Overview
ACIAR and the Vietnam Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) have agreed on integrated research and development to produce sustainable and profitable crop and livestock systems for the south-central coastal region of Vietnam. This region is characterised by sandy infertile soils and a long dry season (6-9 months) and has lower income levels than other regions of Vietnam.
This multi-disciplinary project aimed to identify and facilitate adoption of promising resource management practices for sustainable and profitable crop and livestock production systems best suited to local conditions and able to improve market engagement - focusing on the provinces of Binh Dinh, Phu Yen and Ninh Thuan with an emphasis on coastal and sloping areas less than 400 metres above sea level.
It involved four linked components; the first three were part of this project, and the fourth was part of project SMCN/2003/035. The components were:
- Value chain analysis for sustainable and profitable farming systems on the south-central coast
- Sustainable cropping systems for sandy soils of south-central Vietnam
- Better integration of beef cattle production with crop production systems in south-central coastal Vietnam
- Improving the utilisation of water and soil resources for tree crop production in coastal areas (SMCN/ 2003/035).
Focus areas were: cashew and/or mango intercropped with legumes such as peanut and soybean or non-legumes such as cassava on aeolian and granitic sands; vegetable production systems (onion, garlic, tomato) on coastal sands; beef cattle production integrated with forage and field crop production.
