IRRI in Vietnam

Rice and Vietnam

Country highlight:

Compiled by Ma. Lizbeth Baroa

ust south of Vietnams largest city, Ho Chi Minh City, the great Mekong River meets the South China Sea, forming a delta so rich it has become Vietnams rice bowl. It includes 12 rice-growing provinces that produce about half of the countrys rice. After the Pacific War that resulted in famine in 1945, and the Vietnam War that saw its last gunfire in 1975, Vietnam sought to rebuild itselfand rice production has been a part of this. In 1968, the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) released rice variety IR8 (dubbed miracle rice) to the northern and southern rice-growing regions of Vietnam, but this was not enough for the nation to become self-sufficient in rice. Things changed, however, when, in 1986, Vietnam adopted the Doi Moi policy that sought to reform the economic system into a market-driven economy. The Vietnamese government effectively told its rice farmers to grow and sell their rice. This decision allowed Vietnamese rice growers to start adopting the improved varieties and management techniques of the Green Revolution that had vastly improved rice production in other nations about 20 years earlier. Soon after, Vietnam finally became rice self-sufficient and went on to increase its rice production year after year, over a period of more than 20 years. This sustained growth allowed the country to export rice to Asia, Africa, the Middle East, the Americas, and Europe. In 2008, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Vietnam produced almost 39 million tons of rice on 7.4 million hectares, making it the fifth-largest rice producer and the second-largest rice exporter in the world.

materials, rice varietal improvement, resource management, and capacity building. In 1978, 3 years after Vietnam and IRRI formally established ties, IRRI Director General Nyle Brady signed a memorandum of agreement with Vietnam, which laid the foundation for decades of collaboration. This partnership was strengthened with the establishment of the IRRI-Vietnam office in 1992, as well as visits of Vietnamese government officials to IRRI, including President Le Duc Anhs trip in 1995. As farmers in the Mekong River and Red River deltas enjoy the potential of high-yielding varieties, which were made available to them through these joint projects, Vietnam further expanded its scope of collaboration with IRRI to include rice production in upland ecosystems, protecting the environment, and improving grain quality. IRRIs partnerships and work with Vietnam were recognized in 1994 with the First Class Friendship Order that the Vietnamese government awarded IRRI. Notably, IRRIs collaboration with Vietnam includes more than a dozen projects and the training of hundreds of Vietnamese scientists. The cooperation continues today, as Vietnams Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development gears up to host IRRIs 3rd International Rice Congress that will be held in Hanoi on 8-12 November 2010.

The Vietnam-IRRI collaboration has continued to grow on the principle of true partnership and it has brought many benefits to Vietnamese farmers and rice consumers. Significantly, it has contributed to Vietnams turnaround from a rice-importing country (prior to 1985) to the worlds second-largest rice exporter.
Robert Zeigler, IRRI director general

Better pest management

In 2008, the Asian Development Bank and IRRI began the Rice Planthopper Project to develop sustainable means to reduce crop vulnerability to losses from pest outbreaks. This was after Vietnamese rice exports took a serious hit in the 2006 planthopper outbreak. The project is developing resistant varieties and new field evaluation methods, strategies for the management of viral diseases carried by planthoppers, and biodiversity-based pest control. It also seeks to understand farmers decision-making processes, develop communication strategies, and initiate policy dialogues to upscale ecological practices while enhancing the capacity of national systems in research, communications, and extension.

A model of sustainable lowland rice production

and worked with the Bac Lieu Peoples Committee to revise the provinces landuse plans. The project also developed and evaluated a successful participatory extension approach that helped farmers and aquaculturists select appropriate technologies. An independent impact assessment showed that the project resulted in more sustainable farming practices, a reduced number of conflicts over water resources, use of the VRSAP for the whole of Ca Mau Peninsula (to which Bac Lieu belongs), use of on-farm technologies in neighboring provinces, and the emergence of agribusiness in the area.

Rice production areas

map by Nel Garcia aNd arNel rala

With its local partners, IRRI is working to develop An Giang Province in Vietnams lowlands as a model province for sustainable rice production by adopting the standards of good agricultural practices (GAP). GAP are introduced to farmers through the Mot Phai, Nam Giam or One Must Do, Five Reductions program. This provides recommendations related to reducing postharvest losses and water use, as well as the timely use of fertilizers. The one must do in this program is the use of certified seeds. This program builds upon the success of the Three Reductions, Three Gains (Ba Giam, Ba Tang or 3G3T), an IRRI-led project that motivated rice farmers in the Mekong Delta to modify three resource management practicesseed, fertilizer, and insecticide use.

Landscape management for rice in the uplands

Water management in the coastal zone

Vietnam: fast facts Country area (ha) Agricultural area (ha) Population
1 2 3

Radio soap operas using entertainmenteducation

33 million1 10 million2 88 million3

New rice varieties, conservation, and exchange

IRRI and Vietnam

Since 1963, IRRI and Vietnam have been partners in a wide range of collaboration in the exchange of rice breeding
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The exchange of rice breeding materials between Vietnam and IRRI has been the highlight of the long years of working together. Since the introduction of the first semidwarf rice varietyIR8 in 1968, a total of 89 breeding lines have been released in the country. It is estimated that 70% of the rice area is grown with IRRI varieties. Vietnams participation in IRRIs rice conservation program has resulted in Vietnam contributing 2,326 types
Rice Today October-December 2010

FAOSTAT 2007 FAOSTAT 2007 FAOSTAT 2009

of rice to IRRIs International Rice Genebank. IRRI has dispatched 2,116 accessions to Vietnam. Two Vietnamese varieties, Tetep and Moc Tuyen, have been valuable to IRRI and its partners hybridization work. Recently, IRRI helped Vietnam use marker-assisted breeding to develop varieties with enhanced tolerance of salinity and submergence.

Vietnam and IRRI pioneered the use of entertainment-education using radio soap operas to teach farmers to decrease their seed and fertilizer use by about 10% and their insecticide applications by 50%. These radio soap operas reached an estimated 2 million rice farmers across Vietnam. Recognized as an innovative and pioneering effort, the project won several international awards: the World Bank Development Marketplace Award (2005); the COM+ Communications Award for Communicating Science for the People, and the Planet Award (2007); and the Global Development Award for best research paper from the Kuwait Development Fund (2009).

Bac Lieu, one of the coastal provinces of the Mekong Delta, hosts a range of livelihoods for its population that significantly relies on its water resources. Water from the Mekong River is delivered through extensive networks of canals, while the saline source is managed by a series of sluice gates infrastructure built by the government to control saline intrusion into the area. Conflicting demand for water quality (rice farmers need fresh water, while shrimp farmers need brackish water) and appropriate water management created social conflicts and pushed farmers to unsustainably use these resources. In a series of projects funded by the United Kingdoms Department for International Development, the Challenge Program on Water and Food explained these issues hand-in-hand with the Bac Lieu Peoples Committee. The project used a hydraulic and water quality model, the improved Vietnam River System and Plain (VRSAP) model that helped improve sluice-gate operations,

Vietnams Northern Mountainous Region (NMR) forms the largest upland environment in Vietnam. Rice is grown in this region on sloping land, irrigated terraces, and flat intermountain basins and narrow river valleys where water sources provide for irrigated agriculture. These various parts where rice is grown constitute the rice landscape in these uplands. An IRRI-led rice landscape management project is collaborating with national organizations in validating technologies and suitable rice varieties for the sloping uplands, and improving the upland rice-based cropping system. In the regions lowland paddies, hybrid and highyielding inbred rice varieties for the spring season and inbred short-duration summer paddy varieties have been identified. Likewise, cold-tolerant spring rice varieties for middle-hill paddies, highyielding middle-range summer paddy rice varieties, and inbred summer-season rice varieties for upland paddies were identified. Seeds of these improved varieties are being multiplied and widely distributed to farmers in the NMR by national programs.

Vietnam and IRRI have been collaborating for more than 4 decades. It started with the introduction of the first high-yielding semidwarf variety from IRRI, IR8, which triggered a rice revolution in Vietnam. This partnership will continue with new dimensions for the future of rice in Vietnam under changing environments.
Bui Ba Bong, Vietnams Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development deputy minister
Rice Today October-December 2010

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