CAO THI KHANH CHI

ENVIRONMENTAL IRRIGATION SYSTEM

Okayama-Hue International Master's Program

in Sustainability of Rural and Environmental Systems

Assoc.Prof. MAEDA Morihiro

Cao Thi Khanh Chi
Tel: (84) 941 349 359, Email: khanhchikn41b@gmail.com

Hue, 2015
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CAO THI KHANH CHI

ENVIRONMENTAL IRRIGATION SYSTEM

agricultural production, for example, farmers can

use this IK to crop management and deal with
climate change issues. There is a wealth of local
knowledge based on predicting weather and
climate. These farmers have developed intricate
systems of gathering, prediction, interpretation
and decision-making in relation to weather. These
systems of climate forecasts have been very
helpful to the farmers in managing their
vulnerability to a very great extent. Farmers are
known to make decisions on cropping patterns
based on local predictions of climate and
decisions on planting dates based on complex
cultural models of weather (E. N. Ajani et al.,
2013). For instance, local people have some
proverb about prediction of weather like as:
Based on the colour change of leaves,
plant flowers: If a mass of Bermuda grass
naturally turn from green into white all over, it
will be certainly raining (Ngoc et al., 2015).
Based on the behavior of animals:
Dragonflies fly at low level, it is rainy;
dragonflies fly at high level, it is sunny;
dragonflies fly at medium level, it is shadowy or
If ants move their eggs from low places to high
places, it is going to be raining cats and dogs
(Ngoc et al., 2015).
Based on observations of environmental
change: Corona around the moon, there will be a
drought year; Halo around the moon, rain soon
(Ngoc et al., 2015).
From scientific viewpoint, the phenomenon
If ants move their eggs from low places to high
places, it is going to be raining cats and dogs can
explain like that Ants are insects that live on the
ground, in the trees, in the rocks, door wall.
Whenever it is rain seeing that they bring eggs,
retriever running from low to high, or wing is
broken everywhere. Because ants are very sensitive
with the changing of air moisture, they emigrate to
flee, especially black ant, fire ants, ants termites. It
means that it surely will rain. Thereby our
forefathers can predict impending weather.
IK is dynamic. It is the result of a process of
accumulation of experience, innovation and
adapting continuously. This showed that local
knowledge can integrate into science and
technology. World Conference on Science
(Budapest, 1999) given that the scientific
knowledge and IK should be integrated in the

I. Introduction
Several recent studies concur that Vietnam is
one of the most vulnerable countries to climate
change in the world. The mountainous regions of
Vietnam are, along with coastal regions, at high
risk of natural hazards and disasters, and climate
change impacts (Son., 2011).
Climate change is likely to bring about more
extreme events storm, flood, rainfall and some
other hazards such as drought, cold wave, land
collapse, flood-tide and so on, in which, flood has
the most affect in the coastal areas of Central
Vietnam. In 1999, a major flood hit central
Vietnam, killing 780 people, inflicting damage
that affected one million residents and sinking or
damaging more than 2,100 boats. The cost of the
flood totalled US$364 million (Duc et al., 2012).
From 1 to 6 October 2010, flooding in Viet Nam
caused severe loss and damage, particularly in the
most isolated communes. The floods affected a
total of 25 districts in the five provinces of Quang
Binh, Ha Tinh, Quang Tri, Nghe An and Thua
Thien Hue in central Viet Nam. In these five
provinces, more than 155,293 houses have been
flooded, damaged or unroofed, while some 2,133
have been completely destroyed. (Trung., 2013).
Because the local people in the coastal areas
of Central Vietnam have to live below the big
effect of climate change, especially flood, they
know the heavy rainfall and flooding based on
experience and then they share their knowledge of
crop management to minimize the risk of damage
by flooding. Indigenous knowledge (or local
knowledge) is a system of knowledge that people
in a community accumulate and develop based on
their experience, proven by practice; and is
constantly changing to adapt to the environmental,
cultural and social aspects of the community. It
means that the local people experience will
contribute a system of knowledge and it was
called indigenous knowledge or local knowledge.
Indigenous knowledge accumulated in dealing
with phenomenons of water disaster in agriculture
has been one of resources takes an important role
in the maintenance of their lives.
II. Using indigenous knowledge (IK) from
scientific viewpoint
In Vietnam, lots of IK was accumulated for
long time and then they became proverb and still
have kept until now. This is the basic for
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ENVIRONMENTAL IRRIGATION SYSTEM

interdisciplinary projects addressing issues such

as understanding of the natural hazards and
mitigate their impacts. The local community and
other stakeholders need to participate in this
project. However, local knowledge is also
drawbacks. This limitation from the local
characteristics (indigenous, ethnic features) of it is
very high. It is difficult to widen in different
ethnic groups, different regions (Giang., 2007).
The fact that farmers only use their IK
which to sum up from the observation but they
can not understand from scientific viewpoint. The
task of scientists is to understand and learn from
local knowledge and use it as a source of ideas
and theories, and to test the hypothesis in the
framework of modern science. The study of IK is
not easy because it requires scientists to abandon
their prejudices that they are experts and know
everything. They need to move from the role of
mentor to the role of the student, to fully listen to
what the farmers say (Giang., 2007).
From the IK, the scientists have to combine
between this knowledge and the scientific
knowledge to create a new suitable model for
agricultural production. This model has to have
ability to deal with flood/climate change. For
example, in production activities, while winterspring crop just harvested, it has also carried out
planting summer-autumn crop. After finishing
harvested, sowing immediatly, and select shortday varieties for sowing to end summer-autumn
crop before the annual flood season.
To identify the optimal IK model based on
IK the scientists have to do four steps (ADC,
2014):
Identifying the suitable IK.
Evaluation of the efficiency and the
sustainability of IK.
Experiment of the IK.
Implementation of the IK models in climate
change adaptation.
Many research methods are applied as the
Participating Research PR, the Rapid Rural
Appraisal RRA, the Participatory Rural Appraisal
PRA, etc. comes from the awareness of the
importance of IK.
III. Conclusion
The indigenous knowledge plays an
important role in the agricultural activities.

However, the farmers or local people only use this

knowledge as an obvious thing, they can not or do
not know how to explain and demonstrate it from
the scientific viewpoint. The scientists have to
know this knowledge and explain by science.
After that, they have to recommend some suitable
model for agricultural production to prevent or
adapt with climate change. The scientists have the
scientific knowledge and they have to combine 2
kind of knowledge to give a sufficient model.
Beside the model for agricultural production, the
scientists should provide to the local people some
way to detect and prevent the effects of climate
change. If the application of indigenous
knowledge combined with the scientific
knowledge, it will be an important aspect for
future prediction of weather
IV. Reference
1. Duc, T.T; Tanaka, Ueru; Kobayashi, Hirohide.
2012. Living with typhoon and flood disasters: a
case study in Huong Phong commune, Tam Giang
lagoon area, central Vietnam. SANSAI: An
Environmental Journal for the Global Community
(2012), 6: 85-96.
2. Giang, V.T., 2007. V tri thc bn a v pht
trin (Indigenous knowledge and development).
Nghin cu ng Nam , (10), 63-67. -(vie). ISSN 0868-2739.
3. Ngoc, L.B., Hanh, B.T. 2015. Indigenous
Knowledge A Human Capital for Response to
Climate Change in Agriculture at North Central
region, Vietnam.
4. Son, H.N., 2011. Vulnerability and adaptation
to climate change among Indigenous communities
in northern Vietnam. Compilation of presented
abstracts, Indigenous Peoples, Marginalized
Populations and Climate Change: Vulnerability,
Adaptation and Traditional Knowledge, Mexico
City, Mexico.
5. Trung, L.D., 2013., Economic and Welfare
Impacts of Disasters in East Asia and Policy
Responses: The Case of Vietnam., ERIA
Discussion Paper Series., ERIA-DP-2013-11.
6. Agriculture and forestry research and
development center for mountainous region
(ADC). 2014. Guideline: Indigenous knowledge
identification and use in community based
adaptation practices.