Kien Giang (VNA) – A World Bank-funded projecthas improved capacity of agricultural cooperatives in the Mekong Delta province of Kien Giang and helped changethe farming practices of local farmers.

According to Le Huu Minh from the management board ofthe project “Vietnam SustainableAgriculture Transformation” (VnSAT) in Kien Giang, thousands of local farmershave learned new rice cultivation techniques – “three reductions, three gains(3R3G)” and “one must, five reductions (1M5R)” – during the recentWinter-Spring rice crops. The techniques have helped them reduce costs andimprove rice production efficiency and competitiveness, thus increasing theirincomes.

3R3G refers to reductions in seed, chemicals, andwater; and gains in productivity, quality, and economic efficiency while 1M5Rmeans using registered seeds and reductions in seed, chemical fertilizer,pesticide, water use, and post-harvest loss.

More than 30 pilot farms applying 3R3G technique havebeen set up to guide farmers on proper use of pesticides and fertilisers inwhich a cut of 20-80 kilogrammes of seeds, 10-30 kilogrammes of fertilisers and10-15 percent of pesticides are applied to each hectare of rice. As a result,each hectare yields 0.3 tonnes more and saves 300,000-350,000 VND in cost.

However, many challenges hindered the project’sprogress, including extreme weather events like drought, saltwater intrusion,and storms; poor irrigation systems; and difficulty in changing old farmingbehaviors.

Additionally, Kien Giang doesn’t have a brand name forlocal rice produces and still lacks high-quality or organic rice products,affecting the province’s export capacity.

Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee Pham VuHong said the province will accelerate communication campaigns to raisefarmers’ awareness of the project’s benefits to resolve the problems. It willalso work with companies to scale up rice production.

The province has asked local banks to provideagribusinesses and cooperatives with easier access to soft loans and directedthe provincial Department of Trade and Industry to put more efforts into marketforecasts and to ramp up trade promotion events to help local rice productsaccess overseas markets.

According the Kien Giang Department of Agriculture andRural Development, the VnSAT project in the province has investment of over14.5 million USD, including 9.4 million USD sourced from the OfficialDevelopment Assistance fund, more than 1.7 million USD from local budget andabout 3.45 million USD funded by the private sector.

It has been carried out across over 29,500 hectares ofrice in 16 communes of Tan Hiep, Giong Rieng, Chau Thanh, Hon Dat and GiangThanh districts. About 14,446 farmer households from 46 farm cooperatives havetaken part in the project.-VNA