VIE/036
Cao Bang - Utilisation rationnelle de l’eau et de l’agriculture

Le projet VIE / 036 « utilisation rationnelle de l'eau et de l'agriculture » (WUWA) est le deuxième projet du Luxembourg à soutenir le ministère de l'Agriculture et du développement rural (DARD). Localisé dans la province de Cao Bang dans le nord du Vietnam il fait suite à la mise en œuvre réussie du projet d'irrigation Nam Tuan de 2006 à 2010.

L'objectif global du projet est de soutenir des filières durables en matière de lutte contre la pauvreté et de sécurité alimentaire dans les zones montagneuses de la province de Cao Bang.

L'objectif spécifique est de développer la gestion efficace des ressources naturelles et financières axée sur la production agricole, tout en répondant aux besoins des minorités ethniques et d'autres segments de la population en difficulté.

Les résultats attendus sont triple:

• Des mécanismes de livraison de produits agricoles perfectionnés et viabilisés, pour lesquels, d’une part, le lien entre les producteurs et les marchés de distribution est axé sur la demande, et qui d’autre part, appliquent des systèmes de production agricole  améliorés, diversifiés, plus résilients et dont la productivité est accrue.
• Le renforcement des autorités locales fournissant des services d'investissements participatifs efficaces et efficients pour de petites routes et l'irrigation, permettant ainsi aux agriculteurs un meilleur accès aux marchés et une meilleure productivité des systèmes d'irrigation.
• L'amélioration du développement de l'irrigation par le DARD en appliquant les principes de gestion participative de l'irrigation dans la priorisation, la planification et la conception, le suivi des investissements et le contrôle qualité, l'exploitation et la maintenance optimisant les ressources disponibles.

Le projet vise à contribuer aux tendances durables en matière de lutte contre la pauvreté et de sécurité alimentaire à Cao Bang.

Cela s'exprime par :

• la réduction du taux de pauvreté des ménages visant à  passer de 24% en 2012 à 14% d'ici 2018 ;
• la baisse du nombre de ménages bénéficiant de compléments alimentaires passant de 200 à 20 ;
• Le dédoublement d'ici à 2018 du revenu moyen des ménages qui était de 400 USD en 2011 ;
• la  sortie du régime de pauvreté de 230 ménages.

Le projet soutient le DARD dans ses efforts pour mettre en œuvre la proposition de restructuration agricole de Cao Bang (CARP) dans trois domaines:

• les produits agricoles de sécurité de Cao Bang
• les connexions au marché
• la restructuration du secteur

Depuis Juillet 2015, le projet a mis l'accent sur le soutien de sous-départements du DARD comme le Centre pour le développement de l'agriculture et la pêche (CAFE), le département de la protection des cultures et des plantations (PPIRPC), le département du développement rural (RDD), pour piloter les innovations en termes de connexion au marché, d’informations sur les marchés, de processus de production sécurisés, de certification alimentaire, d’amélioration de l'utilisation des produits chimiques, de contrôle de la qualité servant de base à la restructuration et au renforcement des capacités du secteur agricole.

Le projet soutient quatre communes en fournissant des fonds de développement communaux (CDF) pour améliorer les routes inter-villages et faire de petits travaux d'irrigation, renforçant ainsi les capacités de priorisation, de planification et de mise en œuvre des communes. L'expérience acquise dans l'élaboration de l'approche participative sera formalisée pour faciliter la reproduction et le renforcement des capacités dans d'autres communes afin de les appliquer en tant que lignes directrices provinciales pour les investissements gérés par la communauté.

Le projet contribue au développement de l'irrigation par :

• l’amélioration du processus de priorisation des investissements mené par le DARD de façon transparente, en vue de mobiliser les collectivités, les communes et les autorités locales du district à évaluer les conditions des modalités et  analyses économiques qui renforcent la propriété et les responsabilités pour un développement futur.
• l’amélioration des procédures de gestion de la construction et de contrôle de la qualité.

Les principaux acteurs soutenus, sont les unités du DARD en charge de l'Irrigation et du Bureau de Gestion de la Construction.

Tous les travaux de construction sont mis en œuvre par des contreparties au moyen d'accords de délégation. Ceci permet au VIE / 036 de contribuer au renforcement des capacités des acteurs en termes d'évaluation des performances et d’améliorations des systèmes et procédures.

Grâce à l'appui au Comité du Front de la Patrie, un système de conseils de surveillance des investissements des communes est mis en place pour surveiller l'efficience et l'efficacité des investissements dans l'infrastructure gouvernementale.

D'autres caractéristiques clés de WUWA sont: les liens entre le tourisme et le développement agricole, le soutien de la politique de développement de la province pour le secteur agricole ainsi que l’amélioration du service de livraison de la province au secteur privé ayant pour but   

d’améliorer l'indice de compétitivité provincial et de faire un meilleur usage des ressources limitées dont ils disposent.

 

Dernières nouvelles

• VIETNAM - Wise use of water and agriculture, assessment and resultsRetrospective of Intervention – How did we do?

  Publié le 2 Février 2021    Par Kamila PYDZINSKA   

  According to the final evaluation team, the Wise use of water and agriculture project in Cao Bang province ,VIE/036, Viet Nam, has been successful in improving the livelihoods of rural people in three of the province’s districts. Over 57 000 people living in Cao Bang, Viet Nam’s northern mountains region that had the highest rate of poverty in the country, have benefited from the project.  

  Initially designed as irrigation improvement project, VIE/036 quickly evolved to widen its scope. Rehabilitation of the irrigation schemes has assisted farmers in better responding to climate change, but also it has allowed them to grow more profitable crops during the dry season and allowed to introduce a market-led agriculture featuring speciality Cao Bang crops. 

  

  ^{Irrigation - Na Bo - Na Dong SISS - Duc Long commune © LuxDev}

  Community-based planning (involving both women and men, ethnic majorities and minorities) in the prioritising, planning and construction work, has been significant in the success of the small-scale infrastructure in the commune villages. The undeniable achievement of the project are small-scale roads that provide better access for community members to schools and health services and to agricultural traders and markets. 

  

  ^{Road construction works © LuxDev}

  According to the head of the evaluation mission,

  increased social and economic benefits that accrue to the rural communities from the construction of small-scale roads and upgrading irrigation schemes are an important lesson for other rural development projects in Viet Nam. 

  These have contributed to significant benefits for commune members and the reduction of poverty rates in the communes assisted by the project VIE/036.  

  VIE/036 has also demonstrated that rural development projects can be innovative and embrace higher level provincial stakeholders. Development of the Linking-the-Leaders initiative, with project’s support, has provided the Provincial People’s Committee with real time feedback on matters of concern to members of the provincial community and a platform for members of community to engage with the Cao Bang provincial leadership about issues that affect them directly. 

  Among the lessons learned, perhaps the most important one is that the project design should not be too fixed and ensure there is some flexibility to respond emerging opportunities and to better achieve the project’s objectives. VIE/036 is a perfect example of the benefits that the modifiable approach can bring. 

  

  ^{Cao Bang crops © LuxDev}

  Furthermore, it has been noted that for a better objectives’ achievement, provincial sector strategies need to be directly integrated into departmental and divisional annual workplans, with defined outputs, and accountability for delivery. 

  Moreover, the activities on departmental and provincial level that are aimed to improve the competitiveness index have proved to be effective for poverty reduction in both rural and urban communities.  

  Finally, a field for improvement is definitely the emphasis upon a “market-led” approach and the level of engagement with the agribusiness sector members: both need to be on a very high standard in order for agriculture restructuring programme to be fully successful. 

  The Wise Use of Water and Agriculture project in Cao Bang province, VIE/036, was co-financed by the Government of Vietnam and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and implemented by Cao Bang Provincial People’s Committee (PPC) / Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD) and LuxDev, the Luxembourg Development Cooperation Agency.

• VIETNAM - Successful participatory planning and implementation of small-scale infrastructure in Cao Bang

  Publié le 19 Décembre 2018    Par Peter HEERES   

  The project VIE/036 Wise Use of Water and Agriculture is working in Cao Bang province, situated in the North of Vietnam bordered with China. Cao Bang, has a population of around 500 000 people and about 85% of them live in the rural areas making a living through agricultural production. Although the province is one of the poorest in Vietnam it has a huge potential for agricultural development.

  

  One of the challenges for farmers in Cao Bang is accessibility to production areas/markets and dilapidated irrigation systems. Many inter-village connections are still only mud tracks making it difficult to transport products and goods to and from farms while many irrigation schemes were constructed many years ago.  

  

  In mid-2016, the project VIE/036 started to work in four communes with the Commune Peoples Committee (CPCs) applying a Community Development Fund (CDF) approach. One of the key strengths in the work done by the local authorities is the participatory approach in identifying and prioritising the small-scale roads and irrigation systems that require improvements, responding to actual peoples’ needs.

  

  An equally high level of transparency is reached in survey, design, making “Bill of Quantities” and procurement of materials for road construction. The approach has led to a very high level of community participation in the construction of the roads, making this way of implementation is the most cost-effective manner as compared to government invested roads.

  

  

  Based on the success of the CDF, the four CPCs started early 2017 to improve irrigation schemes (mainly canals) as well. Similarly a participatory prioritisation method was applied as to compare irrigation schemes and using economic indicators or cost-benefit analysis as to visualise where best to invest. The subsequent steps for developing designs, procurement of materials etc. are similar to the CDF component.

  

  

  

  The Mid-term review, held in early 2018, confirmed the efficiency and effectiveness of the CPCs lead activities for small-scale infrastructure and recommended an increase in the number of communes. The direct responding to peoples need and short decision making processes are in contrast to the provincial level lead irrigation works. Delays in the decision making and procurement processes at provincial level facilitated the availability of extra funds for the CPCs for small-scale infrastructure. Hence, the project is able to provide 18 communes in Cao Bang funds for 2019 for both small-scale roads and irrigation development. This is providing a challenge for the District Offices who are to support the new communes in all the steps from prioritisation to implementation. 

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

• VIETNAM - The Wise Use of Water and Agriculture project promotes safe agricultural and specialty products and tourism development in Cao Bang province

  Publié le 18 Décembre 2018    Par Peter HEERES   

  The project VIE/036 Wise Use of Water and Agriculture supports Cao Bang province in its agricultural development. Agriculture in Cao Bang is characterised as small-scale and little developed.

  

  The potential of large-scale agricultural development is extremely limited due to the mountainous environment of Cao Bang. However, Cao Bang has great potential with regard to tourism development through its beautiful scenery and the potential exploitation of Cao Bang agriculture specialty products.

  

  

  The project VIE/036 assisted in the production of a photobook on Cao Bang agriculture “four seasons” specialty products. The book provides information on 16 specialty products, four for each season, the locations where the products are produced, production and processing methods, natural environment, its people and culture.

  It enables businesses who sell Cao Bang products to tell the story behind the products. The photobook is currently used by the Cao Bang provincial leadership to give to delegations visiting Cao Bang as a promotion tool.

  On the 25th of November 2018, Cao Bang held an investment, trade and tourism promotion seminar. The guest of honour was the Prime Minister of Vietnam, Mr. Nguyễn Xuân Phúc.

  The prime minister of Vietnam with the book during his speech at the Cao Bang convention centre. In his speech Mr. Nguyễn Xuân Phúc highlighted the importance of market oriented safe agriculture products as a key strategy for economic development.

  During the promotion seminar, a video was shown, featuring two VIE/036 staff in the lead roles, promoting Cao Bang province as a tourist destination. The video can be found on YouTube through the link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RP-BPr6vQms&list=PL_v7cFsAMG-euu9agq9e9mPMp5Lno1GBE. An edited version of the video was used by Cao Bang in its successful promotion to have part of Cao Bang recognized as UNESCO heritage site.

• Vietnam – How to identify and control crop diseasesTraining on Pest Control

  Publié le 26 Octobre 2016    Par Anouk LINEL   

  In Cao Bang province, many farmers are unable to identify the symptoms when their crops such as rice, tobacco or maize show signs of diseases. Usually, it results in an inappropriate use of pesticides in terms of volume, type, time of spraying, etc. A considerable number of fields are badly affected and even destroyed by such misuse of pesticides, even more so since most of the pesticides are cheap imports from China, often unbranded and without comprehensible usage instructions. It goes without saying that such behaviour directly impacts the quality of the agriculture products, followed by a decreasing interest of consumers for locally-produced agricultural products. Via an information campaign, the provincial level requested producers to make better use of pesticides but the lack of skills to recognise the symptoms of crop diseases and using pesticides incorrectly is a real issue amongst farmers.

  Therefore, trainings on techniques of identification and pest control measures provided by the Crop and Plant Protection Division (CPPD) supported by project VIE/036 were an efficient way to improve farmers’ skills in that respect.

  The target beneficiary of these trainings were 125 farmers within Duc Xuan and Le Lai communes, in Thach An district, distributed among 5 villages, each class attended by 25 farmers.

  Moreover, the trainings were an opportunity for the CPPD to develop their coaching approach while working with farmers in the fields. Also, those trainings were an opportunity for farmers to enjoy services provided by CPPD directly at their commune and to strengthen their confidence in proactively seeking technical support at CPPD offices when they are faced with any crop or plant issues.

  Those trainings are the first batch of a series of activities in which CPPD will introduce an effective way to spray pesticides and at the same time to have a better understanding of the local situation and characteristics of farmers spraying pesticides in their field.

  For seeking a suitable and relevant method to reduce the use of unbranded chemicals (mostly coming from China) while improving control over sales and purchases of Chinese pesticides, CPPD has collaborated with the Cao Bang Department of Police to undertake a study to assess the circulation and movement of unbranded chemicals.  

  The CPPD also wishes to elaborate, propose and help farmers to apply at least 4 kinds of pesticide solutions that are responsive to the local characteristics and needs. At the same time CPPD will build its capacity to conduct studies on agricultural cultivating techniques for enriching a shared public knowledge library on agriculture practice for universal accessibility and inheritance.

  VIE/036 will certainly continue to provide support to CPPD and other agricultural departments to ultimately improve the agricultural production in the most sustainable manner.