In Vietnam, agricultural R&D has not been closely connected with the country's rural development programs. This project will train selected Vietnamese R&D practitioners in how to tailor research and development agenda-setting and output to suit the needs of ethnic minority communities in the Central Highlands - with a focus on crop protection. Activities include: (a) a needs and opportunity assessment study involving the communities and community-based organisations working with them; (b) a study identifying appropriate research partners in Vietnam for follow-up participatory research; (c) the design and implementation of a training workshop on participatory research and dissemination. The project should assist the development of an R&D program that targets the crop and pest management needs of these communities.
The SRA team conducted a needs and opportunity assessment study consisting of (1) a literature review of development issues relating to ethnic minorities in the Central Highlands; (2) interviews with 14 leaders and 79 members of seven ethnic minority communities in Dak Lak and Gia Lai provinces; (3) a survey among 54 staff and seven managers of five research and extension institutes in the Central Highlands and one in Hanoi. The information obtained from these activities primarily served as background material and a reality check during a training workshop on 'Planning Research and Development Targeted at Ethnic Minorities' for 25 research and extension practitioners, which aimed to prepare them for future collaboration in a planned follow-up project in the Central Highlands, applying participatory approaches.
The field interviews provided an opportunity for project partners to learn from first hand experience what the issues are and how they are perceived by the local people themselves. Despite the fact that selected communes were not amongst the remotest in the provinces and community members participating in the interviews were invited by the commune leaders (probably implying a biased sample selection towards the relatively better off) the results show some important trends. With regard to education and languages issues, it was found that just over one-third of the respondents feel comfortable communicating in Vietnamese, notwithstanding the fact that the large majority attained several years of formal education. Interestingly, commune leaders tend to assess their people as being more proficient in Vietnamese than they are themselves. About half of the commune leaders use Vietnamese in their communications to the community, as a result of which community members complain that language is one of the constraints in dealing with the government, in addition to long distances and difficulties of getting access to government officials.
With regard to farmers' information access, a large majority of respondents in the communities in Gia Lai and Dak Lak (78% and 69%, respectively) expressed a need for information on agricultural topics. They particularly want to know about fertilisation and pest management practices and where they can purchase inputs for a reasonable price, which shows they know about input-intensive technologies but have not received adequate training or information. Most farmers reported that they had never or seldom met an extension officer and their main sources of information are their fellow farmers or the agricultural input retailers. Extension officers interviewed expressed a concern about the knowledge of ethnic minority farmers relating to aspects of marketing, as a result of which they often sell their products for too low a price. When asked about their preferred communication medium, a similarly large majority of respondents mentioned television, which they say is for mere entertainment since most of the programs aired are in Vietnamese language that they claim to have difficulty with. Local language programs, mainly local news, are broadcast only three times a week for 15 minutes in each of the major ethnic minority languages. As a means to improve communication within the local area, 62 and 83% of respondents in Gia Lai and Dak Lak, respectively, suggested establishing community radio facilities broadcasting in local languages.
The survey among research and extension staff revealed that a minority of both Hanoi and Central Highlands based researchers have had little exposure to training (30%) or field work (21%) applying a participatory approach, while almost all their colleagues at the university (80%) seemed to have had more opportunities. A fair proportion of the extension staff (especially in Gia Lai province) claims to have learned about participation but generally does not apply it. The main constraints to implementation of participatory approaches mentioned are budget constraints, language barriers and infrastructure constraints (roads, training facilities), together with low awareness and 'unfavourable attitude of farmers towards innovation'. The last aspect casts some doubts on the understanding some of the respondents may have with regard to participatory approaches.
A training workshop resulted in a framework for a follow-up project with the overall goal tentatively formulated as 'Increasing income of ethnic minority farmers through improved soil health and land management capacity in marginal agroecosystem systems in the Central Highlands of Vietnam'.
Links:
[1] http://www.aciar.gov.au/country/Vietnam
[2] http://www.aciar.gov.au/programarea/Crop Protection
[3] http://www.aciar.gov.au/Pacific Crops