Production support for Ham Thuan Nam people in the face of climate change

BTO-SACCR Project – Strengthening the resilience of small-scale agriculture to water security due to climate change in the Central Highlands and South Central Coast helps people in Ham Thuan Nam, especially poor households, to more clearly identify challenges in water-scarce areas and choose appropriate production development methods.

Climate change affects agricultural production

Identify extreme climate phenomena such as drought, landslides and water resource depletion. Especially the negative impacts of climate change on farmers, especially poor households, near-poor households, female-headed households and ethnic minority households participating in crop value chains such as dragon fruit, cashew, etc. This is an important content presented at the forum with the theme "Agricultural climate information, climate change adaptation and natural disaster risks" held in Phan Thiet City recently.

Delegates attending the forum.

This forum is chaired by the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Binh Thuan , within the framework of the SACCR project - Strengthening the resilience of small-scale agriculture to water security due to climate change in the Central Highlands and South Central Coast of Vietnam. In which, Ham Thuan Nam district and Duc Linh are two localities of Binh Thuan province that benefit from the project, implemented from 2021 to June 2026. The project consists of 2 components, of which component 1 is to strengthen water security for agricultural production of vulnerable small-scale farmers in the context of fluctuations in rainfall and drought due to climate change. Component 2 is to strengthen the resilience of small-scale farmers' livelihoods through climate-adaptive agriculture and access to climate, finance and market information.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Giang - Women's Union of My Thanh commune, Ham Thuan Nam district expressed her opinion at the forum.

Speaking at the forum, Ms. Nguyen Thi Giang - Women's Union of My Thanh Commune, Ham Thuan Nam District said: The locality where she lives is a purely ethnic minority commune, with many poor households, mainly growing corn, cassava and some other crops such as cashew. This is a dry land, with no water for production in the dry season, many households depend on rainwater, which is precarious.

Corn acreage in My Thanh commune was damaged due to drought recently.

Due to climate change leading to erratic rain and sunshine, agricultural production often fails. Currently, some households have switched to growing cassava and cashew to divide the area for investment, limiting risks in agricultural production. Ms. Giang's family used to grow dragon fruit but gave up for nearly 5 years due to high investment costs, lack of irrigation water in the dry season and pests. Therefore, when receiving support projects from local authorities and organizations, people were very happy.

Disaster Risk Reduction

With a deep understanding of the importance of adaptation and resilience to climate change and disaster risk management, at this forum, farmers in the beneficiary areas shared information, experiences and found effective solutions. The forum's goal is for stakeholders in the value chain to cooperate and discuss the challenges of climate change. In particular, it is to promote innovative solutions towards agricultural systems that are resilient to climate change. Thereby, it proposes initiatives to promote more sustainable agricultural production, reduce risks of natural disasters, droughts and water resources management in the province. On the other hand, it makes strategic commitments and activities to help remove barriers that value chain actors are facing and thereby support vulnerable groups due to climate change in the province.

Dragon fruit in Ham Thuan Nam was flooded due to heavy rain in late August 2024.

The above project helps people in Ham Thuan Nam, especially poor households, to more clearly identify the challenges in water-scarce areas and choose appropriate ways to develop production. In fact, from suffering damage due to natural disasters, last year, people in Ham Can and My Thanh were allocated corn seeds by the locality with a quantity of 18 tons of corn from the Central support source to carry out production in the summer-autumn crop of 2024. At the same time, in coordination with the Provincial Mountain Service Center, a program of investment in advance planting of hybrid corn for ethnic minority areas was implemented. As a result, the communes registered to implement 854.2 hectares/425 participating households...

Previously, from the production development support project of the National Target Program on Sustainable Poverty Reduction, in 2022, the Ham Thuan Nam Department of Agriculture and Rural Development implemented a model of breeding cows in My Thanh commune with 22 breeding cows for 22 poor households with a final settlement cost of 356.4 million VND, which has brought about practical results. In 2023 and 2024, the department continued to implement other production development support projects in poor areas such as Ham Can and My Thanh after calculating the suitability, so it has more or less brought about clear results.

The addition of the SACCR project has opened up many other more progressive paths. At the forum, Mr. Tran Van Lanh - Deputy Head of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Ham Thuan Nam district expressed his opinion that it is necessary to plan suitable production areas, such as investing in dragon fruit growing areas, other areas growing other crops in a safe direction. These are important steps in the restructuring of agriculture, requiring coordination between all parties, and for people, especially the poor, and the beneficiary areas to understand the problem and be aware.

Farmers in Ham Can commune are supported with corn seeds to overcome the consequences of natural disasters that have caused damage to agricultural production.

According to Ms. Mai Thi Ngoc Anh - Vice Chairman of Ham Thuan Nam District People's Committee, with the strong direction of Party committees and authorities at all levels, along with the synchronous coordination of the Fatherland Front, unions, social organizations... the implementation of the projects has many advantages. Along with that, from the consensus of the people, the implemented projects have brought practical benefits to the beneficiaries, contributing to gradually improving the quality of life for the people. Support policies for poor households, near-poor households, preferential credit policies have been implemented promptly...

Source: https://baobinhthuan.com.vn/ho-tro-san-xuat-cho-nguoi-dan-ham-thuan-nam-truoc-bien-doi-khi-hau-124451.html