Ministry of Agriculture & Rural Development Project Progress Report A blueprint for sustainable smallholder pig production in Central Vietnam CARD Project 004/05VIE MILESTONE 6 DEMONSTRATION UNITS Figure: Demonstration Farm 02007 Thua Thien Hue. Pure Mong Cai sow with 11 healthy 5-day-old F1 piglets. 1. Institute Information Project Name A blueprint for sustainable small holder pig production in Central Vietnam Vietnamese Institution N ational Institute of Animal Husbandry (NIAH); Hue University of Agriculture and Forestry (HUAF); National Institute of Veterinary Research (NIVR) Vietnamese Project Team Leaders Dr Ta Thi Bich Duyen (NIAH); Professor Nguyen Quang Linh (HUAF); Dr Cu Huu Phu (NIVR) Australian Organisation The University of Queensland/Victorian Department of Primary Industry/South Australian Research and Development Institute Australian Personnel Dr Darren Trott, Dr Ian Wilkie, Dr Colin Cargill, Dr Tony Fahy Date commenced April 1st 2006 Completion date (original) April 2009 Completion date (revised) September 2009 Reporting period Milestone 4 Organisation NIVR Email: dongocthuy73@yahoo.com 2. MS achievements Interim Report on the successful establishment of smallholder demonstration units including: o Size, structure and location of units o Agreed demonstration unit implementation plans o Agreed responsibilities and accountabilities for demonstration unit implementation and subsequent demonstration unit based extension programs, including the role of demonstration farmers in technology transfer Evidence: a) Size, structure and location of units In 2006, following the survey of a large number of farms, NIAH and HAUF ranked and then chose the top 30 farms for upgrade to become demonstration units in each province. Upgrade of facilities, introduction of new improved breeding stock and adoption of best practice and continual improvement has proceeded on these selected farms over the last 3 years. At the end of 2009, 24 farms in Thua Thien Hue and all 30 farms in Quang Tri are still in the programme, a participation rate of 90%. One additional farm was recruited in Thia Thien Hue that was not audited in the original survey (Mr Nguyen Van Lap, Thuy Phuong Commune). Mr Lap has a small 5-sow capacity farm and a 2000 m 2 aquaculture pond located next to the piggery that is supplied by piggery effluent. He would like to expand his operation to 10 sows and has built an extension to his small piggery. Three years into the programme there is still room for improvement, but significant gains have been made in all facets of the agreed demonstration implementation plan. The selected farms can be viewed in the database and are identified by farm code number. Ideally, each record should also have a farm plan showing new renovations and improvements, photos of the owner and their family and photos of the premises and stock showing improvements that have been made during the life of the project, as well as latitude and longitude co-ordinates. Completing these details is a work in progress for a number reasons that have been explained in previous milestone reports. The first hurdle was to explain to the Vietnamese scientists the importance of having a farm code number for accurate identification. Initial surveys were identified by commune/village/farmer name and codes were entered later, with some discrepancies noted (see final paragraph below). Secondly, we simplified the data to be obtained into a shortened version that could be used for regular farm audits. Thirdly we changed some of the questions to improve the data being gathered. Fourthly, a number of coding errors were identified that prevented electronic data being entered in Vietnam from being saved (but curiously not when the same data was entered in Australia!!) and this was only discovered quite recently and was a major reason for poor compliance by the Vietnamese scientists (this was only discovered when Australian scientists were in Vietnam and also tried to save data). Finally, in revising the coding, some unintentional errors were introduced which created some further problems for the Vietnamese in entering the data. Now all issues regarding the database are resolved and survey data, can now be entered. An additional advantage that has assisted Vietnamese scientists enter data is the entire translation of the electronic survey form into Vietnamese so that it can be switched between languages. The farms have been audited by Ms Tarni Cooper in 2007/08, 2008/09 and a final audit will be undertaken in November/December 2009 prior to major farmer to farmer training initiatives in January 2010. Each farm can be accessed from the survey website: http://survey.library.uq.edu.au/pigs/ A login name (AUSAIDCARD) and password (pigproject) have been created for members of the CARD programme management committee to access and view the database (without the ability to modify records) at any time as it is being built or during the life of the project. Ms Cooper has only entered data for the 2007/08 visit, the remaining data currently exists in paper-based form and NIAH and HUAF have begun to enter some of this data in September 2009. Following Dr Darren Trott’s site visit in October 2009, all data will now be entered by the Vietnamese scientists in preparation for a final review before the last audit in November/December 2009. Entries will also be made into the audit database for latitude and longitude measurements obtained by GPS for the farms in Thua Thien Hue (HUAF has created GIS maps for this report, but have not as yet entered the co-ordinates onto the website). Latitude and longitude co-ordinates have not yet been obtained for Quang Tri (this will be completed during the December 2009 visit when NIAH acquires the GPS), but for the purposes of this report, Dr Duyen has obtained the physical location of the units from Google Earth (see Appendix 1: Location of demonstration farms). A summary of the commune, village and family details of each of the selected demonstration farms is provided in Appendix 2: Summary details of demonstration farms). The size and structure of these farms has fluctuated greatly during the life of the project, with the majority of farms keeping from 2-10 sows (Please refer to survey website for details of each farm). A complete analysis of farm records, including average number of sows kept during the 3-year project, number of high performance breeding sows introduced (and their production records), and number of sows remaining will be included in the Project Validation Report (MS 12), which will be submitted in February 2010 following the final survey audit in December 2009 and the farmer to farmer major training initiative. However, based on the 2007/2008 census, there were a total of 122 Pure Mong Cai sows/gilts on the project farms in Thua Thien Hue, an average of 5.1 sows/gilts per farm (refer to Column H Sheet 1 in Appendix 2 for raw data). In Quang Tri, data from nine farms were missing from the 2007/2008 census following an audit of farm records by Dr Darren Trott during his site visit in October 2009-these were as a result of some confusion in the assignment of farm codes and farm ID (name of farmer) in the early phases of the project. Farm ID numbers are as follows: 1018, 1098, 1159, 1270, 1076, 1271, 1104, 1272, 1273 and data will be entered when Ms Tarni returns to Vietnam in December 2009 to scrutinize records. It should be noted that some of these farms are the best performing ones in Quang Tri. However, based on the data entered from 21 farms, the total number of sows was 87, with an average of 4.1 sows per farm (refer to Column I, Sheet 1 in Appendix 2 for raw data). Mr Bien from NIAH has recently entered data for the next audit into the survey website, but as the equivalent data has not yet been added by HUAF, it will not be reported here. All production data (including the first survey of the demonstration farms 2006 and the 2007/08, 2008/09 and 2009/10 audits will be analysed prior to the submission of MS 12 (Project validation). b) Agreed demonstration unit implementation plans Following farm audits conducted in commercial piggeries in project 1 (001/04VIE), the training of Vietnamese scientists, both in Australia and Vietnam (MS 3)and the survey and selection of the best farms for project implementation (MS 4), the Australian and Vietnamese scientists reached agreement on the high priority project interventions to introduce on each of the selected farms over the life of the project, the agreed performance indicators for each institute to deliver the outcomes and the audit checklist for each farm. These have been submitted with previous six-monthly milestone reports but for convenience, are presented in one document for this MS 6 report (Appendix 3: High priority project interventions on selected smallholder demonstration units). It must be remembered, that these are the benchmarks we are seeking to reach, and that each farmer is on his/her own journey towards profitability and that it is impossible to achieve all major project interventions at once, given that in many cases there are financial constraints on farmers making major structural changes and that the farmers must be introduced to the model step by step. An example of this is the treatment of mange. It is best to treat 1-2 animals first so the farmer can see the immediate benefits of treatment compared to untreated animals and then inform us. From that point we can demonstrate the financial benefits of mange eradication. c) Agreed responsibilities and accountabilities for demonstration unit implementation and subsequent demonstration unit based extension programs, including the role of demonstration farmers in technology transfer. Implementation of major initiatives has been the responsibility of each Vietnamese institute and a final checklist and audit will be undertaken in December 2009 to benchmark the demonstration farms. Due to the unforseen delays caused by the Foot and Mouth Disease Outbreak in 2007, the PRRS disease outbreak in 2008 and the typhoon and flooding of 2009, it has only been possible to plan the major farmer to farmer training initiatives (using our project farmers in technology transfer) at the end of the project so that they are integrated with our planned vaccine trial and enteric diseases survey. In May 2008, Dr Tony Fahy and Dr Colin Cargill conducted some small farmer training exercises in which a number of farmers and paraveterinarians from neighbouring areas attended, but we are really building towards the major initiative in January 2010. Each institute has been responsible for delivering the implementation plan on the demonstration farms in each province with NIVR responsible for continued vaccine production, transfer of technology for accurate laboratory diagnosis of enteric diseases and the survey of smallholder farmers (project farms vs controls) for enteric diseases. Demonstration farmers have been continually trained and encouraged to take up the major high priority project interventions, as evidenced in the six-monthly reports for MS 7, 9 and 11. Farmers are now ready to embrace preventative treatment plans, such as prevention of coccidiosis by administration of toltrazuril at 3-5 days of age. Following a major project meeting in Hue in early November 2009, the following plan for delivery of farmer to farmer training in January 2009 has been initiated: 1) Use of the existing commune farmer clubs (to be reported in MS 10) as the major base for farmer to farmer training activities occurring in January 2010. 2) Identification of the best farms in each commune that can be used for demonstration training. Farmers will be encouraged to apply for small “project initiative funds” up to $1000, with $5,000 available per province (allowing for the six best applications to be chosen per province) to plan a major improvement to their farm so that it can be ready for demonstration training. 3) Development of a video “Farmers tell their own story” as a major initiative to be undertaken by Tarni Cooper in collaboration with a film maker and Vietnamese scientists integrated with a more formal training video covering the major project interventions, with short introductions by Vietnamese experts, commune veterinarians, and excerpts from the farmer stories to highlight each of the major points to be addressed. 4) Formation of training posters which can be used on training days to facilitate deeper learning. 5) Creation of a project handbook 6) Certificates of attendance and short quiz of participants on uptake of knowledge and skills. 7) Tours of demonstration farms led by farmers following suitable biocontainment policies such as participants avoiding contact with pigs for 24 hours and wear fresh clothes and for the demonstration farmers to place fresh disinfectant at the entrance to their sheds. . farmer training exercises in which a number of farmers and paraveterinarians from neighbouring areas attended, but we are really building towards the major initiative in January 2010. Each institute. created some further problems for the Vietnamese in entering the data. Now all issues regarding the database are resolved and survey data, can now be entered. An additional advantage that has. impossible to achieve all major project interventions at once, given that in many cases there are financial constraints on farmers making major structural changes and that the farmers must be introduced