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Workshop-Seminar on Making Better Use of Local Feed Resources. SAREC-UAF, January 2000 |
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Firstly, on behalf of the Coordinating Committee and all staff members participating in the SAREC project “Farming Systems /Livestock Production Research, Vietnam” at the University of Agriculture and Forestry of Ho Chi Minh City, I would like to extend our warmest welcome to all delegates attending the national seminar workshop on “Sustainable Livestock Production on Local Feed Resources”.
It is now 11 years since the first visit of Dr. Preston to Vietnam to assess the problems and set up a research proposal on increasing livestock and fuel production by making better use of local resources in activities embracing the National Institute of Animal Husbandry, the University of Agriculture and Forestry of Ho Chi Minh City and Can Tho University.
The project was identified in October 1988, and submitted to SAREC for funding in April 1989. The project was approved in July 1989 and became operational in June 1990. The first phase of the project was successfully terminated by the organization of an international workshop on Local Feed Resources held in Ho Chi Minh City and in Ha Noi from 25 to 29 November 1991. Despite the limitations of laboratory equipment and the short time that the project had been in operation for the first phase, the success of the project is illustrated by the publication of 16 papers in the international computerized journal “Livestock Research for Rural Development” and on the impact of the first seminar in 1991 (22 scientific papers were presented by junior scientists of the National Research Institute of Animal Husbandry, The University of Agriculture of Hue, The University of Agriculture and Forestry of Ho Chi Minh city and Can Tho University.
Based on the research progress accomplished in the first two years 1990-1991, SAREC agreed to extend the project for two more years 1992-1993, then for three more years,1993-1996, and again for three more years 1997-1999. We are now at the end of this fourth phase of the project, funded by SIDA-SAREC.
The objectives of the project were to develop livestock production and integrated farming systems for small scale farmers in Vietnam using locally available resources. In the short term the intention was to transfer newly developed systems for intensive feeding of livestock using sugar cane products, forage trees and aquatic plants. The other objective was to train Vietnamese researchers and technicians in research activities related to these technologies and develop capacity and facilities in Vietnam.
There is good support for the SIDA-SAREC funded project within Vietnam and it fits well with the national objectives of the government. It has potential application to the whole country and is seen as making a valuable contribution both to agricultural development and scientific training.
In the second phase of the project, the main objective was to develop livestock production and integrated farming systems for small-scale farmers in Vietnam using locally available resources. This involved the use of sugarcane, cassava, legumes trees, aquatic plants and agro-industrial by products as sources of feed for livestock within the integrated farming systems, including tree-crop-livestock and fish and the development of on-farm fuel production from manure using low cost plastic biodigesters.
The aim of the third and fourth phase of the SIDA-SAREC funded project “Farming systems/livestock production research, VietNam” was to carry out research on integrated livestock production systems, with a focus on alternative, ecologically sound, feeding and production systems.
The long-term objectives were, and still are, to develop the research capability of the collaborating Vietnamese institutions and to improve the efficiency and productivity of livestock within the context of sustainable, integrated smallholder systems that make optimum use of local available resources. Research capacity has been improved by:
· Training of Vietnamese scientists at the collaborating institutions, both in connection with the ongoing cooperation with researchers from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and various consultants, and more especially through MSc and PhD level training.
· Improvement of laboratory and other research facilities through the purchase of equipment and chemicals, restoration of experimental animal housing etc.
· Purchase of computers, software and ancillary equipment, and establishment of an e-mail system.
Three countries have been involved in this project:
· Vietnam, with the participation of the National Research Institute of Animal Husbandry, the University of Agriculture of Hue, the University of Agriculture and Forestry of Ho Chi Minh City and Can Tho University.
· Colombia with the participation of CIPAV in CALI, a non-governmental organization (NGO).
· Sweden with the participation of the Department of Animal Nutrition and Management of the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in Uppsala.
The project has been administered from Sweden through Dr. Brian Ogle at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala and involves other staff members including Professor Hans Wiktorsson, Dr. Peter Uden, Dr. Inger Ledin and Professor Jan-Erik Lindberg of the Department of Animal Nutrition and Management.
With the resources available, the project has been well administered from Sweden and sensible application of funds has been made to improve animal facilities, laboratory equipment and chemicals, books, computers and vehicles. There is a good working relationship with the Swedish scientists. The project has been well administered within the country. A large number of scientists and extension officers from the National Institute of Animal Husbandry, and from the University of Agriculture and Forestry of Ho Chi Minh city have become involved and it has generated enthusiasm and activities throughout the country.
The support received from SIDA-SAREC with close collaboration from other international agencies, FAO and IFS in particular, has resulted in, for example, the following achievements:
The system of using sugarcane juice to replace cereal grain by- products in pig production was successfully introduced to three mountainous provinces in North Vietnam in association with the Women’s Union. On-farm projects on the use of sugar cane for swine production were established in Tuyen Quang, Bac Thai, Thua Thien, Cao Bang province. More than 1000 families are benefiting from this technology.
Processing cassava roots by ensiling is simpler than sun drying, especially during the wet season.
This system has been adopted by farmers in Binh Dien and Xuan Loc villages in Thua Thien Hue province.
Shrimp heads are a by-product of processing for the export market. Traditionally they are dumped into watercourses causing pollution. Ensiling the shrimp heads with molasses is a simple way of preserving this product for feeding to pigs and ducks. Farmers in the coastal provinces where the shrimp factories are located are adopting this technology.
The multipurpose tree Trichanthera gigantea, from the coffee-growing Andean foothills of Colombia, was introduced to Vietnam in 1992. The leaves of this tree are readily consumed by pigs, ducks and chickens, and it has proved to be an attractive alternative to sweet potato vines, the traditional source of green feed for pigs in Vietnam. The tree has adapted to a wide range of ecosystems from North to South Vietnam and can be grown on the difficult acid sulphate soil of the Mekong Delta.
The traditional management of sugarcane in Vietnam is to replant the crop after one or two ratoons (harvests) due to declining yield from successive harvests. Research done at the University of Agriculture and Forestry of Ho Chi Minh City and the Goat and Rabbit Research Station in Ha Tay province has shown that mulching the crop by returning the dead leaves to the soil results in a major increase of yield of sugar cane (of the order of 10 tonnes/ha/year) and improvements in soil fertility, thus facilitating the extension of the crop to 3 and 4 ratoons. The practice has been adopted by farmers in Son Tay district of Ha Tay province.
Supplementing buffaloes with multi-nutritional blocks containing urea, minerals and molasses improved their health and working performance in on farm research done by Can Tho University researchers.
Low cost plastic bio-digesters were first introduced into the Ho Chi Minh City peri-urban region in 1992. More than 9,000 units have now been installed with a success rate of over 80%. This technology continues to have major impact, with farmers themselves doing the installations.
There is good international cooperation with other countries including Australia, Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Colombia, Denmark, Ethiopia, India, Japan, Laos, Philippines, Sweden, Tanzania, United Kingdom, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. The FAO project VIE/TCP/8954, the GCP/RAS/143/JPN project for four countries in South East Asia and China and IFAD agricultural credit program at Tuyen Quang Province are directly related to feed resources and there has been close collaboration with the SIDA-SAREC project.
The success of the project to date is illustrated by the list of publications and reports presented at International and National Workshops on Feed Resources held in Ha Noi, Hue, Ho Chi Minh City and Can Tho, in China, in Indonesia, in Laos, in Cambodia, in the Philippines, and in Srilanka.
Since 1990, more than 30 papers have been published in the International Journal “Livestock Research for Rural Development”. Three SIDA funded MSc programmes in “Integrated Livestock-Based Systems for the Sustainable Use of Renewable Natural Resources” have been organized in Sweden and in Vietnam since 1992. Thirty-seven graduate students from the three continents Latin America, Africa, and Asia have benefited from the MSc training programmes. All the trainees found that the training experience had markedly benefited their ability to operate as a professional and had gained new insights into research methods. The Vietnamese MSc students had the opportunity to work in Tanzania and in Colombia and had their horizons considerably widened, whilst the fact that all had become proficient in the English language has resulted in them becoming more aware of scientific developments in countries outside of Vietnam.
A further six Vietnamese MSc candidates and 3 candidates from Ethiopia, 1 candidate from Zambia, one from Zimbabwe and one from Laos are participating in the 1999-2001 course financed by SIA and will present their dissertations in Sweden in May 2001.
Eight selected Vietnamese Ph.D candidates from NIAH, Hue University, the University of Agriculture and Forestry of Ho Chi Minh City and Can Tho University have been already completed a number of post graduate course at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. After finishing the first part of their course work in Sweden they returned to Viet Nam and worked on their research, and the first three candidates will present and defend their theses at the end of year 2000.
Two particularly interesting features of this project are the involvement of the women in the project and the disbursement of the research fund. Up to 1997 the SAREC research fund for Vietnam was divided equally and allocated directly to the collaborating institutions. It had been the responsibility of respective department heads to select the projects to be funded and the amount to be allocated.
In 1997 a committee consisting of Dr. Brian Ogle, Dr. Thomas Preston, Dr. Le Viet Ly, Dr. Vo Tong Xuan and Dr. Luu Trong Hieu, was established to evaluate the research proposals submitted by the staff members of the institutions involving in the project and decide on the allocation of research project funds. A limit of around 4000 USD for each proposal was suggested, but this has since been increased.
There is a good participation of women, and forty percent of researchers participating in the project are women (21/57). Three of the eight Vietnamese Ph.D candidates enrolled at the Department of Animal Nutrition and Management of the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) are women, and 9 of the 21 junior researchers who hold the Master’ degree from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences are women. Not only the female research scientists from the National Institute of Animal Husbandry, the University of Agriculture and Forestry of Hue, University of Agriculture and Forestry of Ho Chi Minh City and Can Tho University participate in the project, as the project also gets strong support from the Women’s Union from Tuyen Quang, Bac Thai, Ba Vi, Thua Thien Hue, Ho Chi Minh City and Can Tho.
The objectives of the project are appropriate and the contributions of SIDA and SAREC are directly in line with both needs and the government policy of Vietnam. Furthermore, it will be shown that the project has been extremely successful in achieving results during the ten years of operation, and has received favorable comment from national and international sources.
The success of the project is a positive reflection of the interest of the Vietnamese government and its institutions, researchers and farmers in developing livestock technologies using local resources in production systems, which integrate crops and animals.
Another outstanding achievement of the project is the degree of cooperation between Vietnam and many other countries and international organizations. The cooperation North - South is one special feature of this project as witnessed by the successful implementation of the regional SE Asia project on “Better use of locally available feed resources in Sustainable Livestock based agriculture” executed by FAO on behalf of Japan in Cambodia, China, Laos, Philippines and Vietnam.
On this occasion, we sincerely thank SIDA, SAREC, FAO and IFS who have supported this project. Especially, many thanks to Dr. Thomas R. Preston and Dr. Brian Ogle, Project Consultant and Project Coordinator, respectively, for their valuable contribution in the human resource development for the universities and research institutes in Vietnam. Their unselfish sharing of knowledge and experience in the field of Animal Science is highly recognized and appreciated.
We also thank Dr. Bo Gohl, Dr. Goran Bruhn, Dr. Rene Sansoucy, Dr. Hans Wiktorsson, Dr. Peter Uden, Dr. Inger Ledin, Dr. Jan-Erik Lindberg, Dr. Barbro Carlsson, Dr. Jan Olof Lundberg, Dr. Andrew Speedy, Dr. Kenji Sato, Dr. Frank Dolberg, Dr. Bjorn Lundgren, Dr. Christina Arosenius and Dr.Bob Orskov, who have given their full support to this project in both spirit and material.
We have highly appreciated the participation of many of our dear international friends from Cambodia, Colombia, Laos, Philippines, Thailand and United Kingdom in this workshop. We sincerely thank the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Ministry of Education and Training, the Ministry of Science – Technology and Environment for their precious assistance.
Especially many thanks to Prof. Vo Tong Xuan, to Dr. Le Viet Ly, to all of the junior scientists of the National Institute of Animal Husbandry, the University of Agriculture and Forestry of Hue, the University of Agriculture and Forestry of Ho Chi Minh City and Can Tho University who are participating in this project for their great efforts to overcome all the difficulties and for their implementation of this project.
Dear friends and colleagues, eleven years passed since the first visit of Dr. Preston to prepare the project proposal. This is a good time for us to work together, to understand each other, a good time for us to share our experiences, and a good time for cooperation and better understanding.
Our ultimate goal is to research into integrated livestock production systems with a focus on ecologically sound production systems to assist the poor farmers in the countryside to increase their income, to improve their living standards on the small farm to make it at least as desirable as life in the town, and therefore to reverse the exodus to the big cities. There are many alternatives to reach this goal and we try to choose the less expensive way.
In order to reach this goal we need to learn more, to work harder, to be patient, to have a great heart, to forget ourselves and think of others; then we shall have more opportunities to serve our farmers and our people.