The Climate-Smart Village in Northern Vietnam is a Triple Win SolutionEmilene Sivagnanam. 09/08/2016

Vietnam is one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change in the entire world. From sea level rise, to saltwater intrusion, to flooding, or drought (Nhat, 2013); the impacts are numerous, and will be severe. As the climate and land changes, there is no doubt that agricultural productivity will be impacted as well. Thus, so will the livelihoods of most men and women. In Vietnam, 60 percent of women and 56 percent of men are employed by agriculture (World Bank, 2004). Therefore it is pertinent for agricultural practices to transform and reorient to the new realities of climate change (Lipper et al. 2014), and this can be done through Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA).

During my internship in Hanoi, Vietnam, I was able to visit the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), which is a research center that is part of the Climate Change, Agriculture, and Food Security (CCAFS) program in the CGIAR Consortium. During my visit, I learned about CIAT’s Climate-Smart Village (CSV) in Ma village, Yen Binh District, Yen Bai Province, in Northern Vietnam. This village is unique because it centers on climate-smart agriculture, which addresses food insecurity, poverty, and climate change. According to CCAFS, CSA is an interdisciplinary approach to address the challenges of food security and climate change and aims to achieve the following:

1. In a sustainable manner, increase agricultural productivity, meanwhile supporting an equitable increase in farm incomes, food security, and development; 2. Build resilience by adapting agricultural and food security systems in numerous dimensions; 3. Reduce greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture.

In order to accomplish these objectives, the Ma village must overcome climate impacts that have affected agricultural output. Currently, the village is being impacted by an increase in summer mean temperatures, and a decrease in winter mean temperatures; more crop diseases; and extreme weather events, such as changes in the start of the rainy season. The CSV technology that CIAT implements is designed to reduce the impacts of climate change by using methods or tools that are site-specific, yet adaptable. For example, cassava grass strip combined with livestock production, organic fertilizer and livestock production, hybrid acacia production, drought tolerant rice, and rice straw processing for organic fertilizer.

These technologies weren’t chosen lightly. CCAFS, CIAT, Vietnam’s Institute for Agricultural Environment (IAE), and Institute of Policy and Strategy for Agriculture and Rural Development (IPSARD) held a workshop that gathered researchers, stakeholders, experts, and community members to decide on the

Figure 1: Participatory land-use history map of Ma village

priority practices to be piloted in Ma village. Rigorous interviews, literature reviews, field surveys, and cost-benefit analyses were considered before the practices were narrowed down to five.

Figure 2: During the workshop, farmers reviewed the technologies on posters to rank which ones they felt were the most necessary

Through this participatory process, the most effective technologies are selected that are also the most likely to be scaled up and useful for other villages throughout Vietnam. The integration of technologies in climate-smart villages are important because they address agricultural growth and produce triple-win solutions addressing food insecurity, poverty, and climate change. Scaling up CSVs will help tackle these issues on a wider scale, and help the people and development of Vietnam significantly.

References:

CGIAR and CCAFS. (2016). Climate-smart Agriculture 101. Accessed from https://csa.guide/

Cruz, A. (2016). Investing in climate-smart agriculture: Identifying priorities for Vietnam. Accessed from https://ccafs.cgiar.org/news/investing-climate-smart-agriculture-identifying-priorities-vietnam#.V9HUrZgrK01

Joven, B. (2016). New Climate-Smart Village in Vietnam tackling climate change in agriculture. Acccessed from https://ccafs.cgiar.org/news/media-centre/press-releases/climate-smart-village-yen-bai-province-launch-technology-tackle#.V9HmJpgrLIV

Lipper, L., Thorton, P., Campbell, B. M. (…), and Emmanuel F. Torquebiau. (2014). Climate-smart agriculture for food security. Nature Climate Change. 4, 1068-1072. Accessed from http://www.nature.com/nclimate/journal/v4/n12/full/nclimate2437.html

Nhat, L. M. (2013). Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation Efforts in Vietnam. Accessed from https://unfccc.int/files/adaptation/application/pdf/viet_nam_summary_cca.pdf

Vernooy, R., Bertuso, A., Bui, V. L., Pham, H., Parker, L., and Yumiko Kura. Testing climate-smart agricultural technologies and practices in South-east Asia: a manual for priority setting. Working paper no. 133. Accessed from https://www.bioversityinternational.org/fileadmin/user_upload/online_library/publications/pdfs/Testing_climate-smart_agricultural_technologies_and_practices_in_Southeast_Asia_2016.pdf

Vinh, B. L., Campilan, D., Huong, P. T. M., Vernooy, R., Lan, L. N., Nhiem, D., Parker, L., Bourgoin, C., Kawarazuka, N., Yen, B. T., Haan, S. D., and Do Trong Hieu. (2016). CSA targeting and priority setting process which builds on the prevailing socio-economic and biophysical conditions in Ma village. Working paper.

World Bank. 2004. Employment in Agriculture Indicator. Accessed from http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SL.AGR.EMPL.MA.ZS?name_desc=true&view=chart