In strong cooperation with the Viet Nam Farmer’s Union (VNFU) International Cooperation Department, Prins – Land, Water & Food Consult and KnowH2O have performed a mission to rural Vietnam. We were invited by the Viet Nam Farmer’s Union VNFU and sponsored by the Netherlands Water Partnership. This mission visited Vietnam from March 1-11, 2016. Objective of this mission was to identify the needs of VNFU on the topics of water and climate change and to find a common base for possible projects. Therefore, several meetings were organized with VNFU at the province level in Bac Lieu, Ninh Thuan, and Binh Thuan province, with government representatives of MARD and MONRE, and with delegates from knowledge institutes like SIWRR and VAAS. In Hanoi, we also visited MARD, MONRE, VNFU-HQ, and the Dutch Embassy.

Our mission on ‘Water and Agriculture in Vietnam: Towards a climate-change resilient approach, by integrating local and regional scale issues’ focused on drought, salinization, and irrigation. We paid attention to the local and regional scale, from the farmer’s point of view. During the mission, we identified regions and crops which have to cope with extreme weather events, causing drought and salinization. We discussed the outline of project ideas. VNFU will play an important role in bridging the gap between science and the grass root level, fostering feasible solutions for Vietnamese farmers. We not only focused on water, but also took soil structure and soil chemistry, fertilization, and crop growth into account as well, integrating solutions at the farm level.

For the near future, we will aim at establishment of Vietnamese/Dutch partnerships, with public and private partners involved, which might be successful in applying grants for projects and beneficial loans for investments in irrigation systems and training of VNFU-staff and farmers.

To get an impression of our mission, watch the video at Prins – Land, Water & Food Consult (our partner):

http://landwaterfood.com/news?news_id=354463