Community Development Project

Vietnam's northern uplands are characterized by diverse natural resources, poor infrastructure, mainly self-sufficient small farmer household economies, low per capita incomes, and a high rate of poverty. The provinces in the North-western Vietnam are still among the absolute poorest in Vietnam. Not only the poorest region, but as well the region with most ethnic minority groups. The population of the Northern provinces consist of app. 80 % ethnic minority groups.

In the northern region many different agricultural practises are found, thus difficult to describe the region in simple and generalised terms. Some are still practising slash and burn, whereas others are specialised in production of certain vegetables. Further more, small-scale vegetable production in the backyard is an important part of the daily diet, for almost all farmers. The picture is the classic that those farmers living nearby the cities are producing in the most effective manner and the remotest areas are producing very inefficient.

The project is supporting a part of the Farmer Union (DEMMA) to assist the population in the region. Some activities will be allocated to provincial, district and commune level to ensure the flow of information, but the objective is to strengthen the organisation at community level. The project can be seen as six phases for implementation:

• Capacity building at DEMMA and VNFU at local levels
• Planning and development of training material
• Training of trainers
• Conduct Farmer Field Schools
• Initiate the Village Development Planning
• Establish and work with the local farmer groups

The village groups are expected to take initiative to new activities according to the needs of the community, they are expected to communicate the needs to local authorities and they are expected to support the members in agricultural production and marketing of their produce.

The topics discussed at the village meetings are different from one village group to the other, but it is assumed that health, education of children, community facilities e.g. schools, roads, wells etc., new laws or regulations, irrigation systems, agricultural production, forest management and marketing possibilities are among the topics discussed by the groups.

The project is implemented in Hoa Binh, Son La, Dien Bien, Lai Chau, Ha Tinh and Nghe An provinces. The target is to train 13.500 farmers through an adopted FFS approach. They will be trained in combined Community Development / Maize FFS. Further to the direct training of the 13.500 farmers, the rest of the population in the villages will have access to the village planning meetings and the improved extension service on agriculture and agro-forestry. The project is expecting to have established Community Development groups in 240 villages.