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Filename: CARD-CFM, Milestone 3, Output 1, Baseline Survey, FINAL VERSION, 6 August 07.doc Ministry of Agriculture & Rural Development Project Report MILESTONE 3, OUTPUT 1 THE BASELINE

Filename: CARD-CFM, Milestone 3, Output 1, Baseline Survey, FINAL VERSION, 6 August 07.doc

Ministry of Agriculture & Rural Development

Project Report MILESTONE 3, OUTPUT 1

THE BASELINE SURVEY

Sustainable community-based forest development and management

in some high poverty areas in Bac Kan Province

Project No: 017/06 VIE

Report prepared by Thai Nguyen University of Agriculture and Forestry Department of Forest Protection in Bac Kan Province

and Ensis – the Joint Forces of CSIRO and SCION

6 August 2007

ATTACHMENTS

1 The Terms of Reference for the Surveyors

2 The Survey Report

3 The Detailed Risk Assessment

1 INTRODUCTION

The substantive part of the Baseline Report will be found in Attachment 2, which is the full

(Second Draft) Report of the Baseline Survey This Attachment should be read in conjunction

with Attachment 1 (The Terms of Reference for the Surveyors)

The following notes will amplify some aspects of the Report In addition, the Project Table of Milestones and Outputs requires that the Project Risks should be assessed and a Risk

Management Strategy detailed These are presented in Section 5 below and Attachment 3

2 THE REQUIRED OUTPUTS AS IN THE TABLE OF MILESTONES AND

• Attitudes and practices of local authorities to allocation of land for Community

Forestry Management (as distinct from household allocation) and areas of forest land not yet allocated

• Socio-economic and environmental issues identified and opportunities for project interventions to provide economic, social and environmental benefits detailed

This information and analysis is presented in Section 4 below, and in Attachment 2

In addition, the Report for Milestone 3, Output 1, is required to present an Assessment of Project Risks and Risk Management Strategies

3.1 Terms of Reference

The Terms of Reference for the Baseline Survey were prepared by Thai Nguyen University of

Agriculture and Forestry, and are presented in Attachment 1

The Objectives of the Baseline Survey were:

1 To assess basic information relating to socio-economic status, community forest

management status, community forestry quality, experiences of local communities on forest management and potential livelihood interventions of target villages

2 To develop the indicators that can be used to monitor the progress and impacts of the project interventions

The Baseline Survey Questionnaire was prepared by Thai Nguyen University of Agriculture and

Forestry, and is to be found as Appendix 1 to Attachment 2

The participatory tools used included:

• In-depth discussions with key stakeholders;

• Focus group discussions;

• Cause-and-effect diagrams;

• Venn diagrams; and

• Semi-structured interviews with group members and leaders

3.3 Implementation

The Baseline Survey collected and assessed information from a variety of sources, including: (i) project participants; (ii) field observations; (iii) project documents and other records, including secondary data; and (iv) counterparts and other local stakeholders

Field work to implement the Baseline Survey was undertaken in early April 2007, with several follow-up visits to check on various matters

In addition to the four project villages (Na Muc, Khuoi Lieng, To Dooc and Ban Sang), two more non-target villages (Na Ngoa and Khau La) were selected for study under the Baseline Survey as control villages for monitoring and evaluation during project implementation

People within 146 households in six villages were selected for interview There were 80

households in Van Minh Commune and 66 households in Lang San Commune Both men and women, representing the very poor, poor, medium, good and rich households, participated in the survey (Table 1)

Table 1 Selected villages and households for basic evaluation

Forty four women participated in the Baseline Survey, representing 35.5% of total respondents

3.4 Data Processing

The voluminous information from 146 questionnaires and other information was compiled into a comprehensive database The information was filtered for outliers and then analyzed using standard social science statistical packages, including the SAS 8.1 software program

3.5 Draft Reports

The First Draft of the Baseline Report was prepared in April, with some subsequent delays due

to translation problems A Second Draft, to correct some inconsistencies in the presentations,

was prepared in July and is included here as Attachment 2

The main parts of the Report (Attachment 2) present voluminous data in Sections 4 and 5, and

discuss:

• Section 4.1: The background to the project area;

• Section 4.2: Basic information about households (population and ethnic minority

groups, ethnic minority structure of the respondents, educational backgrounds and household wealth rankings)

• Section 4.3: Income generation activities (livelihood activities)

• Section 4.4: Forest production (forest areas of households, the difficulties of forest

production, the solutions to overcome difficulties for forest production, people’s

awareness of the politics of forest management and protection and the actualities of forest use)

• Section 5.1: Household expenditure in 2006

• Section 5.2: General information on income and land ownership

All this information addresses, in various Sections of the Baseline Report, the required topics:

• Information on knowledge, skills attitudes and practices including area biodiversity, management practices, ownership and access status

• Attitudes and practices of local authorities to allocation of land for Community

Forestry Management (as distinct from household allocation) and areas of forest land not yet allocated

• Socio-economic and environmental issues identified and opportunities for project interventions to provide economic, social and environmental benefits detailed

The Baseline Survey employed a range of social survey methods, and a high respondent rate was reported Data was collected from six villages, using two (non-project) villages as controls Forty four women, or about 35% of respondents, were women All ethnic groups participated The Baseline Report provides a great deal of useful quantitative and qualitative data about most aspects of village life, and confirms the predominant poverty (poor and very poor) of about 60%

of the villagers, although no household is completely landless There are virtually no “rich” villagers Considerable information was collected about crop production and its difficulties, animal production and its difficulties, household incomes and expenditures, and possible

The areas of household forests are of interest There about 800 ha of household forests in the six villages, with average areas per household divided among household divided among good, medium, poor and very poor wealth categories as 4.4 ha, 2.4 ha, 1.8 ha and 2.3 ha respectively Many requirements for overcoming problems with forest protection were stated by respondents: the main ones being “more capital”, “increased afforestation” and “better forest protection”

“Boundary definition and demarcation” is a problem Most respondents stated that they are aware of village and Government regulations on forest use, and of course most stated that they have not been violating those regulations Judging from recent village-based discussions and from the expressed wishes of villagers to allocate a very high proportion of their (soon to be) Community Forestry land to “protection forest”, there is a very high awareness of the importance

of well protected forests to maintain the quantity, quality and reliability of both potable and irrigation water Villagers will be prepared to develop and enforce their own regulations on the protection and use of the Community Forests

The only problems with the Baseline Survey are in the high proportion of respondents who were not able to give possible solutions to the expressed problems This was no doubt partly due to the pressures put upon them to provide immediate answers during the limited time for

administration of the questionnaire – these are important problems and the answers cannot be extracted under pressure but need to be evolved during village discussions Secondly, some of the “no answers” were in fact indicating “not my concern” This misconception has been

corrected in the Second Draft of the Baseline Report (Attachment 2) However, the phrase “not

my concern” should be interpreted with care, remembering the difficulties villagers have in thinking far ahead – they are primarily concerned with their day to day problems rather than the long term problems and solutions and need time to focus on such problems

During the Inception Meeting a Vietnamese translation of a detailed Risk Analysis, originally prepared by Dr P.R Stevens, was discussed by all participants Some adjustments to the main Risk Items, the Ratings for “Likelihood of Occurrence” and the “Severity of Impact on Project Success if the Risk does Occur” and the Combined Ratings were made For those Risk Items with Combined Ratings of 10 or above (and some other items), some actions to be taken by nominated stakeholders to mitigate and/or manage the risk, if necessary, and timing of action, were described

The Detailed Risk Analysis is presented as Attachment 3

Summary Points

1 The Baseline Survey employed a range of social survey methods, and had a high

respondent rate among the six villages in two Communes which were the subject of the Survey Forty four women, or about 35% of respondents, were women and all ethnic groups participated

2 The Baseline Report provides a great deal of useful quantitative and qualitative data about most aspects of village life, and confirms the predominant poverty (poor and very poor) of about 60% of the villagers, although no household is completely landless There are virtually no “rich” villagers Considerable information was collected about crop

production and its difficulties, animal production and its difficulties, household incomes and expenditures, and possible methods for improvement of crop and animal production

3 There about 800 hectares of household forests in the six villages, with average areas per household divided among good, medium, poor and very poor wealth categories as 4.4 ha, 2.4 ha, 1.8 ha and 2.3 ha respectively Many requirements for overcoming problems with forest protection were stated by respondents: the main ones being “more capital”,

“increased afforestation” and “better forest protection” “Boundary definition and

demarcation” is a problem

4 Most respondents stated that they are aware of village and Government regulations on forest use, and of course most stated that they have not been violating those regulations

5 The villagers in the four project villages wish to allocate a high proportion of their (soon

to be) 560 hectares of Community Forestry land to “Protection Forest”, because there is clear awareness of the importance of well protected forests to maintain the quantity, quality and reliability of both drinking and irrigation water They will certainly be

prepared to develop and enforce their own regulations on the protection and use of the Community Forests, as they are well aware of the importance of the environmental and amenity values of the forests

6 The main sources of household income are from crop and animal production and, while there are large areas of forest land (both household and Commune, and soon-to-be

Community), these are not currently producing much household income Off-farm

activities currently contribute little household income

7 Poor maintenance and operation of the village irrigation systems is the main constraint on crop production, and should be improved

8 A detailed Risk Analysis is presented Mitigation of those Risk Items with Combined Ratings of 10 or above (and some other items) is discussed, and some actions to be taken

by nominated stakeholders to mitigate and/or manage the risk, if necessary, and the timing of action, were described

3 Training on forest protection, Community Forest management and improved techniques for forestry and agricultural production is needed

4 The land allocation process – for the new Village Community Forestry areas – should be completed as soon as possible so that villagers can then confidently proceed with their programs for improved protection, management, reforestation and income-generating activities

5 Village irrigation systems, maintenance and operation need to be upgraded

6 Actions should be taken at certain times by nominated stakeholders to mitigate and/or

manage various Project Risks, as set out in Attachment 3

ATTACHMENTS

1 The Terms of Reference for the Surveyors

2 The Survey Report

3 The Detailed Risk Assessment

ATTACHMENT 1

CARD 017-06 VIE PROJECT

Terms of Reference Survey Team for the Baseline Survey

1 Introduction

The CARD 017-06 VIE project aims to empower ethnic minority people in four pilot villages in Van Minh and Lang San communes near Kim Hy Nature Reserve, Na Ri district of Bac Kan Province of Vietnam to manage forest and forest land This will be achieved through

strengthening the capacity of local and provincial government authorities in participatory forest land use planning, land allocation and extension services as part of community based forest management It includes capacity building activities at community and government levels, and provides technical and institutional support The project will provide support to improve local livelihoods of disadvantaged men and women, the majority of whom are ethnic minorities to share equal access to forest land, better manage their resources and benefit from these resources Systems will be put in place to support the prevention of forest land degradation and support forest development and conservation The development of information systems, experiences and training methods will be shared with other communes in the district and extended to other

relevant parts of the province and northern mountainous regions through stakeholders and other information dissemination methods

The project Goal is

Sustainable improvement in livelihood security of disadvantaged forest-dependent people

in northern mountainous areas, through empowerment of access to forest and forest land, influence over forest land management, conservation of the natural resources and

development of relevant skills

It is necessary to conduct the Baseline Survey in order to assess initial information relating to socioeconomic status, community forest management status, experiences of local communities

on forest management, potential livelihood interventions that can be used to define the

interventions and monitoring of CARD project during project implementation

2 Objectives

The objectives of the survey are:

1 To assess basic information relating to socioeconomic status, community forest

management status, community forest quality, experiences of local communities on forest management and potential livelihood interventions of target villages

2 To develop the indicators that can be used to monitor the progress and impacts of the project interventions

3 Detailed Scope of Work

In order to achieve these objectives, the survey team should take into account but is not limited

to the following considerations:

1 To assess socioeconomic status of target communities (wealth ranking, main income generations, percentage of income from forest, level of dependency on forest resources)

2 To define the potential livelihood activities that can improve livelihood of local

communities who are depending on forest resources

3 To review the current community forest management status (local forest management regulations, forest user groups, local policies, boundaries etc.)

4 To assess the quality of current community forest and allocated land forest (species, biodiversity, yield, production, land cover etc.)

5 To review the experiences of local community on forest management

6 To identify the training needs of local communities and forest management agencies

7 To review the current forest management organization structure

8 Base on the logframe of the project to develop the indicators that reflect the progress and impacts of the project

4 Methodologies and tasks

4.1 Methodology

The Baseline Survey will require information from a variety of resources including: (a) Project participants; (b) Field observations; (c) Project documents and other records including secondary data; and (d) counterparts and other local stakeholders

This information should be gathered and reported using methods that provide accurate,

representative and appropriately detailed information Conclusion and recommendations must relate clearly and directly to the data and analysis presented in the body of survey report

The survey report should include both quantitative and qualitative information Emphasis should

be given to information gathered from field interview and observations The choice of specific field methods and sampling procedures will be determined by the Survey Team in conjunction with the project management team of TUAF and Ensis

The main tools of the assessments will be participatory tools, including such as:

• In-depth discussion with key stakeholders

• Focus group discussions

• Cause-and-effect diagrams

• Venn diagrams

• Semi-structured interviews with group members and leaders

• Field spotting surveys

• Case studies

4.2 Key tasks

1 The Survey Team will be responsible for the following sequence of tasks

2 Design the Team's working approach, including data gathering procedures, field

schedules and processes in conjunction with the project team

3 Review all necessary project documents, including the project proposal and secondary data

4 Conduct interviews with project counterparts, district and provincial authorities and other local partners

5 Conduct field surveys in 4 target field survey and at least 2 other neighbouring villages

6 Draft report

7 Facilitating a debriefing workshop to validate finding and to get comments/input from stakeholders

8 Finalizing report

5 Outputs and Format

5.1 Outputs

The following outputs are expected:

The consultant team is expected to deliver a draft Baseline Report with findings, conclusions and recommendations covering the scope of work in section 3 During the final wrap-up meetings for the survey with project team and the counterpart, the participants will provide the team

comments and recommendation on the draft report The Survey Team will then make necessary modifications prior to submitting the final report in both English and Vietnamese

in selecting more members for carrying out surveys in the field or other tasks as required

7 Preparation and Logistical Support

An information package comprising of the project document and other relevant project materials will be forwarded to the Team members prior to the start of the assessment/evaluation The team members are expected to acquaint themselves with these materials before the evaluation The project will arrange local transportation and accommodation in province as required

8 Schedule

The survey will cover about 40 days per team of 4 members during the period from 1-15 April

2007, including reporting

ATTACHMENT 2

CARD 017-06 VIE PROJECT

The Baseline Survey Report (Second Draft, 30 July 2007)

Australian Collaboration for Agriculture and Rural Development Program

Thai Nguyen University of Agriculture and Forestry – Ensis

Table of Contents

Table of Contents 13

2 Objectives of survey 15

3 Methodology 15

3.1 Methodology 15

3.2 Target villages for the survey 16

3.3 Survey team 16

3.4 Data analysis 17

4 Results and discussions 17

4.1 Background of project area 17

4.2 Basic information of households 17

4.2.1 Population and ethnic minority groups 17

4.2.2 Ethnic minority structure of the interviewees 18

4.2.3 Education background of local communities 18

4.2.4 Households wealth ranking in the target villages 18

4.3 Income generation activities 19

4.3.1 Livelihood activities 19

4.4 Actual state of forest production 33

4.4.1 Forest area of households 33

4.4.2 Difficulties of forest production 34

4.4.3 Solutions to overcome difficulties for forest production 35

4.4.4 People’s awareness about policies of forest management and protection 36

4.4.5 Actuality of forest using 36

5 Household expenditure and income in 2006 38

5.1 Household expenditure in 2006 38

5.3 General information on income and land ownership of interviewed households 42

6 Appendices 44

Appendix 1: Questionaire for interview 44

List of Tables

Table 1 Selected villages and households for basic evaluation 16

Table 2 Ethnic minority groups interviewed during the survey 18

Table 3 Education background of interviwees in the local communities 18

Table 4 Households wealth ranking for the target villages in 2006 by ethnic groups 19

Table 5 Household information on crop production in 2006 21

Table 6 Household information on income composition from crop production in 2006 23

Table 7 Main difficulties in some main crops production (two of the most difficulties) 25

Table 8 Solutions for agricultural improvement 26

Table 9 Household information on animal husbandry in 2006 27

Table 10 Difficulties in animal husbandry (the most difficulties) 29

Table 11 Solutions for increasing animal production in the project area 29

Table 12 Household income source from off farm activities in 2006 31

Table 13 Solutions of income improvement for non-agriculture activities 33

Table 14 Interviewed household information on forest land and forest production in 2006 34

Table 15 Difficulties for forest production 35

Table 16 Solutions to overcome difficulties for forest production 35

Table 17 Activities for protecting, managing and developing forest 37

Table 18 Household expenditure composition in 2006 38

Table 19 Household income generation sources in 2006 40

Table 20 Household other general socio-economic information in 2006 42

1 Introduction

The CARD 017-06 VIE project aims to empower ethnic minority people in four pilot villages in Van Minh and Lang San communes in Kim Hy Nature Reserve, Na Ri district of Bac Kan Province of Vietnam to manage forest and forest land This will be achieved through strengthening the capacity of local and provincial government authorities in participatory forest land use planning, land allocation and extension services as part of community based forest management It includes capacity building activities at community and government levels, and provides technical and institutional support The project will provide support to improve local livelihood of disadvantaged men and women, the majority of whom are ethnic minorities to share equal access to forest land, better manage their resources and benefit from these resources Systems will be put in place to support the prevention of forest land degradation and support forest development and conservation The development of information systems, experiences and training methods will be shared with other communes in the district and extended to other relevant parts of the province and northern mountainous regions through stakeholders and other information dissemination methods

The project Goal is

Sustainable improvement in livelihood security of disadvantaged forest-dependent people

in northern mountainous areas, through empowerment of access to forest and forest land, influence over forest land management, conservation of the natural resources and development of relevant skills

To identify the appropriate interventions, implementation strategies as well as monitoring system

of CARD project, it is necessary to conduct the baseline survey which provides initial information relating to socioeconomic status, community forest management status, experiences

of local communities on forest management, potential livelihood interventions

2 Objectives of survey

The objectives of the survey are followings:

3 To assess basic information relating to socio-economic status, community forest management status, community forest quality, experiences of local communities on forest management and potential livelihood interventions of target villages

4 To develop the indicators that can be used to monitor the progress and impacts of the project interventions

3 Methodology

3.1 Methodology

The survey was conducted to collect the information from a variety of resources including: (a) Project participants; (b) Field observations; (c) Project documents and other records including secondary data; and (d) counterparts and other local stakeholders

This information was gathered and reported using a statistic method that provide accurate, representative and appropriately detailed information Conclusion and recommendations was developed based on the data and analysis presented in the body of survey report

The survey report presents both quantitative and qualitative information Emphasis is given to information gathered from field interview and observations The choice of specific field methods

and sampling procedures was determined by the team in conjunction with the project management team of TUAF and ENSIS

The participatory tools were used as main tools for the assessments including:

• In-depth discussion with key stakeholders;

• Focus group discussions;

• Cause-and-effect diagrams;

• Venn diagrams;

• Semi-structured interviews with group members and leaders; and

• Field spotting surveys

3.2 Target villages for the survey

Beside 4 villages belong to the project area (Na Muc, Khuoi Lieng, To Dooc and Ban Sang) 2 more non-project villages (Na Ngoa and Khau La) were selected for the target villages of the survey as control villages during project implementation for monitoring and evaluation

Samples of 146 households in 6 villages were selected to interview in the survey Of which there were 80 households in Van Minh commune and 66 households in Lang San commune Both men and women, representing for very poor, poor, medium, good and rich households in 6 villages of

2 communes were participated in the survey (Table 01)

Table 1 Selected villages and households for basic evaluation

3.3 Survey Team

The Survey Team included:

1 Nguyen The Hung, Baseline analysis expert

2 Ho Ngoc Son, Forestry specialist

3 Nguyen Hoang Son, Forestry specialist

4 Nguyen ðac Binh Minh, GIS specialist

5 Ha Xuan Linh, Livelihood specialist

6 Ha Van Thuan, Land Management specialist

7 Nguyen Van Nghĩa, Environment conservation specialist

3.4 Data analysis

A comprehensive database was built from information on the 146 questionaires The data was then filtered for outliers and analyzed using the SAS 8.1 software program

4 Results and discussions

4.1 Background of project area

Van Minh and Lang San are among the poorest communes in Na Ri district, Bac Kan province These communes are far from district center about 20 to 40 km Because of high and complex topography, local people are facing many difficulties in transportation

The main incomes of local communities come from agricultural activities including: upland cultivation, lowland cultivation, gardening, animal husbandry and forest products In which income from lowland production is the most important source for local people However, local people are facing some constraints such as shortage of water at the beginning of the spring crop every year, and frequent flood from May to August That is why planting time is usually later than the crop calendar requires Those reasons led to low productivity, and unstable crop yield

In 2006, Van Minh commune consists of 163 households that belong to the poor and very poor level1 That accounts for 61.97% of poverty household rate in Van Minh Similarly, Lang San commune has 212 households ranked as very poor and poor level, that accounts for 56.23% of poverty household rate in Lang San

Most of land area in two communes is forest land According to the statistical data in two communes in 2006, the total area of land in Lang San is 3487.7 hectares, of which forest land is 2317.83 hectares, accounting for 66.46 percent of natural land area The total area of land in Van Minh is 3808.61 hectares, in which forest land is 2993.56 hectares, accounting for 78,60.46 percent of total land area It indicates that natural forest resources play an important role in household’s income as well as community However, currently, exploited products from forest are mostly used for daily household’s consumption only

4.2 Basic information of households

4.2.1 Population and ethnic minority groups

Due to the complexity of the topography in the project area and the traditional cultivation systems of ethnic minority groups, the resident areas of the local communities are very scattered along the pathway, water resources or arable land areas Some villages are too far from commune center like Ban Sang village, therefore it is very difficult for local people in accessing

to various public services in the project area like agriculture and forestry extension services The population in the target villages is small as other typical size of villages in northern mountainous region of Vietnam The largest village has just 65 households (Ban Sang), and the

smallest village has 22 households Tay and Nung are considered as dominant ethnic minority groups in the project area

4.2.2 Ethnic minority structure of the interviewees

Ethnic minority structure of the interviewees shows in Table 02 The survey was conducted with the participation of representatives of various ethnic minority groups living in the project area The biggest population interviewed is Tay (60.3%), and then Nung (26.0%)

Table 2 Ethnic minority groups interviewed during the survey

4.2.3 Education background of local communities

The data shows that the educational background of the local people is reasonably low and it varies from village to village (Table 03) Most local people finished secondary school (34.2%), however only 15.1% of population completed high school A large proportion of population just completed primary school (30.1%) The low background education of the local communities in the project area is considered as a constraint that can hamper the application new technologies of

the communities

Table 3 Education background of interviewees in the local communities

Education level Primary school Secondary

school High school Others Villages Total

Num Rate (%) Num Rate

Rate

Rate (%)

4.2.4 Households wealth ranking in the target villages

Household wealth ranking was based on official criteria of MOLISA (Ministry of Labour, Invalid and Social Affairs) of Vietnam Government2 Annual household’s incomes in 2005 and

2006 are used as basic indicators for household wealth ranking Results of household wealth ranking in 6 target villages are presented in Table 04 for 2006 The selected households for

2 Poor: Income/capita/month < 200.000 VND/month (12.5 USD/month)

interview considered the wealth ranking in 2006 Table 04 indicates that the households with wealth ranking of the average and poor occupied 28.1 and 46.6%, respectively and the poverty rate in the target villages is little bit lower than the average poverty rate of the communes

Table 4 Household wealth ranking for the target villages in 2006 by ethnic groups

Household wealth ranking in 2006 Ethnic

groups Unit

No information Rich

Above average Average Poor

Very poor Total

4.3 Income generation activities

Because of the difficult conditions in remote mountainous regions without industries, most household incomes rely on agricultural activities and forest resources such as cropping, animal husbandry and forest products

4.3.1 Livelihood activities

4.3.1.1 Crop production

* Current status of agriculture land and crop yield

Cropping activities are the main income source for people in all villages However, crop yields and output are low because of appearance of some natural calamity (Table 05) It is indicated that spring rice, summer rice and corn were three main crops and income sources in crop production of the communities There are average areas of 1165, 1906, 2348 m2/household for spring rice, summer rice and corn, respectively These are larger areas compared to land for households in lowland areas of Vietnam, therefore, improvement of crop productivity will increase income sources and at the same time reduce exploitation and deforestation of the local community forests The other crops such as sweet potatoes and groundnuts had a small area of

303 and 126 m2/household but the local community suggested in discussions that these crop area may be extended on bare upland and rice-based mono-cropping system if new and high-yielding varieties suitable with local conditions were available

Data analysis for different groups (commune, village, wealth ranking) shows that Khuoi Lieng and Khau la had smaller agricultural land areas per household among villages Similarly, Dao ethnic group and the very poor usually had smaller agriculture land area compared to other groups of ethnic and wealth ranking, respectively

* Composition of main income sources from crop production

Table 06 indicates Khuoi Lieng and Khau La (among villages), Dao ethnic group (among four ethnic groups) and the very poor households have insufficient income from agricultural activities for living

* Main difficulties in agriculture production

In all villages, the most difficult factor which limits agricultural production in the project area is the water shortage at the beginning of the spring season At present, crop production in the project area is mainly dependent on irrigation However only 30% of total land area is irrigated, therefore, water from irrigation is mainly used for annual crops In addition, lack of capital, appropriate technologies, suitable crop varieties etc are other obstacles to increasing crop production

Table 5 Household information on crop production in 2006

Spring rice Summer rice Corn Sweet Potatoes Groundnut

Area Yield Area Yield Area Yield Area Output Area Output

Total income

1000 ñ

2 Classified by commune and village

9 Classified by commune and ethnic groups

Table 5 Household information on crop production in 2006 (continued)

Table 6 Household information on income composition from crop production in 2006

Spring rice Summer rice Corn Sweat Potatoes Groundnut Total

incom

e Order

Indicators of clasification

No.of responden

ts

1000 ñ % 1000 ñ % 1000 ñ % 1000 ñ % 1000 ñ % 1000 ñ

Table 6 Household information on income composition from crop production in 2006 (continued)

Table 7 Main difficulties in some main crops production (two of the most difficulties)

Difficulties Water Capital Technology Fertilization Breeding Others No concern Crops

Num Rate

(%) Num

Rate (%) Num

Rate (%) Num

Rate (%) Num

Rate (%) Num

Rate (%) Num

Rate (%)

Table 07 shows that water and fertilization are the two major limitations for crop production in the communes Moreover, through group discussion, high yield cultivars and seed quality were also concerns for crop productivity improvement

* Proposed solutions for increase of crop production

The interviewed people raised many solutions for increasing crops yield and production in the project area such as improvement of irrigation system, use of suitable and high yield potential varieties, fertilizer supply, and technical training, with improvement of irrigation system one of the most important solutions Among 84 people interviewed, there were 26 people suggesting to improve the water irrigation system (Table 08)

Table 8 Solutions for agricultural improvement

Tu Doc

Na Muc

Khuoi Lieng

4.3.1.2 Animal husbandry activity

* Current status of animal husbandry development

Increasing crop production gives more opportunity to develop animal husbandry activities In the project area, pigs, cattle and chicken raising are the most important forms of animal husbandry in most households However, there are some disadvantages in this activity For example, bird flu epidemic (H5N1) has widely appeared in recent years Solutions of animal disease prevention are used in preventing bird flu and other diseases Thus, animals in the project area are not only free of disease, but also increased considerably Animal production increases quickly, it contributes to social economic development in the area Simultaneously,

it also supplies the considerable amount of fertilizer for soil improvement The number of animals and income from animal husbandry are shown in Table 09

Table 9 Household information on animal husbandry in 2006

Order Indicators of

classification

No of interviewees Number Income Number Income Number Income Number Income Income Total

income 1000ñ % 1000ñ % 1000ñ % 1000ñ % 1000ñ % 1000 ñ (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10) (11) (12) (13) (14) (15) (16) (17) (18) (19)

1 Total 146 3.2 1617.1 30.4 3.5 1736.3 37.1 1.1 530.8 9.4 46.6 931.5 17.1 339.7 5.9 5155.5

2 Classified by commune and village

9 Classified by commune and ethnic groups