With an aim of promoting communications and awareness on Responsible Agriculture to wider audience, especially businesses and government agencies, IUCN, through VB4E, has partnered with Vietnam Agriculture Newspaper (VAN). Within this partnership, VAN has produced series of articles and talk shows about Responsible Agriculture on its online platform including good practices and initiatives from businesses and communities on reducing pesticide use, reducing land degradation due to over-exploitation, protecting water resources, increasing flood absorption, increasing sediments to reduce subsidence, restoring ecosystems functions and adapting to climate changes.

The outputs are listed as follows

1. Dual benefits from IPM 

Thanks to Integrated Pest Management (IPM) program, thousands of hectares of nereid lagoons in Hai Phong can be used for cultivating various high-quality rice varieties, bringing “dual benefits” to farmers.  

Previously, farmers were not interested in cultivating rice and other crops on the farmed area of nereid or only cultivated to create an environment for the nereid, without much attention to crops productivity. That is because the habitat of the nereid must be extremely clean, or else it would lead to immense revenue loss.  

However, with the new knowledge from the IPM program, farmers now know how to make biological pesticides from natural ingredients, such as ginger, fermented garlic, with high efficiency in preventing pests. 

For the newspaper, please visit (Vietnamese only): LINK 

2. Enhancing floating rice values  

IUCN cooperates with Lang Sen Wetlands Reserve, Tan Hung District People’s Committee (Long An) and Loc Troi Group to implement a floating rice farming model to help farmers improve their incomes alongside biodiversity conservation, soil nutrition restoration and freshwater storage goals.  

The floating rice seeding is deployed by the special application of drones, promising to bring high productivity to farmers. 

For the newspaper, please visit (Vietnamese only): LINK  

3. Promoting incomes from floating agriculture season in Mekong Delta area  

IUCN Vietnam promotes projects for incomes from floating agriculture season in the Mekong Delta area in various ways, piloting several models in the region such as lotus cultivation for tourism development, floating rice cultivation and vocational training in weaving lotus silk. 

The effectiveness of the models has convinced the community and local authorities to participate. Tan Hung District People’s Committee (Long An) shows great support and willingness to establish suitable conditions for the project and implement product consumption contracts for farmers.  

For the newspaper, please visit (Vietnamese only): LINK  

4. Recycling agricultural residue – Experts’ perspectives 

The rate of agricultural residues in Viet Nam is considerably high. However, the limited reuse of agricultural residues has caused unnecessary depletion, environmental damages and disease risks.   

The talk show: “Utilizing agricultural residues to promote circular and organic agriculture and increase production values” has proposed practical solutions for adopting agricultural residues as renewable resources, sustaining the value-added chain.   

For the newspaper, please visit (Vietnamese only): LINK 

5. “Green energy” from the roofs of cow farm and bagasse 

TH Group has been producing electricity from bagasse – a by-product of Nghe An Sugar Cane Co., Ltd (NASU). Electricity from bagasse provides 100% of the electricity used for all activities of NASU plan and is also transferred into national grid. NASU builds a Circular Economy model and recognizes the values of production waste and residue.   

In 2020, in response to the National Program on Economical and Efficient Use of Energy 2019 -2030, TH Group has invested in developing solar power system on the roofs of the world’s largest farm cluster in Nghe An (a record certified in 2020). This green energy sources have provided for 1/8, sometimes 1/5, total electricity consumption needs of TH farm.   

For the newspaper, please visit (Vietnamese only): LINK 

6. Biological products, the key to sustainable shrimp farming 

Shrimp farming and the fisheries sector in general have been struggling with challenges, especially diseases on shrimp, causing great damage to farmers. The environments for shrimp farming are under pressure due to waste, pollution, the impact of climate change, drought, saltwater intrusion, … The abuses of chemical use and antibiotics have not been fully controlled.   

The talk show discussed possible approaches, solutions, management strategies and application of new techniques and processes such as biological products in shrimp farming to minimize the above risks and to strive for sustainable shrimp farming.   

For the newspaper, please visit (Vietnamese only): LINK  

7. Energy-efficient electricity generation from bagasse 

TH Group has been producing electricity from bagasse – byproducts from sugarcane pressing process of Nghe An Sugar Cane Co., Ltd (NASU – a member of TH Group). At NASU, electricity co-generation technology from bagasse is integrated into the production chains.  

Adhering to the Circular Economy model, NASU reuses waste and byproducts under the motto “Waste is a resource”. In addition to bagasse, all byproducts from sugarcane are used for other purposes. Water is also circulated.  

For the newspaper, please visit (Vietnamese only): LINK