River Delta, in the north of Vietnam, is the main hybrid rice growing region in the country.

They found that yields of hybrid varieties were not significantly different from inbred varieties. The farmers they surveyed reported an average increase in yield of only 2.1% with hybrid varieties. Their findings contrast with the statistics provided by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), which have consistently shown a yield increase with hybrid rice of around 30% over inbreds. Tran and Nguyen found that the positive impact of hybrids on the income of the farm households surveyed was “insignificant”.

But, in looking only at the official data on hybrid rice supplied by MARD, the two researchers still uncovered a number of problems with the national hybrid rice programme that the government has invested over $5 million in during the past decade. Tran and Nguyen found that, according to the MARD data, there has been almost no improvement in yield for hybrid rice since the country began producing hybrid rice in the early 1990s. From 1992-2006 the yields of hybrid rice have increased by only 0.1% annually, whereas the yields of inbreds have increased by 2.4% annually over the same period.

Year of Rice Action (YORA)

This year,  one of the Vietnam SRI partners, the Centre for Sustainable Rural Development, is helping to coordinate the international Year of Rice Action (YORA), in conjunction with the Pesticide Action Network, Asia Pacific (PANAP). This global campaign is designed to raise awareness of threats to rice cultivation and rice livelihoods, such as genetic engineering, overdependence on pesticides and fertilizers, and unbalanced trade agreements.

Keep reading to see SRD’s press release on rice issues in Vietnam, and to watch a brief video on YORA.

SRI in the News: Growing Rice Debt Free

SRI was recently  featured in a report on National Public Radio in the US. You read the report here or download the audio here.

Here’s a brief excerpt:

A school girl helps plant rice seedlings in the SRI grid pattern. (Photo: Beth Hoffman, www.loe.org)

“Advocates in rural India believe the solution is to make farmers more self-reliant, by using free, low-tech solutions, like organic farming and something called SRI, a System of Rice Intensification.

Suklambar Nial works with a local non-profit, training farmers in SRI. The method uses as little as one tenth of the seed and far less water than conventional rice farming. And the yields have been impressive.

NIAL: ‘Last year in another field they grow 10 quintals. And here, with SRI system, they got 15 quintals.’

These results have not gone unnoticed. Worldwide, there are now an estimated one million farmers using the SRI method. The World Wildlife Federation, and the World Bank, now sanction its use. And there are no patents or intellectual property involved – it’s free for farmers to use.”

Case Study: Improving Livelihoods through SRI

Mr. Nguyen Huy Lieu, Phu Tho Province

”If only I’d known about SRI earlier…”

Mr. Lieu

These are words that Mr. Nguyen Huy Lieu repeated many times during a field-day workshop to evaluate the application of SRI. Mr. Lieu is one of the first 30 farmers in Kinh Ke commune, Lam Thao district, to participate in SRI trials for the 2008 spring crop. In the beginning, despite the training he received from experienced technicians and the field visit he paid to successful SRI fields in Ha Tay, Mr. Lieu still doubted that SRI techniques would improve his yields. Traditionally, rice seedlings are transplanted when they have four or five leaves and four to six tillers per cluster. But the SRI method is to transplant smaller seedlings, with only two leaves and one tiller, and to space the transplanted seedlings much more widely than is traditionally done. Out of curiosity, though, he decided to try SRI in one sao (a Vietnamese unit of area equal to 360 square meters) of his family’s rice paddies.

Getting More for Less

Taking note of the instructions and information that he had received, Mr. Lieu realised that if he followed the principles of SRI, his fields would need just one-fifth of the seeds normally required and one-half of the labour for transplantation. Moreover, his fields would need half as much fertiliser as he normally used, and would require no pesticides. On top of these reduced inputs, the average yield for one SRI sao is 260kg, while that of a non-SRI sao is just under 200kg. “Doing the calculations, I realised that using SRI would increase my profits by 120,000 VND per sao. What’s more, the SRI grains look plumper, shinier and even cleaner,” said a happy Mr. Lieu.

Non-SRI (left) and SRI roots (right)

 

Changing Mindsets, Improving Livelihoods

With the spring crop producing encouraging results, Mr. Lieu has become convinced of the benefits and effectiveness of SRI, and for the autumn crop, he and his family are planning to apply SRI in 3.6 sao. At the moment, his SRI crop is in the “red tail” phase, with about 18 to 20 strong, long, and grain-rich flowers per cluster. To Mr. Lieu, this is a sign that his SRI field will be much more productive than his other fields. Having gained both technical instruction and practical experience in the application of SRI, and having seen the results of SRI first-hand, both in his fields and in the fields of others, Mr. Lieu has now become a strong advocate for SRI in his community, encouraging others to overcome their hesitation and embrace the new technique.

SRI by the Numbers

The 2008 summer/fall season was the second season of the Oxfam America SRI program in Vietnam. Continuing and expanding its earlier efforts, the program provided training and support on SRI adoption in a total of 13 communes, located in 7 districts in 6 provinces (Yen Bai, Ha Tay, Thai Nguyen, Phu Tho, Nghe An, and Ha Tinh). With the strong support of local officials and community members, the program was able to achieve the following milestones:

• 385 key farmers (of whom 76% are women) were trained. These farmers are skilled SRI practitioners who provide training to others in their communities.
• 41 SRI research plots in 13 communes, with the participation of 325 farmers (76% of whom are women)
• 20 workshops and conferences organized, with 1,861 farmers and local authorities participating
• 26 study and exposure visits, in which 2,150 took part
• 5.8% to 14.4% productivity increases.
• 21.3% to 50% profit increases.
• 6.2% to 30.5% decreases in urea use.
• 33.3% to 83% decreases in pesticide application.
• 11% to 50% decreases in irrigation expenses.

The chart below provides a more detailed breakdown of these indicators: