Climate change

Harvesting the 2020-21 winter-spring rice in Tiền Giang Province’s Gò Công Đông District. — VNA/VNS Photo Minh Trí

TIỀN GIANG — The Cửu Long (Mekong) Delta province of Tiền Giang will grow only two rice crops a year in coastal districts and Gò Công Town to mitigate the impact of saltwater intrusion and drought.

Nguyễn Văn Mẫn, director of the province’s Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said that the coastal districts of Gò Công Đông, Gò Công Tây and Tân Phú Đông, and Gò Công Town will grow only winter-spring rice and summer-autumn rice, and no longer grow autumn-winter rice.

In the autumn-winter crop, the coastal districts and Gò Công Town will grow other short-term crops resistant to saltwater intrusion and drought.

In 2021-25, the districts and Gò Công Town will also convert 3,290ha of rice fields in areas without access to irrigation water resources to fields growing crops like vegetables, fruits, perennial trees, and grasses for feeding animals.

To provide support for these changes, the province has completed various construction projects, transferred intensive-farming techniques, and expanded new effective farming models that adapt to climate change.

Farmers have been encouraged to use advanced techniques like “three increases-three reductions” and “one must and five reductions” in rice cultivation, and grow rice and other crops under Vietnamese or global agricultural practices (VietGAP or Global GAP) standards.

The “three increase-three reductions” technique reduces the use of seedlings, fertilisers and plant-protection chemicals in an aim to improve productivity, quality and efficiency.

The “one must and five reductions” technique refers to the use of certified seeds and reduction in plant-protection chemicals, nitrogenous fertilisers, irrigation, seedlings and post-harvest losses.

The province also plans to build more transport and irrigation projects to serve production and transport of farm produce. It will set up specific cultivation schedules for rice and other crops in order to use water efficiently and prevent pollution.

Tiền Giang is one of the delta’s coastal provinces most severely impacted by climate change, especially saltwater intrusion in the dry season.

Success with new crops

Mẫn said to cope with climate change and natural disasters, the province since 2016 has reduced rice cultivation and restructured crops in the coastal districts of Gò Công Đông, Gò Công Tây and Tân Phú Đông, and Gò Công Town.

In 2016-20, the province restructured crop cultivation on more than 32,500ha of rice fields, which was 57 per cent higher than the province’s target set for the period.

Of the 32,500ha of rice fields, nearly 5,500ha no longer grow summer-autumn rice, and nearly 21,000ha stopped autumn-winter rice cultivation. About 6,000ha no longer grow rice and instead grow other high-value short-term crops and perennial trees.

Compared to rice growing, the profit from growing perennial trees has been two times higher than rice and profit from vegetables three times higher, according to the department.

Đặng Anh Phương in Gò Công Đông District’s Phước Trung Commune turned his 5,000sq.m rice field in a coastal area into a lime orchard and now earns an income of VNĐ30 million (US$1,300) a month from selling harvested limes.

“The profit is about 10 times higher than from growing high-quality rice,” he said.

VnSAT Tiền Giang

The Việt Nam-Sustainable Agriculture Transformation (VnSAT) project in Tiền Giang Province (VnSAT Tiền Giang) since 2015 has helped rice farmers increase income by 34 per cent, according to VnSAT Tiền Giang’s management board.

Phạm Văn Trọng, deputy chairman of the province’s People’s Committee, said that VnSAT Tiền Giang helped rice farmers apply advanced technologies and protect the rural environment.

VnSAT Tiền Giang, which has an investment of $12.38 million, is being implemented on a total area of 27,200ha of rice with the participation of 41,015 farming households in the province’s flood-prone districts of Cái Bè and Cai Lậy and Cai Lậy Town in the 2015-21 period.

It has provided advanced rice farming techniques called “three increase-three reductions” and “one must and five reductions” to more than 108,000 farmers to improve production efficiency, and has instructed farmers in how to apply good agricultural practices standards.

It has also upgraded eight rural roads with a total length of 19 kilometres, and built six rural bridges, 10 water regulation sluices, four water regulation sluices with pumping stations, seven warehouses, and four rice dryer houses.

Under VnSAT Tiền Giang, farmers have applied “three increase-three reductions” on more than 17,000ha and “one must and five reductions” on more than 8,200ha, exceeding the project’s targets for the 2015-21 period.

Under VnSAT Tiền Giang, the province has established 19 agriculture co-operatives and one co-operative group. Of these, 16 agriculture co-operatives have farm contracts with rice companies to grow rice on large-scale rice fields.

This year, VnSAT Tiền Giang will organise 36 courses to train more farmers in “three increase-three reductions” and “one must and five reductions”, and build 10 agriculture infrastructure works at a total cost of VNĐ95.5 billion ($4.1 million).

The VnSAT Project is being implemented in all five provinces in the Tây Nguyên (Central Highlands) region and eight provinces in the Mekong (Cửu Long) Delta by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in co-operation with relevant ministries and the World Bank.

The project aims to enhance the competitiveness of the agricultural sector, especially rice and coffee cultivation, improve farmers’ incomes, and reduce adverse impact on the environment. — VNS

GE is supporting emerging economies across the global tackle climate change

Our ability to overcome the climate change challenge and achieve the results we so urgently need will not happen only through events such as the Leaders Summit, nor during government policy meetings, or in corporate boardrooms. While these are essential to alignment and making commitments, the action to achieve these goals will happen in the local markets.

Where the rubber hits the road

Success actually occurs “where the rubber hits the road” – in the homes, factories, industrial facilities, power plants, and office buildings where sustainable, low- and zero-carbon technologies, systems, and practices are deployed. This needs to happen in a diverse array of geographies, climates, demographics, and economies.

Some countries are densely populated; others have vast uninhabited areas. Some regions get all their water from desalination and require constant air conditioning for brutal summers; others have rivers that run full year-round, and their major concern is heating during freezing winters.

These different conditions not only impact each country’s response to climate change, but also how they approach the broader “energy trilemma”. This trilemma reflects the challenge countries face to address sustainability, while at the same time balancing their needs in two other critical areas: energy equity (often related to affordability) and energy security and reliability.

Even as the world rallied this week around the need for concerted action, the path taken by each country and community will look different. What that means, quite simply, is that effective climate action – particularly in the context of the energy trilemma – will need extensive localisation. This local approach requires technology and an understanding of the local environment and market.

That is why at this moment of action, we, as GE, will build on our work with customers and governments across the globe, and support the execution of the commitments outlined to move further and faster toward a more sustainable future. We must look forward to the future with new paradigms and technologies, alongside customers, governments, and partners.

Reimagining tomorrow’s technologies

We bring proven technologies that will support customers in taking steps today, while our ongoing research and development (R&D) will deliver the new technologies they require in the years ahead. Danielle Merfeld, chief technology officer for GE Renewable Energy spoke during a session on innovation held on the second day of the summit. She noted that GE spends $1.5 billion annually on energy-related R&D.

Already, our gas turbines can run on fuels that blend natural gas with hydrogen, resulting in lower CO2 emissions. Ongoing innovation means that many of our turbines can transition to run on 100 per cent hydrogen. This is a major milestone, as gas turbines fueled by hydrogen will unlock an era of lower carbon dispatchable electricity, providing a necessary backstop to the intermittency of renewable power. In the renewables sector, GE has some of the largest, most efficient turbines in the world. And, our hardware and software for the electrical grid helps ensure electricity is delivered efficiently and reliably to consumers.

In aviation, we are continuing to improve engine performance for greater fuel efficiency. Longer term, we are trialling sustainable airline fuels, and we are exploring electrically driven propulsion systems that reimagine the aircraft engine.

Supporting the energy transition

Meanwhile, we are helping countries pursue their energy transitions today.

In Japan, which announced during the Summit a goal to cut emissions 46 per cent by 2030, more than 550 GE wind turbines are installed or under construction.

In China, which seeks to become carbon neutral by 2060, we provide support across a number of technologies, including more than 200 gas turbines, 4.2GW of onshore wind, 18MW of offshore wind, 48GW of hydro, and over 22,000 pieces of high-voltage equipment supporting efficiencies in the grid.

In India, which seeks to have 450GW of renewable energy capacity by 2030, we have 10,000 energy engineers and technologists, and 11 manufacturing facilities to support the country’s work in wind, solar, hydro, gas, nuclear, and smart grid.

By 2050, the United Arab Emirates aims to have an energy mix that includes 44 per cent renewables and 38 per cent natural gas. GE is providing its record-breaking H-class gas turbine technology for a power plant that is expected to be the most efficient in the Middle East utility sector. We also have provided solar technologies for what will be the largest single-site solar energy project in the world. And a week ago, Etihad Airways operated its first Ecoflight of 2021 on the airline’s signature Greenliner aircraft, which is fully offset for all operations through 2021 as part of the airline’s mission toward carbon-neutral flying. Greenliner is a partnership between the airline, GE Aviation, Boeing, and others.

Brazil aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 43 per cent by 2030, and GE is contributing to this goal with technologies that provide about one-third of the 175GW of installed capacity, including 40 per cent of the country’s hydro capacity, 30 per cent of its wind projects, and efficient and flexible gas turbines, including the H-class.

As part of its commitment to be carbon neutral by 2050, South Korea is looking to renewables and hydrogen. GE is providing its H-class gas turbines, which can burn hydrogen-blend fuels, for a number of major projects.

Partnerships – again – are the answer

GE also brings an additional essential capability important to the decarbonisation journey: the ability to form partnerships and bring all the right people together around the table.

This is something GE does already, when putting together a financing package or the right project execution team for complex projects in healthcare and power generation. Or to pursue innovative solutions, such as an open Innovation Challenge in support of a lower-carbon future in Taiwan that is being organised in partnership with the Taoyuan City government and Taiwan Power Company.

Ultimately, our success as a global community in pursuing a low-carbon future requires steps now, across the entire value chain and around the world. The commitments announced and reaffirmed last week by world leaders give us the direction and inspiration we need.

For those of us who operate in the plants, facilities and systems where decarbonisation happens, our task is to translate these global and national commitments into the local implementations that will lead us to a sustainable, low-carbon future.

By Nabil Habayeb, Senior vice president, GE, president and CEO, GE International Markets, GE

Harvesting the 2020-21 winter-spring rice in Tien Giang Province’s Go Cong Dong District.

Nguyen Van Man, director of the province’s Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said that the coastal districts of Go Cong Dong, Go Cong Tay and Tan Phu Dong, and Go Cong Town will grow only winter-spring rice and summer-autumn rice, and no longer grow autumn-winter rice.

In the autumn-winter crop, the coastal districts and Go Cong Town will grow other short-term crops resistant to saltwater intrusion and drought.

In 2021-25, the districts and Go Cong Town will also convert 3,290ha of rice fields in areas without access to irrigation water resources to fields growing crops like vegetables, fruits, perennial trees, and grasses for feeding animals.

To provide support for these changes, the province has completed various construction projects, transferred intensive-farming techniques, and expanded new effective farming models that adapt to climate change.

Farmers have been encouraged to use advanced techniques like “three increases-three reductions” and “one must and five reductions” in rice cultivation, and grow rice and other crops under Vietnamese or global agricultural practices (VietGAP or Global GAP) standards.

The “three increase-three reductions” technique reduces the use of seedlings, fertilisers and plant-protection chemicals in an aim to improve productivity, quality and efficiency.

The “one must and five reductions” technique refers to the use of certified seeds and reduction in plant-protection chemicals, nitrogenous fertilisers, irrigation, seedlings and post-harvest losses.

The province also plans to build more transport and irrigation projects to serve production and transport of farm produce. It will set up specific cultivation schedules for rice and other crops in order to use water efficiently and prevent pollution.

Tien Giang is one of the delta’s coastal provinces most severely impacted by climate change, especially saltwater intrusion in the dry season.

Success with new crops

Man said to cope with climate change and natural disasters, the province since 2016 has reduced rice cultivation and restructured crops in the coastal districts of Go Cong Dong, Go Cong Tay and Tan Phu Dong, and Go Cong Town.

In 2016-20, the province restructured crop cultivation on more than 32,500ha of rice fields, which was 57 per cent higher than the province’s target set for the period.

Of the 32,500ha of rice fields, nearly 5,500ha no longer grow summer-autumn rice, and nearly 21,000ha stopped autumn-winter rice cultivation. About 6,000ha no longer grow rice and instead grow other high-value short-term crops and perennial trees.

Compared to rice growing, the profit from growing perennial trees has been two times higher than rice and profit from vegetables three times higher, according to the department.

Dang Anh Phuong in Go Cong Dong District’s Phuoc Trung Commune turned his 5,000sq.m rice field in a coastal area into a lime orchard and now earns an income of VND30 million (US$1,300) a month from selling harvested limes.

“The profit is about 10 times higher than from growing high-quality rice,” he said.

VnSAT Tien Giang

The Vietnam-Sustainable Agriculture Transformation (VnSAT) project in Tien Giang Province (VnSAT Tien Giang) since 2015 has helped rice farmers increase income by 34 per cent, according to VnSAT Tien Giang’s management board.

Pham Van Trong, deputy chairman of the province’s People’s Committee, said that VnSAT Tien Giang helped rice farmers apply advanced technologies and protect the rural environment.

VnSAT Tien Giang, which has an investment of $12.38 million, is being implemented on a total area of 27,200ha of rice with the participation of 41,015 farming households in the province’s flood-prone districts of Cai Be and Cai Lay and Cai Lay Town in the 2015-21 period.

It has provided advanced rice farming techniques called “three increase-three reductions” and “one must and five reductions” to more than 108,000 farmers to improve production efficiency, and has instructed farmers in how to apply good agricultural practices standards.

It has also upgraded eight rural roads with a total length of 19 kilometres, and built six rural bridges, 10 water regulation sluices, four water regulation sluices with pumping stations, seven warehouses, and four rice dryer houses.

Under VnSAT Tien Giang, farmers have applied “three increase-three reductions” on more than 17,000ha and “one must and five reductions” on more than 8,200ha, exceeding the project’s targets for the 2015-21 period.

Under VnSAT Tien Giang, the province has established 19 agriculture co-operatives and one co-operative group. Of these, 16 agriculture co-operatives have farm contracts with rice companies to grow rice on large-scale rice fields.

This year, VnSAT Tien Giang will organise 36 courses to train more farmers in “three increase-three reductions” and “one must and five reductions”, and build 10 agriculture infrastructure works at a total cost of VND95.5 billion ($4.1 million).

The VnSAT Project is being implemented in all five provinces in the Tay Nguyen (Central Highlands) region and eight provinces in the Mekong (Cuu Long) Delta by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in co-operation with relevant ministries and the World Bank.

The project aims to enhance the competitiveness of the agricultural sector, especially rice and coffee cultivation, improve farmers’ incomes, and reduce adverse impact on the environment.

VNS

But Thuy, along with many of her neighbors, has over the past decade completed a production swap – to shrimp – a previously unlikely shift that was spurred by the effects of climate change.

Ta Thi Thanh Thuy, 52, walks past the place where she used to grow rice before her family switched to shrimps farming in Soc Trang Province, Vietnam, May 1, 2021. Photo by Reuters/Thanh Hue.

As rising seawaters bring significantly increased salination levels in the Mekong Delta region, the trend toward cultivating shrimp ponds is expected to supercharge the country’s seafood industry.

The government has set an ambitious target to more than double shrimp exports from current levels to $10 billion by 2025 and delta farmers have benefited from local authority training sessions and other measures, including some soft loans.

“Life was very hard for us until we began to farm shrimp,” Thuy, 52, said. “Many shrimp farmers around here have been able to build nice houses and open saving accounts at banks.”

“We planted rice but we harvested no rice,” said fellow shrimp farmer Ta Thanh Long. “There was a time the rice could still grow when the water was still fresh. But then the water became more and more salty each year.”

Shrimp farmers Ta Thi Thanh Thuy and her husband Tran Ngoc Giau have lunch at her house in Soc Trang province, Vietnam, May 1, 2021. Photo by Reuters/Thanh Hue.

At least one-third of the rice farming area along Soc Trang Province’s 72-kilometer coastline has been affected by salination over the past few years, said Duong Minh Hoang, former director of the province’s Agriculture Promotion Center.

“We have urged local people to switch to crops that are suitable with salination,” Hoang said. “Climate change is impacting everyone here. We have to try to adapt to survive.”

Exports boom

Vietnam is the world’s third largest exporter of rice, but revenue generated from shrimp exports has exceeded earnings from rice since 2013 and is growing quickly.

Shrimp farmers weigh harvested shrimps in Soc Trang Province, Vietnam, April 27, 2021. Photo by Reuters/Thanh Hue.

“Seafood processors around here come to buy up all the shrimp we farm,” said Ta Thanh Tung, 44, one of Thuy’s five siblings who have all switched from rice to shrimp farming.

“We heard they’re exporting the shrimp to Europe, China and the United States.”

Industry analysts expect exports to rise by 5-10 percent annually over the next decade as the country’s total shrimp farming lands – mostly in the delta – increase by 3-5 percent each year.

Vietnam’s largest seafood exporter, Minh Phu Seafood Corp, has an even more ambitious target to turn the country into the world’s largest shrimp exporter. Minh Phu expects more than a dozen recently agreed bilateral and multilateral trade agreements to help boost exports to $20 billion, or a quarter of global exports, by 2045.

That could help ease some of the economic pressure the Southeast Asian country faces in the years ahead. The World Bank estimates that climate change alone is poised to reduce Vietnam’s national income by as much as 3.5 percent by 2050.

Shrimp worries

The switch to shrimp from rice, however, comes with its own host of environmental problems.

Switzerland-based NGO, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), estimates more than half of the country’s natural mangrove forests, which protect against coastal erosion and storm surges, have been cleared to make way for shrimp ponds.

Aquaculture experts have highlighted a lack of regulatory oversight of the explosion in small shrimp farms, with questions about everything from the raw material used in feed to the way they manage their effluent or waste.

There are particular concerns about the use of antibiotics to treat disease in shrimp stocks. Antibiotics can seep into effluent, which is usually dumped, untreated or inadequately treated, back into the surrounding waterways, raising the risk of chemical pollution in the immediate environment and detrimental knock-on effects down the food chain.

Abandoned houses in a flooded area which used to be the paddy rice fields are seen in Soc Trang Province, Vietnam, April 27, 2021. Photo by Reuters/Thanh Hue.

“Whilst overfishing and dams are discussed … the insidious nature of invisible pollutants is not being considered,” said Matt Landos, an Australia-based veterinarian scientist specializing in aquatic animal health. “Yet it’s clear they are present, and levels are negative for fishery productivity.”

Further, the increasing salination and rising seawater levels that prompted the switch in the first place could end up devastating the delta.

A rise of 0.7 to 1.0 meters would put about 40 percent of the region underwater, according to Le Anh Tuan, a professor at the College of Environment and Natural Resources at Can Tho University.

“The shrinking trend will continue over the coming years and parts of the rice fields will have to be converted into aquaculture farms, fruit farms and other crops,” Tuan added.

Shrimp farmers say they are already dealing with worrying signs of accelerating salinity levels.

“We have to dig the wells deeper for freshwater now,” added Thuy. “We are very concerned that because of rising seawater levels our farms will one day be submerged.”