Nghiên cứu khoa học nông nghiệp " A blueprint for sustainable smallholder pig production in Central Vietnam - MILESTONE 6 " docx

Ministry of Agriculture & Rural Development

Project Progress Report
A blueprint for sustainable smallholder pig production
in Central Vietnam
CARD Project 004/05VIE

MILESTONE 6 DEMONSTRATION UNITS

Figure: Demonstration Farm 02007 Thua Thien Hue. Pure Mong Cai
sow with 11 healthy 5-day-old F1 piglets.
1. Institute Information
Project Name A blueprint for sustainable small holder pig production in
Central Vietnam
Vietnamese Institution
N
ational Institute of Animal Husbandry (NIAH); Hue
University of Agriculture and Forestry (HUAF); National
Institute of Veterinary Research (NIVR)
Vietnamese Project Team Leaders
Dr Ta Thi Bich Duyen (NIAH); Professor Nguyen Quang
Linh (HUAF); Dr Cu Huu Phu (NIVR)
Australian Organisation
The University of Queensland/Victorian Department of
Primary Industry/South Australian Research and
Development Institute
Australian Personnel
Dr Darren Trott, Dr Ian Wilkie, Dr Colin Cargill, Dr Tony
Fahy
Date commenced

April 1st 2006
Completion date (original)
April 2009
Completion date (revised)
September 2009
Reporting period Milestone 4
Organisation
NIVR
Email:


2. MS achievements
Interim Report on the successful establishment of smallholder demonstration units including:

o Size, structure and location of units
o Agreed demonstration unit implementation plans
o Agreed responsibilities and accountabilities for demonstration unit implementation
and subsequent demonstration unit based extension programs, including the role of
demonstration farmers in technology transfer
Evidence:

a) Size, structure and location of units
In 2006, following the survey of a large number of farms, NIAH and HAUF ranked and then chose
the top 30 farms for upgrade to become demonstration units in each province. Upgrade of facilities,
introduction of new improved breeding stock and adoption of best practice and continual
improvement has proceeded on these selected farms over the last 3 years. At the end of 2009, 24
farms in Thua Thien Hue and all 30 farms in Quang Tri are still in the programme, a participation
rate of 90%. One additional farm was recruited in Thia Thien Hue that was not audited in the
original survey (Mr Nguyen Van Lap, Thuy Phuong Commune). Mr Lap has a small 5-sow capacity
farm and a 2000 m

2
aquaculture pond located next to the piggery that is supplied by piggery
effluent. He would like to expand his operation to 10 sows and has built an extension to his small
piggery.
Three years into the programme there is still room for improvement, but significant gains have been
made in all facets of the agreed demonstration implementation plan. The selected farms can be
viewed in the database and are identified by farm code number. Ideally, each record should also
have a farm plan showing new renovations and improvements, photos of the owner and their family
and photos of the premises and stock showing improvements that have been made during the life of
the project, as well as latitude and longitude co-ordinates. Completing these details is a work in
progress for a number reasons that have been explained in previous milestone reports. The first
hurdle was to explain to the Vietnamese scientists the importance of having a farm code number for
accurate identification. Initial surveys were identified by commune/village/farmer name and codes
were entered later, with some discrepancies noted (see final paragraph below). Secondly, we
simplified the data to be obtained into a shortened version that could be used for regular farm
audits. Thirdly we changed some of the questions to improve the data being gathered. Fourthly, a
number of coding errors were identified that prevented electronic data being entered in Vietnam
from being saved (but curiously not when the same data was entered in Australia!!) and this was
only discovered quite recently and was a major reason for poor compliance by the Vietnamese
scientists (this was only discovered when Australian scientists were in Vietnam and also tried to
save data). Finally, in revising the coding, some unintentional errors were introduced which created
some further problems for the Vietnamese in entering the data. Now all issues regarding the
database are resolved and survey data, can now be entered. An additional advantage that has
assisted Vietnamese scientists enter data is the entire translation of the electronic survey form into
Vietnamese so that it can be switched between languages.
The farms have been audited by Ms Tarni Cooper in 2007/08, 2008/09 and a final audit will be
undertaken in November/December 2009 prior to major farmer to farmer training initiatives in
January 2010. Each farm can be accessed from the survey website:

A login name (AUSAIDCARD) and password (pigproject) have been created for members of the

CARD programme management committee to access and view the database (without the ability to
modify records) at any time as it is being built or during the life of the project. Ms Cooper has only
entered data for the 2007/08 visit, the remaining data currently exists in paper-based form and
NIAH and HUAF have begun to enter some of this data in September 2009. Following Dr Darren
Trott’s site visit in October 2009, all data will now be entered by the Vietnamese scientists in
preparation for a final review before the last audit in November/December 2009.
Entries will also be made into the audit database for latitude and longitude measurements obtained
by GPS for the farms in Thua Thien Hue (HUAF has created GIS maps for this report, but have not
as yet entered the co-ordinates onto the website). Latitude and longitude co-ordinates have not yet
been obtained for Quang Tri (this will be completed during the December 2009 visit when NIAH
acquires the GPS), but for the purposes of this report, Dr Duyen has obtained the physical location
of the units from Google Earth (see Appendix 1: Location of demonstration farms). A summary of
the commune, village and family details of each of the selected demonstration farms is provided in
Appendix 2: Summary details of demonstration farms).
The size and structure of these farms has fluctuated greatly during the life of the project, with the
majority of farms keeping from 2-10 sows (Please refer to survey website for details of each farm).
A complete analysis of farm records, including average number of sows kept during the 3-year
project, number of high performance breeding sows introduced (and their production records), and
number of sows remaining will be included in the Project Validation Report (MS 12), which will be
submitted in February 2010 following the final survey audit in December 2009 and the farmer to
farmer major training initiative. However, based on the 2007/2008 census, there were a total of 122
Pure Mong Cai sows/gilts on the project farms in Thua Thien Hue, an average of 5.1 sows/gilts per
farm (refer to Column H Sheet 1 in Appendix 2 for raw data). In Quang Tri, data from nine farms
were missing from the 2007/2008 census following an audit of farm records by Dr Darren Trott
during his site visit in October 2009-these were as a result of some confusion in the assignment of
farm codes and farm ID (name of farmer) in the early phases of the project. Farm ID numbers are as
follows: 1018, 1098, 1159, 1270, 1076, 1271, 1104, 1272, 1273 and data will be entered when Ms
Tarni returns to Vietnam in December 2009 to scrutinize records. It should be noted that some of
these farms are the best performing ones in Quang Tri. However, based on the data entered from 21
farms, the total number of sows was 87, with an average of 4.1 sows per farm (refer to Column I,

Sheet 1 in Appendix 2 for raw data). Mr Bien from NIAH has recently entered data for the next
audit into the survey website, but as the equivalent data has not yet been added by HUAF, it will not
be reported here. All production data (including the first survey of the demonstration farms 2006
and the 2007/08, 2008/09 and 2009/10 audits will be analysed prior to the submission of MS 12
(Project validation).

b) Agreed demonstration unit implementation plans

Following farm audits conducted in commercial piggeries in project 1 (001/04VIE), the training of
Vietnamese scientists, both in Australia and Vietnam (MS 3)and the survey and selection of the best
farms for project implementation (MS 4), the Australian and Vietnamese scientists reached
agreement on the high priority project interventions to introduce on each of the selected farms over
the life of the project, the agreed performance indicators for each institute to deliver the outcomes
and the audit checklist for each farm. These have been submitted with previous six-monthly
milestone reports but for convenience, are presented in one document for this MS 6 report
(Appendix 3: High priority project interventions on selected smallholder demonstration units). It
must be remembered, that these are the benchmarks we are seeking to reach, and that each farmer is
on his/her own journey towards profitability and that it is impossible to achieve all major project
interventions at once, given that in many cases there are financial constraints on farmers making
major structural changes and that the farmers must be introduced to the model step by step. An
example of this is the treatment of mange. It is best to treat 1-2 animals first so the farmer can see
the immediate benefits of treatment compared to untreated animals and then inform us. From that
point we can demonstrate the financial benefits of mange eradication.

c) Agreed responsibilities and accountabilities for demonstration unit implementation and
subsequent demonstration unit based extension programs, including the role of
demonstration farmers in technology transfer.
Implementation of major initiatives has been the responsibility of each Vietnamese institute and a
final checklist and audit will be undertaken in December 2009 to benchmark the demonstration
farms. Due to the unforseen delays caused by the Foot and Mouth Disease Outbreak in 2007, the

PRRS disease outbreak in 2008 and the typhoon and flooding of 2009, it has only been possible to
plan the major farmer to farmer training initiatives (using our project farmers in technology
transfer) at the end of the project so that they are integrated with our planned vaccine trial and
enteric diseases survey. In May 2008, Dr Tony Fahy and Dr Colin Cargill conducted some small
farmer training exercises in which a number of farmers and paraveterinarians from neighbouring
areas attended, but we are really building towards the major initiative in January 2010. Each
institute has been responsible for delivering the implementation plan on the demonstration farms in
each province with NIVR responsible for continued vaccine production, transfer of technology for
accurate laboratory diagnosis of enteric diseases and the survey of smallholder farmers (project
farms vs controls) for enteric diseases. Demonstration farmers have been continually trained and
encouraged to take up the major high priority project interventions, as evidenced in the six-monthly
reports for MS 7, 9 and 11. Farmers are now ready to embrace preventative treatment plans, such as
prevention of coccidiosis by administration of toltrazuril at 3-5 days of age. Following a major
project meeting in Hue in early November 2009, the following plan for delivery of farmer to farmer
training in January 2009 has been initiated:
1) Use of the existing commune farmer clubs (to be reported in MS 10) as the major base for farmer
to farmer training activities occurring in January 2010.
2) Identification of the best farms in each commune that can be used for demonstration training.
Farmers will be encouraged to apply for small “project initiative funds” up to $1000, with $5,000
available per province (allowing for the six best applications to be chosen per province) to plan a
major improvement to their farm so that it can be ready for demonstration training.
3) Development of a video “Farmers tell their own story” as a major initiative to be undertaken by
Tarni Cooper in collaboration with a film maker and Vietnamese scientists integrated with a more
formal training video covering the major project interventions, with short introductions by
Vietnamese experts, commune veterinarians, and excerpts from the farmer stories to highlight each
of the major points to be addressed.
4) Formation of training posters which can be used on training days to facilitate deeper learning.
5) Creation of a project handbook
6) Certificates of attendance and short quiz of participants on uptake of knowledge and skills.
7) Tours of demonstration farms led by farmers following suitable biocontainment policies such as

participants avoiding contact with pigs for 24 hours and wear fresh clothes and for the
demonstration farmers to place fresh disinfectant at the entrance to their sheds.