Vietnam - Achievements

Achievements

Key indicators and performance for 2007-08

Indicator: Linkages between ACIAR-funded research and AusAID-funded development continues to be fostered

Performance: ACIAR program shift to support two ‘lagging regions’, including those with significant ethnic minorities, aligns closely with AusAID-funded national poverty reduction support programs. Several AusAID Collaboration for Agriculture and Rural Development (CARD) projects commenced in 2007–08 closely link with current or concluded ACIAR projects.

Indicator: New training and information exchange activities in biosafety and biotechnology regulation undertaken

Performance: Key Vietnamese scientists and policymakers supported to attend targeted training run by the Asian Institute of Technology in December 2007.

Indicator: NGO and community organisation linkages established in at least three projects

Performance: NGOs involved in three active projects: World Vision: soil management and cattle-raising; Oxfam: pig marketing; and Vietnam Women’s Union have a leadership role in work on indigenous vegetable production and marketing.

Indicator: Programmatic shift to emphasis on better processing technologies for two timber species leads to development of highervalue forest products

Performance: Significant progress made on research on sawing of young eucalypts. Emerging interest in utilisation of acacias for sawn timber in Vietnam. Commencement of project on developing silvicultural systems for acacia sawlog production delayed until July 2008.

Indicator: Enhancement of quarantine capabilities in fumigation and plant disease diagnosis

Performance: Six workshops on phosphine fumigation held throughout Vietnam, which assisted in implementing new national fumigation standards. Fumigation manual was prepared in Vietnamese. A project on plant disease diagnosis increased diagnostic and plant pathology skills of researchers and extension workers in central Vietnam.

Indicator: Enhancement of Vietnamese capacity in aquaculture of high-value species

Performance: Development of diets for mud crabs successful at laboratory scale. Research on oysters and other edible molluscs led to an increase in hatchery capacity.

Indicator: 40 per cent of new projects designed to have significant farmer or policymaker impacts within five years of completion

Performance: Three of the four projects commenced in 2007–08 (trade liberalisation; indigenous vegetable production; marketing and mollusc hatchery technology) were designed to have significant policymaker or community impacts within five years of completion.

Achievements from the 2007-08 Annual Report

Subprogram 1: Increasing market competitiveness of Vietnamese agricultural and fisheries products

A: Better policy interventions for meeting market specifications and opportunities

Vietnam has achieved remarkable economic growth since it liberalised its markets, and further economic growth and opportunities are predicted both within and outside the agriculture sector. With some 70 per cent of the population still living in rural areas, Vietnam’s integration into the global economy is likely to impact rural incomes. A new project will assess the structural adjustment issues associated with trade liberalisation<.strong>, using quantitative economic models, and will involve identification of vulnerable groups and industries and assessment of domestic policy options for facilitating structural adjustment.

While agricultural research and extension are increasingly being viewed by the Vietnamese Government as priorities, an ACIAR project is addressing Vietnam’s need for enhancing project impact and science capability through a robust evaluation framework necessary for public accountability. Australian project evaluations suitable to Vietnamese were identified together with guidelines for trialling on selected projects. Training was delivered to the Vietnamese evaluation officers in Vietnam and case studies developed. Concept Mapping Workshops generated a series of indicators which were mapped against the Science Capability identified through the research process. Using the Australian Business Excellence Framework as a guide, a Science Capability Framework was also developed. The Evaluation Model developed by the project is now being implemented and is in effective use in Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development’s R&D projects.

In a major ACIAR project (covering Indonesia and Vietnam) that could prove critical to the way avian influenza is tackled, researchers are looking at small-scale Vietnamese famers to study transmission of H5N1 in domestic ducks. Most of the birds in Vietnam were reported to be vaccinated. It was reported that 60 per cent of vaccinated ducks and 39 per cent of vaccinated chickens had protective antibody levels and no mortality due to HPAI. Chickens responded to vaccination later than ducks and had lower antibody levels. Results suggest that protective levels of immunity in all birds after vaccination is not necessary to prevent disease outbreaks and reduce mortality. Vaccination status, the presence of other poultry species kept on the farm, and the sharing of scavenging areas have been identified as risk factors for disease outbreaks. Overall the project is confirming that ducks are important in outbreaks of HPAI, that they can respond to vaccination, and that nomadic flocks are significant in the spread of infection. The researchers are hoping to be able to develop recommendations for authorities about the role of ducks, how vaccination might work best and how infection in ducks could be effectively monitored. There has been wide media coverage and extension work throughout Vietnam and a well-delivered public health message.

A new project is addressing the rapid increase in demand for pork in Vietnam. Successful commercial smallholder pig farming may help to meet the demand while alleviating some of the country’s widespread rural poverty. The project is looking at changing dynamics of the pig sector and the technology, policy, market institution or coordination options that will give smallholder pig producers in Vietnam better access to higher-value market chains and niche markets. The project team met with a wide audience of key stakeholders including policymakers, non-government organisations, researchers, pig producers, and donor agencies at a project inception workshop. This was followed by a series of participatory rapid appraisal surveys to provide a broad characterisation of the existing pig supply chains and two major detailed surveys on consumers and producers. The project team has also expanded with the participation of two more NGOs and linkages with other livestock-related initiatives to ensure a pathway for uptake of project outcomes.

B: Enhanced quality and reduced losses in crops and forest products

A concluding project to improve the skills in diagnosis, extension and control of crop diseases in central provinces has seen the production of a manual and sets of colour pamphlets to assist extension workers with disease diagnosis. A number of diagnostic laboratories have been established, giving increased opportunity to interact with district staff and farmers in disease surveys, collaborate in field trials and monitor diseases. Scientists at the Plant Quarantine Diagnostic Centre in Hanoi are now implementing the findings of an earlier project that developed national phosphine fumigation standards for Vietnam to control insect infestation in stored grains. This work provides essential support to the country’s growing export trade, helps to ensure internal food security and underpins effective quarantine protocols. A first step is a national program to train officers from three key phosphine user groups. ACIAR supported six three-day workshops in centres throughout Vietnam that emphasised practical aspects of fumigation but also included information on relevant legislation and development of phosphine resistance and management. Officers are now equipped to implement the changes, which include increased use of safety equipment, better sealing of fumigations, and use of gas concentration monitoring instruments.

Vietnam needs comprehensive information about local fruit fly species in order to develop an export trade in fresh fruits and certain vegetables. Also, in northwestern Vietnam new plantings of temperate and subtropical fruits, established for development of poor areas, are suffering close to 100 per cent fruit fly damage. Farmers have become disillusioned and will abandon the development schemes unless solutions are found quickly. A project is ascertaining the economically important species of fruit fly and the host fruits of every species identified. It is also measuring damage levels of the major species and their seasonality, and is introducing environmentally friendly, preharvest control by bait-spraying. There are now two factories in Vietnam producing protein bait, one in the north and one in the south, and there is progress in producing bait ‘sticker’ as an efficient means of placing the attractant and a minute amount of insecticide on trees.

In collaboration with the Vietnam Women’s Union, a new project was commenced on the production and utilisation of indigenous vegetables by women in Vietnam – designed to specifically target the safe production, promotion and utilisation of indigenous vegetables and the role of women in these activities. A scoping study that investigated potential vegetables laid the foundation for the four-year project. Commencing in Pho Tho province in the north, local women’s groups have been formed and are now sharing knowledge of local vegetables and planning which vegetables to develop.

C: Competitive and sustainable aquaculture and livestock production

In aquaculture and mariculture, small-scale aquaculture of freshwater species in the Mekong delta is a potentially important source of income, but is constrained by costs associated with feed and feeding. An ACIAR project is developing diets based on locally available ingredients for improved production of catfish and tilapia for the two countries (Vietnam and Cambodia), and also studied nutritional requirements of barramundi in Australia. Scientists have used growth and metabolic models to determine nutritional needs at different water temperatures. This information has been vital in formulating diets for the three species. In March 2008 a two-day extension workshop on fish nutrition and feed management was held at the Phu Tao Field Station in Hai Duong. The program included a half-day field trip to tilapia farms to view feed manufacture and feeding practices.

Market demand for lobster is rising throughout much of the world, despite lobster fisheries being fished at either maximum capacity or being in decline. A project seeks to lift lobster aquaculture in Vietnam through assessing the ecological impact of collecting seed lobsters, reducing post-capture losses, and developing best practice husbandry for grow-out. Study of seed lobsters for the most sought-after species, Panulirus ornatus, revealed that the harvest of seed was only half that of the previous season. This has been compounded by severe lobster disease problems, which are leading farmers to choose finfish culture ahead of lobster. Efforts to encourage lobster culture have also centred on the role of transport and nursery cage practices on the growth and survival of seed lobsters. Researchers have found that, within the bounds of current commercial practices, stocking density and initial land-based holding time had only slight effects on subsequent growth and survival of the lobsters. However, increasing transport time had a profound adverse effect on survival rate, which often was apparent only after 30 days of nursery culture. Researchers are looking for improved transport methods that reduce the stress on the lobsters.

Work has also been undertaken to develop improved and less-polluting methods for seacage grow-out of lobsters. Early results indicated that lobsters fed trash fish with mussels grew and survived better than those fed only trash fish. But it was found that the inclusion of soybean meal in the diet brought about an almost linear decline in lobster growth rate. Culturing mussels alongside the lobster cages improved the environmental conditions adjacent to the cages, and widespread adoption of this practice could help ameliorate the poor water quality in Van Phong Bay.

Sustainable income generation for smallholder farmers in the central provinces is a major development issue. The Quang Ngai Rural Development Program determined that cattle rearing and, in particular, finishing were the most desired income-generating activities for households, but farmers and extension staff had insufficient knowledge about cattle nutrition and production. An ACIAR project developed inventories of feeds available in Quang Ngai and a database of their nutritive characteristics, then provided local supplementary feeding response data to help predict live weight gain from a range of feeding options and to estimate likely profitability. Researchers recommended further research to reduce the amount of protein in formulated concentrates as a way to contain feed costs. Participatory on-farm research activities confirmed that the concentrate feeding options were suitable for rural households and were more profitable than existing feeding systems, and the farmers accepted them well.

With pig production in Vietnam such an important industry for smallholder farmers, who supply 80 per cent of all pigs, the longterm viability of production is threatened by the high cost of feeds. A key ACIAR livestock program is addressing the rising commercial, imported feeds for pigs by researching the use of local ingredients in pig feeds. While the use of cheaper local feedstuffs was indentified as a viable solution, it was limited by a lack of knowledge of their suitability for pigs. This project aims to bridge the gap by assessing locally available protein and energy sources as potential components of commercial pig diets. Detailed chemical analysis and on-station digestibility and feeding studies have been conducted for a number of local feeds. Four feeds are being initially studied - rubber seed meal, sesame seed and cottonseed meals to replace imports of soy meal, and cassava as a potential replacement for imported corn. As each contains anti-nutrient factors that reduce nutrient intake, these factors are also being examined to determine how to reduce them to acceptable levels. It is anticipated that performance testing and on-farm assessment will follow the laboratory analysis work undertaken to date.

Subprogram 2: Optimising water and soil management for sustainable production, particularly on degraded lands in central Vietnam

Central coastal Vietnam is the driest part of the country with most of the rain falling in only three to four months of the year. A project aims to increase the efficiency of using scarce irrigation water and improve soil management in horticultural tree crops in the central coast provinces. A survey of farmer practices conducted in Ninh Thuan and Binh Dinh provinces has questioned 300 farmers about their farming system, water use and fertiliser use. In March 2008 a consultation workshop involving 50 Vietnamese stakeholders and several ACIAR staff commenced the design of a new program to identify cost-effective and sustainable crop cultivation and livestock production systems for the infertile, sandy soils of the south central region. This region and the north-western highlands are becoming the high priority areas for ACIAR’s program in Vietnam.

Development of a decision support framework is allowing basic soil information to be interpreted in terms of soil constraints to productivity and to be synthesised into management strategies appropriate for maintaining the long-term productivity of upland soils. Results obtained in a site-specific context can then be applied at a provincial/catchment scale. The scientists are applying geo-coded soil survey data and a simple Soil Constraints and Management Package (SCAMP) in making better informed decisions about sustainable soil management. So far they have used SCAMP to process the information from a soils map at 1:100,000 scale for Gia Lai Province. As well, the SCAMP manual and supporting resource materials have been translated into Vietnamese. SCAMP courses are teaching provincial and district extensionists and project staff and leaders of World Vision agricultural development projects how to apply the package themselves.

Agricultural R&D has not traditionally connected with Vietnam’s rural development programs. Work is now under way to train selected Vietnamese R&D practitioners in how to tailor research and development agendasetting and output to suit the needs of ethnic minority communities in the Central Highlands with a focus on crop protection. So far, researchers have conducted a needs and opportunity assessment study that included interviews with leaders and members of seven ethnic minority communities in Dak Lak and Gia Lai provinces, together with a survey among staff and managers of research and extension institutes, five in the Central Highlands and one in Hanoi. This work established a good basis for the research method in a more extensive project in the North West. This second study conducted in Yen Bai, Lai Chau and Lao Cai provinces identified and trained local survey teams and then carried out more extensive farmer group surveys and interviews with district and province officials. A final workshop in June 2008 culminated in the analysis of survey results and discussions with a range of stakeholders on research needs and opportunities principally for ethnic minority farmers in this area. The results in this study will be a key part of the information to the development of ACIAR’s research program in the north west.

Since the 1980s there has been a focus in Vietnam on more efficient nutrient use in rice production. Success has been achieved using inoculant biofertilisers, and the plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) have been shown to promote the nutrientefficient growth of cereal crops. Preliminary research funded by ACIAR and AusAID verified in field trials near Hanoi that the PGPR effect can reliably increase the average yield of rice by 10–20 per cent. A biofertiliser product, now registered as Biogro, has been developed, and project work is now extending to farmer trials of biofertiliser technology in the Mekong Delta region. Farmers have reported improved quality of rice with brighter grain, reduced lodging and less need for chemical pest control as well as more efficient use of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium.

Well grown eucalypts provide high value wood for use in construction joinery and furniture. Poor yields result from growth stresses released upon sawing that cause distortion and splitting in logs, so eucalypts in many developing countries are mainly used for fuelwood, pulp and poles. Two projects are focusing ways to reduce losses: one through genetic and silvicultural controls, the other through better sawing methods. The first project has completed several major wood quality assessments in key trials in all partner countries (China, Vietnam and Australia). Silvicultural and genetic trials of selected Eucalyptus species have been assessed for a range of wood properties and a range of non-destructive assessment techniques evaluated. In Vietnam the eucalypts assessed were progeny trials of Eucalyptus urophylla and Eucalyptus pellita.

With the majority of the large wood quality assessments now complete, the project is moving into a phase of analysis, modelling
and evaluation of the economics of the results, working in close collaboration with the team studying better sawing methods in the three countries. In the latter project, a processing trial is currently under development for thinned 11-year-old E. urophylla at Ba Vi in northern Vietnam. The trial is being conducted at the Pisico sawmill at Quy Nhon in central Vietnam, using standard sawing patterns for teak and a modified cutting pattern to assess the potential to reduce board-end splitting.

The choice of Meliaceae species such as mahogany, Chukrasia, and red cedar, Toona ciliata, in South-East Asia and Australia is based on the high-value wood they produce. A barrier to plantation development has been infestations of the Hypsipyla genus of insects—shoot borers that cause deformation that lowers the quality of harvested logs. Previous ACIAR-supported research has advanced domestication prospects and identified hypsipyla-resistant families and provenances. Current research will identify, develop and test tolerant Toona ciliata and Chukrasia, and improve silvicultural and management protocols to mitigate attacks.

The ‘guava effect’: a new tool in the fight against citrus greening

Huanglongbing, or citrus greening, is a disease spread by the Asiatic citrus psyllid. Despite the use of pesticides, the disease has prevented the establishment of viable citrus industries in parts of Asia, seriously affecting the welfare of farmers and national economies. It is also a threat to biodiversity through the loss of citrus species and citrus relatives that are endemic to the region.

Huanglongbing and the citrus psyllid do not occur in Australia, but there is a high risk that they could be introduced by natural and unintentional human-assisted spread through Indonesia and Papua New Guinea on known and possibly alternative hosts. While recognising that complete control is not possible, there is merit in gaining better understanding of the psyllid vector in order to minimise populations and reduce disease transmission, and to optimise the role of natural enemies to the psyllid within sustainable integrated crop management programs. In southern Vietnam, project scientists have tested the application of mineral oils, pesticides and other management strategies.

An exciting development involves the interplanting of guava among citrus trees, a practice first identified by Vietnamese citrus growers. The guava plants appear to contain an aromatic compound that repels the psyllid. The incidence of greening was markedly reduced in trials of mixed guava and citrus. And the scientists confirmed that the disease had not appeared for 15 years in some small Vietnamese groves growing citrus and guava together. The impact of guava interplanting on the spread of the disease has the potential to increase the economics of citrus production in the Mekong Delta and similar environments through dramatic reductions in pesticide use and increased longevity of citrus orchards and income from the sale of citrus fruit. The effect of guava interplants on the spread of the disease has gained worldwide attention. Huonglongbing has taken hold in Florida and is starting to markedly affect production in the citrus industry. Researchers there have investigated many avenues for possible means of combating the disease.

A plant pathologist from the U.S. Horticultural Research Lab in Florida learnt about the ‘guava effect’ from ACIAR project researchers. The meeting led to a visit to the site in Vietnam by a delegation of Florida citrus researchers. They were impressed by what they saw. Now the research lab is jump-starting research by buying 15,000 to 20,000 guava trees to learn more about how the guava might suppress the psyllids that spread greening. They have committed US$10 million towards research into the disease.

One aspect of the study was that Vietnamese growers divided their groves half and half between citrus and guava trees, which would be unfeasible economically in Florida and in developing countries with large citrus industries. The U.S. researchers will focus on the naturally occurring volatile compounds in guava that confuse or repel the psyllids. If they can isolate the compound and prove its effectiveness against the psyllid, it would then be possible to synthesise it for application as a spray or pellet in a citrus grove. A successful product would also benefit citrus growers in Asia.