Báo cáo nghiên cứu khoa học " Assessing the effectiveness of Farmer Field Schools for Implementation of Citrus IPM in Viet Nam - MS2 " pptx

Ministry of Agriculture & Rural Development
_____________________________________________________________________

CARD Project Progress Report




036/04VIE

Assessing the effectiveness of Farmer Field
Schools for Implementation of Citrus IPM
in Viet Nam





MS2: First Six-monthly Report

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1. Institute Information

Project Name
Assessing the effectiveness of Farmer
Field Schools for Implementation of
Citrus IPM in Viet Nam
Vietnamese Institution
Plant Protection Department
Vietnamese Project Team Leader

Mr Ho Van Chien
Australian Organisation
University of Western Sydney
Australian Personnel
Debbie Rae, Oleg Nicetic, Robert
Spooner-Hart
Date commenced
January 2005
Completion date (original)
December 2002
Completion date (revised)

Reporting period
January to June 2005

Contact Officer(s)
In Australia: Team Leader
Name:
Debbie Rae
Telephone:
+61245701118
Position:
Research Program
Coordinator
Fax:
+61245701103
Organisation
University of Western Sydney
Email:

In Australia: Administrative contact
Name:
Gar Jones
Telephone:
+6124736 0631
Position:
Director, Research Services
Fax:
+6124736 0905
Organisation
University of Western
Sydney
Email:


In Vietnam
Name:
Mr Ho Van Chien
Telephone:
+8473834476
Position:
Director
Fax:
+8473834477
Organisation
Southern Regional Plant
Protection Centre
Email:

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1. Project Abstract

















Citrus is an important fruit crop in Viet Nam but productivity and production of citrus is
impeded by a range of pests and diseases. Integrated pest management (IPM) is widely
recognised as an effective and sustainable method of pest and disease control. Viet Nam
has a well-developed National IPM program, managed by the Plant Protection
Department (PPD). This farmer participatory training and research program using Farmer
Field Schools (FFS) has trained more than 500,000 farmers in IPM technologies for rice,
vegetable, cotton, tea, soybean, peanut, and sweet potato crops. Prior to this project, no
FFSs had been conducted in citrus IPM because of a limited capability in specific citrus
IPM research in Vietnam. This project has already begun to address these limitations by

training 98 trainers in Master Training classes. Newly trained trainers have now
commenced 24 FFS across 13 provinces in the Mekong Delta and the Central Coast
regions of Viet Nam. At 18 of these FFS, teaching demonstration trials have also been
established. FFS will run for 21 weeks and the training and activity schedule will be the
same across all.


2. Executive Summary
Viet Nam has a well-developed National IPM program that has resulted in more than
500,000 farmers being trained in IPM technologies for rice, vegetable, cotton, tea,
soybean, peanut, and sweet potato crops. Prior to this project no IPM training had
been conducted in citrus, despite it being an important fruit crop in Viet Nam. In the
first 6 months of this project efficient planning and sustained efforts by all project
personnel has resulted in 98 master trainers being trained by 10 key scientists, and
these trainers commencing 24 FFS in 12 provinces in the Mekong Delta and Central
Coast regions of Viet Nam. FFS will involve weekly farmer meetings and will be
conducted over 21 weeks. A schedule of training activities has been developed for the
FFS and these activities will be conducted simultaneously at all FFS. Teaching
demonstration trials have also been designed and implemented in 16 FFS when they
were visited by Australian and Vietnamese project personnel in June. All major
components of the project logframe have been achieved according to schedule
establishing an excellent foundation for achievement of project objectives by the
scheduled date of project completion.

3. Introduction & Background
Citrus fruit is one of the major fruit crops in Vietnam (MARD 2004) and citrus
production is an important source of income for many Vietnamese farmers. However,
productivity and production of citrus in Vietnam are low when compared to those in
developed countries. It has been stated by MARD that “in general, citrus cultivation
has not been significantly developed over the past few years, largely because of the

serious damage of pests and diseases, especially greening disease (officially known as

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huanglongbing) and therefore studies on their control methods, in combination with
managing citrus plantations and using advanced and intensive technology is a vital
necessity” (MARD 2004).

The objectives of this project are to conduct Training of Trainers (TOT) for Master
Trainers in citrus IPM, for Master Trainers to conduct FFSs in their local region and
to assess the effectiveness of the FFS model in increasing farmer knowledge and
reducing pesticide use in citriculture. These objectives will contribute to the
empowerment of citrus farmers by enhancing their ability to make better-informed
decisions about pest and disease management through the adoption of IPM strategies
in citrus production in Viet Nam. Once a network of citrus IPM Master Trainers is
established and these trainers have gained essential practical experience in citrus IPM
training by holding at least one season long FFSs in citrus, Viet Nam should have a
significantly enhanced capacity to develop citrus IPM programs throughout the
country.

Multiple outputs from IPM training have been demonstrated in other cropping
systems. These include: farmer empowerment through increased knowledge of the
agro-ecosystem; the conservation of biodiversity and protection of the environment
through the prevention of unnecessary pesticide application and the use of bio-rational
pest control methods; increased food security through enhanced production; and
protection of the health of farming communities and consumers of fruit through
reduced pesticide use in fruit production.

The key methodologies adopted in this project are participatory based learning and
action based research. The objective of both techniques is to fully engage participants
and allow them to direct the learning and research to best meet their needs.

4. Progress to Date
4.1 Implementation Highlights
Implementation commenced with a planning meeting on 25
th
January at which project
milestones and deliverables were outlined. Personnel were assigned to different tasks
and dates for implementation were set. A key stakeholder beneficiary meeting was
then conducted on 22
nd
March. At this meeting the locations of FFS were decided and
the TOT program drafted. Two TOT courses were held from 18-29
th
April and 9-20
th

May. FFS commenced at the end of May or early June. From June 1
st
to 19
th
16 FFS
were visited by Australian and Vietnamese project personnel, baseline data collected
and teaching demonstration trials implemented.

4.2 Capacity Building
The institutional capacity of the PPD to facilitate farmer participatory training is high.
However, this project is addressing capability gaps in relation to specific knowledge

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about citrus IPM, using a participatory approach. The project is providing a platform

through which capability gaps in the PPD are being filled from a range of sources.
Most of the necessary skills and expertise are available locally within Vietnamese
Universities and research institutions. However, prior to the commencement of this
project there has not been the opportunity to utilise these skills and expertise to train
the PPD trainers. Already in this project it has been demonstrated that one of the
major limitations is funds for skilled researchers and trainers to travel outside their
normal place of work to share expertise with others. For example, Dr Nguyen Thi Thu
Cuc, a leading Vietnamese expert in pests of tropical fruit and citrus has never before
had the opportunity to visit citrus orchards in the Central Coast region of Vietnam.
Her travel was not planned in the budget, but when Oleg Nicetic was in Vietnam
planning to travel to the Central Coast and found that Dr Cuc was available to travel
with him, it was decided that this great opportunity could not be lost. The additional
unscheduled cost of travel for Dr Cuc’s and Mr Cuong, an experienced PPD trainer
who had also never visited the region was around $500. This cost was borne by the
Australian Organisation. In a previous CARD project 21 Vietnamese scientists spent 2
weeks in Australia and while this provided a wonderful opportunity to build cross
cultural relationships, we now think that funds spent on this travel may have been
better spent for travel within Vietnam to allow relationship to be built between
Vietnamese stakeholders.

4.3 Training Programs
Training is a major component of this project and it is being conducted at two levels.
Experienced PPD personnel are receiving training in citrus IPM and these trainers are
then leading FFSs in which farmers are being trained conduct their own assessments
of different citrus management practices. Year 1 project objectives were to train 90
trainers, and for these trainers to lead 24 FFS. Two training courses were held from
18-29
th
April and 9-20
th

May and have resulted in a total of 98 personnel being
successfully trained. Training courses were conducted by key project scientists.
Competency assessment of trainers showed that all participants received a score of
75% or above (see Annex 1).

4.4 Publicity
On Saturday (16/7/2005), on TV of Vinh Long province (this TV station is placed in
centre of the Mekong River Delta in the south of Vietnam) had the "Farmer
Bridge" for "Question ans Answer" directly from 15:00 to 17:00 o'clock of
IPM on citrus. We participated 5 Scientists (including me). The content of
Questions of farmer are the objective of IPM and trend for future to extent
FFS. Many of questions that want to kown how to control "Greening disease"
and other insect-pests such as "leaf miner", "psylid", "wax scales" I
think this work annouce to citrus growers that we have had IPM on citrus
project from CARD and we are carrying out with good results. Most of all
methods to pest control are friendly to environment and citrus growers get
high benefits.


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4.5 Project Management
The Vietnamese Project Team Leader has demonstrated exceptional Project
management skills and has coordinated the training of 98 trainers and the
commencement of 24 FFS across 12 provinces as according to the project logframe. A
schedule of training activities has been developed for the FFS and these activities will
be conducted simultaneously at all FFS.

FFS training program
Week Activity
1 Contact, organise class and select orchard

2 Opening class, establish farmer groups and conduct pre-
intervention survey
3 Agro-ecosystem; difference between rice and citrus eco-system,
record keeping and monitoring
4 Game; need for nutrition, organic and mineral fertilizer. CD
provided
5 Continue 4
6 Impact of pesticide; resistance & outbreaks. PSO; how oil works,
spray application. Insect zoo & monitoring
7 Insect pests and beneficials
8 Insect pests and beneficials continued
9 Citrus diseases
10 Citrus diseases continued
11 Safety of pesticide handling. Quantifying economic inputs &
outputs
12 Biopesticides; Bt, Trichoderma. Advantages and disadvantages
13 Nutrition for flowering & fruit set
14 Techniques of growing citrus, pruning, tree spacing, weed
management without herbicide
15 IPM on citrus
16 IPM on citrus continued
17 Recovery management of citrus trees after flooding. Rearing fish
in canals.
18 Postharvest
19 Post-intervention survey and synthesis of knowledge
20 Discussion. Which pesticides to use and difficulties of IPM.
Results of monitoring, results of experimental trials.
21 Conclusion and close

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5. Report on Cross-Cutting Issues
5.1 Environment
The focus of FFS is to increase the farmers understanding of the ecosystem and the
impact of human influences on it. This approach has the potential to reduce the
detrimental impacts of human activities on the environment.
5.2 Gender and Social Issues
In the training of master trainers a total of 69 males and 29 females have been trained.
This proportion of males and females is reflective of the overall PPD trainer gender
balance. In the central coast region, the ratio of male to female farmers participating
in the FFS is similar to that of the trainers. However, in the Mekong Delta region the
proportion of females participating in FFS is lower. This may be related to traditional
roles of women in the delta being more oriented to animal husbandry.
6. Implementation Issues
6.1 Issues and Constraints
The major constraint of the project is transportation difficulties and cost of moving
farmers between FFS in different provinces. Allowing farmers to travel to FFS in
other regions would greatly facilitate direct exchange of information and experience
in growing citrus. We found that the farmers can communicate very well between
themselves and trust other farmers much more than scientists or other professionals.
Another constrain of the project was that in planning too much focus was placed on
ACIAR and CIRAD activities, which are not highly relevant to farmers needs. In the
second year of the project, feedback from farmers, trainers and other stakeholders will
be sought to re-focus on the farmer needs.

6.2 Options
Possible sources of additional funds to transport farmers between FFS in different
provinces will be investigated. Other options that could be investigated for the second
year of the project are to invest more funds into each of the FFS, and instead of
increasing the number of FFS by 100% (from 24 to 48), increase the number by 50%
(from 24 to 36). The number of trainers attending each FFS would then be increased

and allow greater exchange of information between trainers.

During the establishment stage of the project particular emphasis has been placed on
training of trainers and commencing FFS. Now the framework of the project is in
place the opportunity to shift the emphasis to farmer needs will be increased. Results
from the first year of the project, and feedback from farmers, trainers and other
stakeholders will be used to refine the project in the second year. It is proposed that 2
major debriefing meetings be held in November (one in the Mekong Delta and one in
the Central Coast) to maximise the opportunities for feedback and communication
between all stakeholders.


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7. Conclusion
High levels of enthusiasm for this project, efficient planning, open communication
between project personnel and sustained efforts have resulted in an excellent start to
the project. A total of 98 master trainers have been trained by 10 key scientists, and
these trainers have commenced 24 FFS in 12 provinces in the Mekong Delta and
Central Coast regions of Viet Nam. FFS will be conducted weekly until early
November. After completion of the FFS feedback will be sought from farmers,
trainers and other stakeholders to refine the project in the second year.



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