- 3 talks and dialogues (100 turns) on the impacts of climate change and adaptation measures with the participation of government leaders, government departments and local communities Vinh Chau
- 2-4 classes for training and practice in the field (400 people) on methods of rapid identification of land degradation in the farming of other crops-purple-red onion; other red onion-vegetable-aromatic rice, in terms of land degradation due to drought, salinity intrusion in Vinh Chau. In particular the methods of assessment, identification is common for people is the simple method, inexpensive device support, high ability
- 6-8 training classes about measures for general farming-intensive model of purple-colored vegetables-red onion; other vegetable-red onion-scented rice drought, saltwater red onion planting techniques safety, and pest control measures on red onion plants.
- A visit (30-35 people) farming adapt to climate change.
- The community meeting, the bank conferences, workshops and evaluation experiences in the design and implementation of the project model.
- 77% of Khmer population Vinh Chau, mostly poor, low educational level. Per capita income is about 10 million / person / year, revenues mainly from red onion, rice and other crops (50%), and aquaculture (50%).
- Farming systems in Vinh Chau is primarily intercropping cultivation models : red onion- other crops- red onion, red oninon- other crops scented rice, the production area is 3200ha intercropping model in which mostly red onion farmland(1200ha), the remaining land for rice and other crops (Japanese sweet potato, radish, peppers ...)
- Red onion is the main income of the people, the traditional crops and also create their own brands on market . The market of Vinh Chau red onion is not only domestically but also exported to Japan and Indonesia.
Policy Impact
- For the red onions and crops cultivation, it should have policies to support and integrate climate change action plan of the locality as (1) design wet sprinkler system to meet water needs saving, make protection of groundwater use in the context of limited effectiveness, severe saltwater intrusion, (2) support the same policies, the price of agricultural materials, ... (3) strengthen agricultural extension and use of bio-organic fertilizer, pesticide biological, ... advised farmers farming production processes secure and sustainable. (4) Develop a model re-use waste by-product of purple red onion and other crops into organic fertilizer for soil improvement, environmental protection, sustainable farming.
- Propose policies to support the use of high yielding varieties of salt resistant rice , drought added to the structure of local varieties such as OM5461, OM6377, OM6976, ... and construction process of farming techniques on high yielding rice varieties of high quality, drought tolerant, salt tolerant suit local conditions.
Replication of project activities
- Location replication model: communes, wards with DK land, similar ecological Vinh Chau: Ward 1 (town of Vinh Chau), Lac Hoa commune, Vinh Hai.
- Planning and operation of the model include:
+ Evaluating and planning the structure of plants arranged in accordance with the participation. Structure and selection of appropriate technical measures for each sub-region. The project will be carried out on two crop rotation structure: the structure of seasonal rotation XH-color (with white radish, red onion seeds, green beans) - red onion varieties high sand mounds on soil structure and rotation of XH-season color (white radish, red onion seeds, green beans) - rice HT / aromatic rice / salt tolerant high yielding rice / paddy soil mounds in mid season low of 02 Vinh Hai and Hoa Lac.
+ Transfer of technology through TOT and FSS - Building model matches the area and the number of farmers involved. Scheduled to be held 5-6 TOT training by 10 officers / social / class, 10 training courses for a total of 500 FFS farmers / community.
+ Building is the organization of production, storage and supply of seeds of community involvement.
O Further testing of water-saving model for effective purple red onion. Water-saving models will be on 40-50 ha / commune with 40-50 farmers / community participation in the red onion structure rotation (of season) spring-summer color (like red onion or other crops ) - red onion / early season action, reduce irrigation costs by 5-10%, reduce watering from 10-12%, increase profits by 10-15% compared to traditional methods of irrigation farmers.
+ Develop a model re-use waste by-product of red onion plants and other crops into organic fertilizer for soil improvement. 2-3 The goal of building demonstration compost plant residues of the previous season, especially red onion leaves into organic biological fertilizer for the crops (spring summer), size 2 - 3 ha / village, combined with the secretion of chemical fertilizers was reduced by 10-15% through NPK fertilization balanced, reasonable and additional resources from organic sub-model re-use this waste.
+ Continuing to model performance measure integrated farming techniques to improve fertility and prevent land degradation and constraints, while ensuring the productivity and economic efficiency of the model crop rotation, application of advanced techniques combined with traditional knowledge of people and communities. Transfer techniques to farmers to adopt the model.
+ Promoting trade processing and red onion products and other crop products.
+ Promoting institutional development policy to support red onion goods
+ Lessons of the model are summarized and recommendations for local government for coastal farmers in Mekong Delta. Building farmers Soc Trang coastal practices and awareness in the use of proper models well adapted to farming conditions degraded soils due to drought and salinity.
+ Access to the system to support diversified livelihoods, contribute to reducing risks due to climate change
Weather and Adaptation
A. Natural climate
Located in the tropical monsoon climate Vinh Chau, divided into two distinct seasons, rainy season from May to November, dry season from December to May the following year. The average humidity around 83%. The average rainfall is 1840 mm, total sunshine hours average 2372 hours / year. Concentrated rainstorms from July to September; flood frequency may occur in August, the hurricane phenomenon usually occurs in July. The average temperature from 240C to 370C each year; 3 months every year the average temperature is 300C, the coldest month is February; incidence of frost may occur in December and January 01 each year.
Vinh Chau was named the "desert of the Cuu Long", with average annual rainfall is 1840mm, lower than the Mekong Delta region more than 100-200mm. Rainfall tends to decrease since 1970 (2 288mm) to 2008 (2 021mm), average rainfall 267 mm fell during 38 years. In dry season rainfall was only 75.6 mm Vinh Chau, accounting for 5.2% of average rainfall for the whole year, while a tremendous evaporation 755.2 mm rainfall than 9.4 times the same period. The dry season is also the driest time of the year along with the high temperature 35-36 ? C, ground temperatures up to 60 ? C, low humidity below 86% and depleted water levels have made love the drought in the extreme, almost every year there are droughts in late June last until August, called the term "Ms Chan", each phase lasting 5-12 days, land degradation reduction in crop yields. In Vinh Chau, drought caused rice farming activities take place only during the rainy season to avoid water shortage. Red onion, radish, peppers, sweet potatoes Japan ... also severely affected by water shortages during the dry season.
In addition, saline water intrusion in the situation worsened Vinh Chau, an average of 50km/nam, 2009 up to 67km. Salt mainly in the first months (from January to the first half of May) major intrusion into estuaries and going into the fields, unusual and complex from year to year, including the changes in time, scope and salt concentration, in Vinh Chau, highest salinity was 11.6 ? in 2010. In the rainy season, the tornado made salty sea levels brought on field crops damaged, causing increased salinity of the soil on high. Salt (NaCl concentration of 0.3%) into the rice fields and direct effect on productivity of rice or salt accumulation in the soil, causing damage to the following season. Salinity also contribute to soil nutrients in runoff, land degradation, soil salinity can not lead to the risk of farming salt desert. Mangrove invasion comes with dry soil degraded rapidly, take to provide nutrients for plants, resulting in the loss of biological resources reside. On the other hand, due to fresh demand for fresh water that the canal plant less water than other areas should be limited and salinity occur simultaneously during the dry season is exacerbated. In Vinh Chau, red onion, rice and other crops such as potato hybrid Japanese white radish, peppers ... underdevelopment and low productivity, so soils with low pH, poor soil organic matter, the reduced fertility.
Due to the drought and salinity increasing, lack of fresh water for living and agriculture (cultivated red onion, radish), people have exploited a widespread groundwater (along the Nam Song Hau, Vinh Chau district has more than 2,000 ground water wells), leading to declining aquifers, reducing water pressure. This increased permeability, salt water intrusion from the outside into the empty floor, causing saline aquifers. According to research water movement, the average annual groundwater level of Soc Trang decreased from 0.5 to 1 m in floor 90, down from 3-4 m in deeper water. Because the impact of climate change, the transformation of precipitation, sea level rise and increased temperatures will lead to reduced amounts of additional groundwater, causing saltwater intrusion and increased risk of depleting water if the continuing groundwater overexploitation.
2. Weather during project implementation
During project implementation from 2010-2012, the situation of erratic weather changes, detrimental to the crop due to drought and salinity increasing.
In the 2011 season, when the dry season 2-3 months, rainfall is only about 0-5mm, the water table was lower than before from 7-8m, with a strong dry winds 5-6 levels, salinization began reaching effects on the estuary, tough drought, salinity 3-4 ? appeared, affecting the productivity of some households planted late in the hamlet of both bright purple. By the time the white beet harvest in May 4-5, water salinity in the estuary has increased up to 8-10 ?. May and June, the weather continued in May with more unfavorable; long hot days the temperature, salinity increased the time of the month although there are many heavy rains, from early to mid-June was 2-3 large rainfall with up to 100-150 mm rainfall due to typhoon Song Da goes to the Philippines, a hamlet of households in the village A and Vinh Binh was affected by sowing green beans, peppers late (sown in early - mid April). While water resources of the people is mainly rain and weather of the summer season does not follow the rules of many years, including two real heat wave regular (or one long-term Ba Chan early July to early August and the heat wave from the middle to near the end of October), and appeared three major rainfall season in late November caused damage to the rice and red onions purple. Unusual heat wave from mid-May to end of 10/2011 that rice milk-dough stage to bear choking or more flat. The late rains from mid to late November as being lem flat rice seeds bear some households in the rice trade during late (between 8/2011) and cause rot purple red onion for households of early sowing 2011-2012 . Prolonged rain affect the time of sowing and harvesting rice (new rice sowing death, the rice was falling or flat grain lem-nine flowering stage).
In 2012 dry season, from May 2-3, saltwater intrusion into the depths of 30-40 km, 10-20 km less than the dry season of 2011. However, in mid-March / 2012, the main crop red onion harvest is almost complete. So drought and salinity does not affect yeild of red onion 2011-2012.
Notable Community Participation
The project approach applied involve the community, promoting ownership and community participation in the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of project results.
During construction, design, the project surveys to consult on the most urgent needs and solutions to solve the problems of drought and salinity and for the livelihood activities as well as the community life in general.
During implementation, the project facilitates community participation in all activities of the project, the participants in the training activities, technical assistance and financial support through project through the demonstration.
Traditional knowledge and practices of producing Cham ethnic communities are fully focused in the design and implementation of the contents of the model.
The activity survey, planning and policy recommendations are to use participatory methods of community consultation and full public comments
Community as participants in activities preliminary assessment and final assessment of the project, is the subject of the VRA meeting to evaluate the adaptability of the community in implementing the model adaptation of the project.
In the course of conducting the demonstration, the community has cast a vote of households participating in the project on the basis of criteria set by the Executive Board and signing the commitment contract out. The mechanism is to ensure fairness in the benefit of the project.
Project sustainability
The project is sustainable, because:
- The model is applied with high sustainability, ability to adapt to the impacts of climate change, groundwater savings, better resistance to drought and salinity.
- Simultaneously, the project also has important influence to the sustainable management programs in the field of agricultural production of local awareness and capacity to adapt to climate change for communities, local officials management of land resources, water and environment management capacity building, agriculture, gender equality issues, particularly the Khmer ethnic communities and women improve their income, solve for sustainable livelihoods communities.
Gender Focus
create jobs for Khmer women in this area.
Project Results
The key CC issues to be addressed in red onion cultivation are droughts and salinisation which are the typical CC impact in the Mekong delta.
The project aims to test models for sustainable red onion-based cultivation by addressing the adverse impact of droughts and salinisation. The project is implemented in three villages of Ca Sang, Ca Lang A and Vinh Binh with 93 participating households in a total cultivated area of 165.5 hectares in 5 crops in 2010 and 2011. Figure 4 and Table 3 shows the results of the project models during the project implementation. Even though the project area suffered a very unfavorable weather during the project implementation, the results are very promising compared with non-participating areas in terms of productivity and profit in red onion cultivation. This has proven the effectiveness of the project adaptive measures successfully applied in the project areas. However, even though there is a good productivity in the project area in 2012, due to a significant drop in the price of red onion in 2012 due to the expansion of red onion growing in the Mekong delta provinces, the profit and community income is very heavily affected. Marketing is an issue to be addressed for sustainable red onion crops in the Mekong delta.
Successful experimentation of effective adaptive farming techniques in red onion-based cultivation:
? Testing and selecting the crops with low water demand and short growing time as green beans to recommend as one of the key crop for the rotation model of red onion and other crops.
? Reducing water use for red onion cultivation with traditional methods by increasing the straw to cover crops. Together with using crops with low water demand like green bean, water savings in the project model is from 8.2% to 18.4% depending on the crop cultivation, reducing the cost for water (1.2 to 1.8 million VND/ha). This is a very good result of the project as overexploitation of underground water for red onion cultivation and the additional CC impact of droughts and salinisation in the project area are the biggest issues that need to be addressed for sustainable cultivation of red onion.
? Balanced fertilizing mechanism, using organic fertilizer and reducing chemical fertilizers (cost for fertilizer reduced from 433,000 to 889,000 VND/ha).
? Using drought and salinity tolerant rice varieties with short growing time (OM5451, OM6377, OM6976, OM5451, ...)
? Applying IPM in pest management (using biological pesticides; reducing pest density in onion (12.73% Beet armyworm and 14.87% stem borer); pesticide cost reduced 1.08 million /ha.
Community adaptive capacity in red onion-based cultivation in the project area is significantly enhanced that is very strategic for effective application of adaptive measures. Community also has a better understanding and knowledge on CC issues, especially the real impact of droughts and salinisation in their localities and the adaptive measures. Equipped with the technical adaptive measures, the participating farmers are now proactively coping with the droughts and salinisation in red onion-based cultivation.
The effective adaptive farming techniques in red onion-based cultivation described above are documented in the project technical materials which will be reviewed by a technical board before providing to the local authority for wide dissemination.
Red onion is a key commodity of Vinh Chau district which has an area of more than 5,000ha. It is also grown in many other areas in the Mekong delta. Therefore, it is very potential for replication and upscaling. In order to promote replication, the project will conduct surveys and workshops to develop a replication plan. In order for a successful replication and upscaling, it is very strategic in terms of mainstreaming and replicating the project models in the local programme through a local policy which support the replication of the project adaptation measures. Therefore, the project will recommend the relevant policy issues to the local authority after documentation of these adaptive techniques and lessons learned.
Even though the project has not completed the final evaluation, according to the project grantee and local stakeholders and CBA Viet Nam (NC/NSC), the project has achieved all the objectives and expected results stated in the project document. The results of the project show that the project adaptation measures in red onion-based cultivation are appropriate and effective, and therefore accepted by the local authority and community. In the context of unfavorable weather conditions during the project implementation, the project results have confirmed the effectiveness of the project adaptive measures for red onion-based cultivation in the region. It is very crucial as red onion is the key commodity in the project area which is very vital to sustainable livelihoods of local communities, especially the poor Khmer people, as well as local economic development of the localities.
Thanks to the urgent need to address CC impacts on red onion-based cultivation and the promising results of the project, it is very potential that the project will be sustainable and replicated/up-scaled in the localities with similar conditions and CC issues. In conclusion, the project has provided a very successful model in red onion-based cultivation in the face of CC and significantly enhanced local adaptive capacity and resilience of the ecosystems and communities. The project has provided a successful adaptation model to the implementation of the provincial action plan to respond to climate change.
