At Nam Cuong cooperative in Ninh Binh, mechanised direct seeding with deep fertiliser placement raised rice yields 28% to 5.65 tonnes a hectare, and machine-turned straw compost halves composting time for the potato crop.
VegetablesVietnam, reliant on imports and short of data on its own garlic crop, proposes cooperation with China on cultivation, joint breeding and processing, while promoting premium Ly Son garlic.
CropsFAO marked the first International Coffee Day, designated by the UN General Assembly in March, pointing to the up to 25 million farmers, mostly smallholders, who grow a crop traded at more than $34 billion a year.
With machine composting and training through an IRRI-backed project, New Green Farm Cooperative in the Mekong Delta now earns from straw it once burned and has cut chemical nitrogen use by 40%.
A seeder that places rice seed 1-2 mm deep and fertiliser 3-4 cm below it has been certified as a national technical advance in Vietnam after pilots in eight Mekong Delta provinces cut seed rates by up to 65 per cent.
IRRI and CIP brought farmers, cooperatives, extension staff and officials together in Can Tho to work out how women and smallholders can be included in precision nutrient management under Vietnam's One Million Hectares rice programme.
Tien Thuan cooperative in Can Tho now makes 12 to 15 tonnes of organic fertiliser a month and grows mushrooms on the straw it used to burn, adding USD 50 to 70 a hectare over burning or selling the loose material.
At a workshop in Can Tho, IRRI and CIP found that women manage household finances in 80 per cent of the farms represented, yet fertiliser training has traditionally invited only one household member, usually the husband.
