Mekong Organics’ Locally Led Approaches (MOLA) for promoting ecological-organic agriculture in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam
The Minister of the Ministry of Agriculture & Rural Development (MARD) invited Mekong Organics to present the local-led approach to promoting ecological-organic agriculture development in the Mekong Delta with the Directors of the Department of Plant Protection (Cục BVTV), Directorate of Fisheries (Cục Thủy sản), Department of Cooperatives and Rural Development (Cục kinh tế hợp tác & PTNT), National Agricultural Extension Centre (Trung tâm Khuyến nông Quốc Gia), Vietnam’s Agriculture (Báo Nông nghiệp Việt Nam), Department of International Cooperation (Vụ Hợp tác Quốc tế), Institute of Policy and Strategy for Agriculture and Rural Development (IPSARD) and MARD’s members. MARD is keen to scale this approach into a national initiative to promote ecological agriculture, vibrant countryside, and innovative farmers.
Mekong Organics initiated this approach to co-design the Tram Chim Ecological Rice Project for Sarus Crane Conservation and Development in the buffer zone of Tram Chim National Park in Tam Nong province of Dong Thap province. This method combines multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary and stakeholder engagement with a diversity of relevant stakeholders: agricultural government staff, farm extension service, farmer’s association, women’s union, and youth union at the district level, in linking with the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development and Department of Science and Technology at the provincial level, and relevant NGOs, private sector and social traders who are operating the projects on the ground.
Mekong Organics was involved in the early stage of the project design to advise the Dong Thap’s People Committee to develop a long-term plan for promoting an ecological rice-based food system using the advantage of the flood event, promoting agro-biodiversity and branding the Tram Chim Ecological Rice for the region. Since early 2024, Mekong Organics co-organized with Dong Thap’s People Committee to host the first international workshop on developing ecological-regenerative organic rice farming and trade in partnership with the DFAT AVEG Round Two project: deepening organic agriculture and trade investment between Australia and Vietnam, on 13 Jan 2024. The workshop attacked more than 100 participants, including local government staff from DARD, district government staff, and farmers in the Tam Nong District. Australian businesses and NGO partners participated in the event, including Randall Organic Rice in Murrami, NSW, the Organic Agriculture Association (OAA) in Bairnsdale, Victoria, and Regeneration International.
From 7th to 10 September 2024, the Mekong Organics partnered with Tam Nong District’s People Committee, OAA and the Climate Change Insitute (ICC) to host one four-day training workshop in designing a ten-year pathway and activities for transforming from conventional rice farming to ecological and toward organic rice system in 2033. We use the on-site training and field visits to recognise the local problems and opportunities for the environmental rice development pathway. We prioritize using local led-actions that have been successfully developed in the Mekong Delta region to share the successful stories of ecological and organic rice farming, certification and trade from Vinh Long and Ca Mau and Kien Giang province to the farmers, governments, private sectors and local mass media organizations. We use successful local stories and local experts who are the networkers of Mekong Organics in the Mekong Delta to share their farm, processing and trade stories with Dong Thap’s farmers and staff.
In the next step, Mekong Organics will work with local partners to co-design an actionable plan and activities to implement this initiative. We will explore synergies with different interested partners, parties, agencies, and donors to support this locally led initiative for Dong Thap and other provinces of the Mekong Delta.
