In the project “Out-scaling Water Saving Innovations to Reduce Water Insecurity Conditions of Poor and Marginalised Communities in Vietnam's Upper Mekong Delta”, we conducted a field trip at the end of August 2022. There are forty members on the trip. It included farmers who participated in the trial and other farmers living nearby from Van Giao and Vinh Trung communes, Tinh Bien district, local officials, plus lecturers and students of Kien Giang and An Giang universities. It was a chance to meet with farmers in Dong Thap province, where alternate wetting and drying (AWD) techniques have been applied before, as an opportunity for farmers to learn from each other and exchange experiences.
My Dong commune, Thap Muoi district, Dong Thap province is reknowned for pioneering agricultural innovations. An example is a water-saving irrigation system in rice cultivation that has been adopted by the My Dong 2 Cooperative. Established in 2013, the cooperative has 108 members cultivating an area of about 575 hectares (170 hectares are managed by automatic irrigation). It has adopted integrated methods in rice cultivation to reduce water use cost and labour cost while maintaining and even increasing rice productivity.
The field trip included two main activities: firstly, a meeting between visitors and local farmers, local officers (head of My Dong commune and manager of My Dong 2 Cooperative) to explore the current status, the benefits and weaknesses of application of water-saving irrigation techniques rice cultivation; and secondly, learning practical experiences from the farmers’ fields. After the meeting, the farmers went to observe the canal and irrigation system, pest management equipment, and a local road to help transport rice to the market.
Figure 1. Mr. Le Van Nguyen introduces the My Dong 2 cooperative to the visitors from An Giang province
In the meeting, members of My Dong 2 Cooperative and local officials shared their reasons for establishing the organization, and how they perceived its success. One of the reasons contributing to its success is that a measure of water conservation has been achieved alongside investments in remote sensing technology (managed either by hand or by smartphones), field access and pest management. This occurred over several stages. A system has been installed that uses sensors placed around the fields to measure water level. When it reaches a desired level, the irrigation pump system will automatically shut off. Thus, the water level is controlled to meet the needs of rice plants at different growth stages to avoid over-use of water. The system uses solar energy to reduce the cost of pumping water. Local farmers in My Dong 2 Cooperative expressed that they have gone through many steps to arrive at the current position. The most important thing is that farmers had to agree to carry out the activities adopted. They said that while the technology is important, the agreement among local farmers is more essential since it allowed concensus for later activities to happen.
The visiting Tinh Bien farmers shared some of the difficulties they encountered with irrigated rice cultivation. They find it challenging to manage water levels due to large differences in land elevation across fields watered by the same electric pumping system. It is harder to manage since plot size is also larger on average than the My Dong 2 Cooperative land. The Tinh Bien local officials were keen to receive advice from the leaders of My Dong Commune regarding the establishment of cooperatives and ways to encourage farmers’ participation so that Tinh Bien district officials can learn from their experience and potentially imitate the strong points.
Figure 2. Mr Nguyen Van Chon, a farmer from Vinh Trung commune, Tinh Bien share some of the difficulties faced in local water management. | Figure 3. Ms Le My Ly, a district officer of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Tinh Bien asks about the process of cooperative establishment in My Dong commune. |
During the field visit, the visiting farmers were taken to observe the canal and irrigation system and pest management methods. They were interested to see that water could be controlled both manually and automatically (by smartphone), which is not the case in Tinh Bien district.
Figure 4. Rice fields, a well-surfaced road and canal system (left image) and farmers observing Brown Leafhopper pest management equipment in the field (right image)
During the trip, officials and farmers in My Dong Cooperative gave a warm welcome, showing the spirit of hospitality, sociability and closeness of the people of the Mekong Delta. It was noted that certain differences in agro-ecological conditions, such as the relative elevation of rice fields on the floodplain, hydrological proximity to water sources and irrigation system, and soil type and texture distinguished the two districts, but the respective farmers groups still benefitted from the exchange of experience and both sides learned new knowledge about the other’s farming system, including water management.
At the end of the field trip, the Tinh Bien farmers felt they had raised awareness about an area not far from where they live, where the My Dong farmers have applied more advanced technology in trials on water saving methods. They have moved one step forward, even though the idea to start water saving methods was similar at the beginning. Some farmers expressed an interest in forming a group to build a cooperative, similar to that in My Dong commune. They asked among themselves the question: "can our group work together?". We were happy to hear that, as it could be the start of a new approach to farmer cooperation. The outcome of the field trip met our expectations and was deemed positive. It contributes to wider knowledge and experience of the Tinh Bien district farmers, although it is recognized that changes in practice may take time and other resources to be realised. Hopefully, in future, the local officials and farmers will cooperate to make locally suitable plan for the Tinh Bien context to save water and improve local farmers livelihoods.
Figure 5. Participants of the exchange visit with My Dong 2 Cooperative gather for a group photo.