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 1 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: d.rae@uws.edu.au In Australia: Administrative contact Name: Gar Jones Telephone: +6124736 0631 Position: Director, Research Services Fax: +6124736 0905 Organisation University of Western Sydney Email: g.jones@uws.edu.au In Vietnam Name: Mr Ho Van Chien Telephone: +8473834476 Position: Director Fax: +8473834477 Organisation Southern Regional Plant Protection Centre Email: hvchien@vnn.vn 2 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 3 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 4 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. 5 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 6 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. 7 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. 8 . of Farmer Field Schools for Implementation of Citrus IPM in Viet Nam MS2: First Six-monthly Report 1 1. Institute Information Project Name Assessing the effectiveness of Farmer. 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. 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