Ministry of Agriculture & Rural Development Project Progress Report CARD 025/06/VIE Improvement of Vietnamese vegetable production using GAP principles for seed and seedling productio
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Ministry of Agriculture & Rural Development
Project Progress Report
CARD 025/06/VIE Improvement of Vietnamese vegetable production using GAP principles for seed and seedling
production and superior hybrid varieties
MS2: FIRST SIX-MONTHLY REPORT
10 October 2007
Trang 2Table of Contents
1 Institute Information _ 1
2 Project Abstract _ 2
3 Executive Summary 2
4 Introduction & Background _ 2
5 Progress to Date _ 3
5.1 Implementation Highlights 3 5.2 Smallholder Benefits _ 4 5.3 Capacity Building _ 4 5.4 Publicity _ 4 5.5 Project Management _ 4
6 Report on Cross-Cutting Issues _ 5
6.1 Environment _ 5 6.2 Gender and Social Issues _ 5
7 Implementation & Sustainability Issues 5
7.1 Issues and Constraints 5 7.2 Options 5 7.3 Sustainability _ 6
8 Next Critical Steps _ 6
9 Conclusion _ 6
10 Statuatory Declaration Error! Bookmark not defined
Trang 31 Institute Information
production using GAP principles for seed and seedling production and superior hybrid varieties
Vietnamese Project Team Leader Associate Prof Dr Tran Khac Thi
University of Western Sydney
Oleg Nicetic Tony Haigh Peter Hanson (AVRDC)
Completion date (revised)
Contact Officer(s)
In Australia: Team Leader
Position: Associate Professor,
Leader Sustainable Plant Production Systems
Organisation Centre for Plant & Food Science
University of Western Sydney
r.spooner-hart@uws.edu.au
In Australia: Administrative contact
Position: Director, Office of Research
Services
Organisation University of Western Sydney Email: g.jones@uws.edu.au
In Vietnam
Trang 42 Project Abstract
The project aims to develop capacity in three Vietnamese research organisations, the Fruit and Vegetable Research Institute Hanoi, Hue University of Agriculture and Forestry and the Potato Vegetable and Flower Research Centre Institute Da Lat, in evaluation and use of disease-resistant hybrids as part of Good Agricultural Practice (GAP) in vegetable production Superior tomato hybrids resistant to geminivirus from the World Vegetable Centre as well as cucurbits resistant to mildews, will be evaluated for performance in North, Central and Central Highlands regions over two seasons Superior varieties will be used in farmer demonstration trials in five locations in each region, together with IPDM involving use of PSOs and record keeping Farmers will participate in demonstration trial evaluations, which will be supported by Farmer Field Schools conducted by PPD The project includes key commercial companies, and will involve them in developing GAP for seed and seedling production Training will include a technical visit to Australia and workshops Selected superior germplasm will be supplied to seed companies for production and distribution to farmers The project will reduce use of pesticides in vegetable production, increase food safety and farmer incomes It will also reduce Viet Nam’s reliance on imported vegetable seed
3 Executive Summary
The project is on target to achieve its milestones A successful stakeholders meeting was held
in February 2007, at FAVRI, Hanoi, followed by visits to the 3 regions to finalise the variety evaluation trials Vegetable varieties have been selected by all of the project participating evaluators (including local and new varieties), and required tomato seed material has been produced and sent to the participants by Peter Hanson, AVRDC The first season’s variety evaluations have commenced in Hanoi and Lam Dong, and will commence in the HUAF in November 2007 Visits and interviews for the baseline study, interviewing vegetable seed and seedling producers in the Red River Delta, Central Coast and Lam Dong/HCMC as well
as Hanoi vegetable markets were conducted in July by staff from FAVRI with Robert Spooner-Hart and Oleg Nicetic Interviews of Metro Staff will be conducted in December The GAP workshop has been scheduled in Hanoi for early December, and a workshop schedule and participant list has been completed Planning with PPD and NIPP for TOT and FFS components of the project in 2008 is underway
4 Introduction & Background
Vegetable production in Viet Nam has increased by around 30% in the last decade with an area of 614,500 ha planted in 2005 Average productivity in 2004 was 14.8 tons/ha with the total annual production exceeding 9 million tons Higher production has allowed increased domestic per capita vegetable consumption as well as export of a range of vegetables Vegetables constitute 60% of the total value of Vietnamese exports of fruit, vegetables and ornamental plants, which had an average annual value of US$224.4 million in the period 2000-2004 with a target of US$690 million to be reached by 2010 Tomato and cucumber and other cucurbits are the most stable of vegetable export products Tomato can be produced for 9 months of the year and provides a much higher net return than rice (30 million VND/ha
Trang 5for tomato vs 15 million VND/ha for rice), making tomato production a popular choice for farmers Despite the substantial and largely successful development of vegetable production
in Viet Nam, vegetable farming still faces considerable problems, particularly quality production of vegetable seed and seedlings, and vegetable food safety In Viet Nam approximately 8000 tonnes of vegetable seeds are planted every year More than half of these seeds are imported, 41% is produced by local farmers and only 7% is supplied by local seed companies Seeds produced by local farmers are commonly of poor quality, resulting in low yield while imported seeds cost the Vietnamese economy millions of dollars Vegetable seedling production in nurseries or by farmers in many provinces uses very simple technology with high labour costs, which has further contributed to low farm yield and production efficiency With the increased intensity of vegetable production, concerns about vegetable food safety have escalated, especially the high quantity of pesticides (10 -12 times/ plant cycle) and fertilizers applied to small plots of land used for vegetable production, particularly in peri-urban areas, in an attempt to boost production The lack of pest and disease tolerant/resistant varieties has added to this problem Recent studies have found that
in Hanoi 9% of all vegetable samples exceeded pesticide residue limits by 5-10 times and 7%
of samples were found to have residues of banned pesticides As a result, there are annually thousands of food poisoning cases due to eating vegetables with high pesticide residues (MALICA, 2003) In addition, pesticide overuse has resulted in increased pest damage caused by natural enemy destruction and development of pesticide resistance
Good agricultural practice (GAP) principles, together with results of several international projects involving the current project collaborators, provide a solid base for improvement of vegetable seed and seedling production that will result in increased production of safe, high quality vegetables The proposed project will utilise results from these projects to develop pilot tomato and cucumber seed and seedling production systems primarily using TYLCV and other disease-resistant tomato genetic material from AVRDC, and downy and powdery mildew resistant cucurbit material developed in FAVRI, and comparing the production with local varieties The evaluation trials will be undertaken by the project’s collaborating institutions over 2 seasons in 3 important vegetable production regions in Viet Nam, the Red River Delta, the Central Coast and the Central/Southern Highlands The demonstrated superior varieties will be further evaluated in farmer demonstrations over 2 seasons, which will form a key component, together with PSO-based IPDM, in Farmer Field Schools (FFS)
An identified serious capacity gap is that Viet Nam does not sufficient parental material to allow production of virus-resistant hybrid varieties such as those developed in Taiwan at AVRDC After evaluation at these sites, superior varieties will be provided to commercial seed and seedling producing companies
The project will also develop GAP protocols for tomato and cucurbit seed, seedling and field production, and a GAP manual The project will also provide direct contact between leading Australian and Vietnamese seed producing companies and seedling nurseries that will facilitate introduction of high-quality production technology to Viet Nam
5 Progress to Date
5.1 Implementation Highlights
The stakeholders’ meeting was held at FAVRI, Hanoi on March 1 2007, with 20 participants (see Appendix 1) Following the meeting, Robert Spooner-Hart, Oleg Nicetic, Peter Hansen and FAVRI staff Pham My Linh and Li Thi Ha travelled to HUAF, Lam Dong province and
Trang 6IAS HCM City, to meet with researchers and inspect facilities for the evaluation trials and to visit tomato, cucumber and other vegetable farmers
In June-July 2007, Robert Spooner-Hart and Oleg Nicetic, with FAVRI staff, conducted a baseline study of seed and seedling producers, as well having discussions with provincial extension staff, in the Red River Delta (Hung Yen, Vinh Phuc), Central Coast (Da Nang, Quang Nam) and Central/Southern Highlands (Lam Dong), and HCM city Baseline survey interviews were conducted in all locations In addition, the team visited several communes producing “safe vegetables”, although these were leafy vegetables: there are currently no
“safe” cucumbers or tomatoes produced in Viet Nam The baseline survey included visits to the Hanoi vegetable markets and to Metro, to assess quality, source and price of tomatoes and cucumbers
The selection of tomato and cucumber varieties (both introduced and local) for all evaluation sites has been completed, together with development of protocols for evaluation trials Selected seed has been transferred from AVRDC to the project partners, and the first season evaluations are currently underway in FAVRI and PVFC
Oleg Nicetic visited FAVRI on September 24, 2007 to finalise the development of the GAP workshop program, scheduled for early December
5.2 Smallholder Benefits
It is too early in the project to see smallholder benefits However, the project team identified likely benefits during the March and June-July visits
5.3 Capacity Building
FAVRI have played a major role in project coordination, and capacity for this activity has been developed through interaction with the Australian and Vietnamese leading institutions
In addition, UWS has developed an improved understanding of the range of technology and skills in vegetable seed, seedling and vegetable production across a number of widely dispersed regions in Viet Nam
5.4 Publicity
University of Western Sydney has published a media release on the project, Addressing the GAP in Vietnamese Vegetables in June 2007 (see Appendix 2) Is there any project
publicity: articles, radio, television etc from FAVRI??
5.5 Project Management
The project management is progressing well, despite Robert Spooner-Hart experiencing personal and health problems during this period
The project team has gelled well, and we are pleased with the completion of project activities
to date The Vietnamese Project Team has demonstrated good project management skills and
a significant insight into the project They have translated all survey questions into Vietnamese, assisted in conducting the baseline surveys, and will translate the survey
Trang 7answers into English Organisation has been very good, both of the stakeholders’ meeting and the field visits, including baseline studies The Australian participants have spent more time in Vietnam on this project than initially envisaged, although Robert Spooner-Hart experienced personal problems in May and July with death of his daughter and mother-in-law, respectively It should be noted that with Robert’s urgent departure from Viet Nam for the funeral, FAVRI staff stepped in and completed the last of the surveys themselves
6 Report on Cross-Cutting Issues
6.1 Environment
While it is still early in the project, the development of “safe vegetable” production in leafy vegetables has been identified as a possible model for tomato and cucumber production
The impact of drought (and therefore water shortage) on vegetable production was noted in Lam Dong province in March 2007 and in Quang Nam province in July 2007 Continuing problems with water shortage, at least at certain times in the year, may necessitate investigation of more efficient water use technologies for economically sustainable vegetable production
In addition, Lam Dong is one of the provinces where grafting of tomatoes commonly takes place for control of bacterial wilt, but this technique is rare in the other provinces, although a workshop has been recently conducted by FAVRI Thus we have identified that grafting of tomatoes is a practice that could be introduced as part of GAP in the other project provinces
6.2 Gender and Social Issues
The project team has a good gender balance, with 4 female plant breeders playing key roles There was also a reasonable gender balance in the seed and seedling producers/distributors This aspect will be reported further in the baseline survey report
7 Implementation & Sustainability Issues
7.1 Issues and Constraints
An important constraint of the project is limited resources available to the Vietnamese scientists and researchers, particularly those at FAVRI, to travel outside their local region This is an important issue in a multi-site project such as VIE 025/06 To facilitate this, UWS has provided additional funding support for such travel The recent rise in the value of the AUD has also assisted funding for this activity
7.2 Options
The timing of the visit to Australia by Vietnamese participants, scheduled for July 2008 has been reviewed by the project management team It was recognised that July was not optimal, because of other project activities including the farmer baseline study in June-July, nor was it
an ideal time to see tomato and cucumber seedling and field production in Australia We have therefore decided to move this activity to October 2008
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No other issues have been identified to date
8 Next Critical Steps
The baseline studies of seed and seedling production and exploration of Hanoi markets for tomato and cucumbers will be completed, during the December 2007 visit by Robert Spooner-Hart and Oleg Nicetic This will involve interviews with senior staff from Metro, and a further (winter) survey of the Hanoi markets to determine source, quality and price of tomatoes and cucumbers, which will complement the summer survey The Metro visit will be facilitated through collaboration with personnel from CARD project VIE 021/06, and will specifically address attitudes to and any marketing benefits of tomatoes and cucumbers grown under GAP
The GAP workshop will be held in Hanoi in December 3-5, 2007 The project team decided
to change the location of this workshop from Hue, because HUAF was unable to host the workshop on their campus, and the high costs for a hotel venue in Hue, together with the costs of internal air travel (particularly for the Vietnamese participants) made the projected workshop budget prohibitive The number of participants for this workshop is approximately
30 In addition, at least two Vietnamese and two Australian staff from CARD VN 021/06 will attend the GAP workshop, an agreement which was made during a meeting between Gordon Rogers, Robert Spooner-Hart and Oleg Nicetic in August, 2007
Peter Hanson will visit the variety evaluation sites: namely FAVRI, HUAF and PVFC/Lam Dong in December 2007, to assist in the first season variety assessments The second season evaluations will be conducted during the first 6 months of 2008 The project team will review the success (and limitations) of the first evaluation trials, initially at the project review meeting following the GAP workshop and then on completion of all trials in February-March
2008, and will modify the protocols and procedures for second trials accordingly
9 Conclusion
A good working relationship has developed within the project leadership team The high level of enthusiasm for this project, efficient planning, and open communication between project personnel and sustained efforts have resulted in completion of the project activities on time The first project review meeting, scheduled immediately after the GAP workshop, should provide useful feedback from the participants, and may lead to some project modifications
Trang 10Project Progress Against Proposed Objectives, Outputs, Activities And Inputs
Project Title: Improvement of Vietnamese vegetable seed and seedling production using GAP principles and superior hybrid varieties Vietnamese Implementing Institution: Fruit and Vegetable Research Institute (FAVRI), Hanoi
Measures
OBJECTIVES 1 Conduct GAP baseline
study of vegetable seed and seedling production facilities, and draft protocols for seed and seedling production aligned to GAP principles seedling production and (for farmers IPDM, record keeping and health & safety)
Baseline established, including production and financial information where possible Enhanced capacity of GOs and to private industry to implement GAP
in vegetable production
Low risk, because all key
collaborators have experience
in surveying farmers and key producers in their regions, and UWS has already conducted similar surveys in
previous CARD project
Also, the method
to be employed has been proven
in previous CARD projects
on citrus and in
The baseline study needs to be split into two parts, with the first year (2007) compiling baseline data for seed and seedling producers and year 2 (2008) involving baseline data from farmers
The reasons for this is that the villages where FFS will be conducted had not been determined by July
2007, and the FFS do not commence until mid 2008