Homestay mekong delta

Rice – shrimp farming fields in Bac Lieu Province. ​

Over the past three years, Kien Giang Province, the Mekong Delta’s largest rice producer, has restructured cultivation methods on more than 24,000ha of rice fields to adapt to climate change and improve farmers’ incomes.

The farmers, who had typically planted two or three rice crops a year, switched to either rotating the cultivation of rice and shrimp or intercropping rice and shrimp. Some farmers rotated rice and other crops, and others switched completely from rice to growing fruit or other crops, or engaging in aquaculture.

The Secretary of the Kien Giang Party Committee, Do Thanh Binh, said: “These measures have increased production value of these fields by 35 per cent.”

All of the delta’s 12 provinces and its major city, Can Tho, have been able to turn more unproductive rice fields into fruit tree and other crop growing areas, or for aquaculture.

These measures were taken after Government Resolution 120 was issued in 2017, which called for sustainable and climate-resilient development in the delta.

When Viet Nam was reunified in 1975, the country’s economy was one of the poorest in the world and it could not produce enough rice for domestic consumption.

After 1986, when the doi moi (renewal) period of economic and political reform began, the delta began to develop rice production rapidly after the Government invested in large irrigation projects such as man-made canals and flood-prevention dykes with an aim to ensure food security.

With the delta’s rice production increasing, Viet Nam started to have a rice surplus for export in 1989, and two years later the country became one of the world’s top three rice exporters.

However, in the last 10 years, the delta has been facing the impact of extreme weather, river and coastal erosion, saltwater intrusion, pollution, and lack of fresh water because of climate change and human factors, affecting the livelihoods of millions of people.

After record-high saltwater intrusion in the 2015-16 dry season damaged more than 300,000ha of rice, the Government issued Resolution 120 calling for the delta’s sustainable development to 2100.

The resolution pointed out that climate change and rising sea levels were inevitable and that delta residents must adapt to challenges by turning them into opportunities and restructure agricultural production based on “nature-based development”.

To meet market demand and achieve higher production value, the resolution said that the order of importance of crops in the delta should be changed to seafood, fruit and rice, rather than rice, seafood and fruit.

After three years of implementing Resolution 120, the delta’s rice area fell from 1.82 million hectares in 2017 to 1.7 million hectares last year, while its aquaculture area rose to 900,000ha from 860,000ha, and its fruit tree area to 450,000ha from 385,000ha, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD).

Speaking at the third conference on sustainable and climate-resilient development of the delta held in Can Tho last month, then MARD Minister Nguyen Xuan Cuong said that agricultural production and exports had changed significantly in the delta and farmers’ lives had improved.

Agriculture exports from the delta increased from US$7 billion in 2016 to $8.8 billion last year.

“This figure shows that ‘nature-based development’ is not only the right orientation but also is effective,” he said.

The delta’s GDP grew at a high rate of 7.3 per cent a year in 2018 and 2019.

The Mekong Delta is one of six deltas in the world that are severely impacted by climate change. Its coastal areas are affected by saltwater intrusion from the sea through river mouths in the dry season, while its upstream areas are usually inundated in the rainy season with floodwaters caused by the rising levels of the Mekong River.

Nature-based development

In the delta’s upstream provinces like Dong Thap and An Giang, farmers have reduced the area for rice cultivation during the flood season and have released floodwaters into rice fields for use in aquaculture and to fertilise the soil, and destroy pathogens and pests.

Last year, farmers in Dong Thap grew the autumn-winter rice crop, the year’s third rice crop, on only 138,000ha, which was 9,000ha less than before. They instead released floodwaters into these unused rice fields.

Le Anh Tuan, deputy head of the Can Tho University’s Research Institute for Climate Change, said that most localities in the delta had restructured agricultural production by considering the available water resources and the effects of climate change.

For instance, farmers no longer grow three rice crops a year and had reduced rice-growing areas in coastal areas. They had switched to farming models such as rice – shrimp, rice – fish, or shrimp – forest in coastal areas.

Last year, the delta’s rice – shrimp farming area expanded to 211,900ha from 176,600ha in 2015, offering farmers an average profit of VND70 million – 100 million (US$3,000 – 4,300) per hectare a year, two to three times higher than rice mono-cultivation, according to MARD.

The cultivation of the delta’s new high-quality rice varieties like ST 24 and ST 25, which rank among the world’s best rice varieties, is now being expanded in the rice – shrimp farming model.

Other environmentally-friendly farming models that use advanced techniques and efficient irrigation facilities have also been broadened in the delta. These include cultivation of vegetables in net houses, hydroponic vegetables, smart rice farming, organic rice farming, and super-intensive shrimp farming.

In Ca Mau Province, the delta’s largest shrimp producer, areas for super-intensive shrimp farming rose to 2,800ha last year, up 12 per cent against 2019, and are expected to increase to 3,200ha this year, according to the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

According to Le Thanh Trieu, director of the department, Ca Mau plans to use advanced techniques in shrimp breeding to improve yield, quality, efficiency, food safety and environmental protection.

The province also plans to invest more in intensive shrimp farming, rice–shrimp and shrimp–forest farming, and shrimp farming areas that meet international standards.

About 19,000ha of Ca Mau’s 280,000ha of shrimp breeding areas have been granted international standard certificates, including global good agricultural practices (GlobalGAP), Global Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC), Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP), and Vietnamese good agricultural practices (VietGAP).

The delta has also developed more large-scale concentrated farming areas for shrimp, tra fish, rice, fruit and other key crops. This improves production efficiency and helps to meet export requirements.

The delta’s largest fruit-producing province, Tien Giang, which has more than 80,100ha of fruit, has established many large concentrated fruit-growing areas.

In the ongoing off-season durian harvest, farmers in Tien Giang have had an average yield of 20 tonnes per hectare and are selling the fruit at a higher price of VND90,000 ($3.9) a kilogram, according to the province’s Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Developing linkages

For the 2020-21 winter-spring crop, the delta has a total of 160,000ha of large-scale rice fields in which farmers have pooled their rice fields and signed contracts with rice trading companies to guarantee outlets and stable prices.

The production cost of large-scale rice fields is 10-15 per cent less than normal fields, and the profit is VND2.2-7.5 million ($94-323) per hectare higher than those fields, according to MARD.

For the 2020-21 winter-spring rice crop, the Trung An Hi-Tech Farming Joint-Stock Company in Can Tho signed contracts with farmers to grow rice on 1,400ha of large-scale fields without using chemical pesticides.

he General Director of Trung An, Pham Thai Binh, said: “To develop rice cultivation sustainably, linkages among farmers and rice companies should be tightened to produce high-quality rice for export.”

Farmers in the delta sell their products mostly to traders and often face unstable outlets and prices.

Vo Tong Xuan, rector of Nam Can Tho University, said that farmers in the delta who switched from rice to other crops had faced difficulties finding outlets.

“When the delta is rezoned, we should identify which area will grow which crop, and with this zoning plan, we will create linkages among farmers in co-operatives, which will work with processing companies to secure outlets,” he said.

To develop sustainable production, the region also needs more linkages among its provinces and Can Tho to make farm produce on a large scale for export, and to better manage water resources for crop cultivation and aquaculture production, local authorities have said.

Although it only accounts for 12 per cent of the country’s total land area, the delta produces 50 per cent of the country’s rice, 65 per cent of aquaculture products and 70 per cent of fruits. It contributes 95 per cent of the country’s rice exports and 60 per cent of aquatic product exports.

Huge investment in infrastructure

In the three years after Resolution 120, the Government has invested in many key infrastructure projects in the delta, such as bridges, roads, fishing ports, sea dykes and irrigation works.

The Government invested VND38 trillion ($1.64 billion) to develop key irrigation projects in the 2016-20 period.

The delta’s provinces and Can Tho have also invested in many irrigation projects, reservoirs, and saltwater prevention works.

The development of irrigation projects and the proper restructuring of crop cultivation and preventive measures have helped the delta minimise damage from saltwater intrusion and natural disasters, according to MARD.

Though saltwater intrusion in the delta’s 2019-20 dry season was more severe than the record-high saltwater intrusion in the 2015-16 dry season, the damage to the rice area in the 2019-20 dry season was only equal to 10 per cent of the rice area damaged in the 2015-16 dry season.

In the 2020-21 winter-spring rice crop, farmers in the delta harvested an average yield of 7 tonnes per hectare, the highest in the past five years, and earned 45 per cent profit, according to MARD.

Farmers sowed 1.59 million hectares of rice in the winter-spring crop, down 27,210ha against last year to avoid the impact of saltwater intrusion at the end of the crop. The rate of high-quality rice varieties accounted for 77.5 per cent of the winter-spring crop, up 1 per cent against last year.

Le Thanh Tung, deputy head of MARD’s Plant Cultivation Department, said the delta had properly readjusted the proportion of planted rice varieties and the cultivation of rice and other crops, and reduced the areas under the winter-spring rice crop in places with water shortages.

“Though saltwater intrusion has been more severe this year, there has been no damage to rice and other crops,” he said.

Mekong Delta seeks transport infrastructure investment

The Mekong Delta needs about VND198.8 trillion (US$8.57 billion) to develop transport infrastructure in the 2021-25 period, according to the Ministry of Transport.

The ministry has petitioned the Government to allocate the delta at least VND57.3 trillion ($2.47 billion) to invest in key transport infrastructure projects like expressways and large bridges, and the upgrading of some national highways during the period.

It plans to call for private investment in other transport projects in the delta, including the Tran De deep-water seaport in Soc Trang Province accessible to vessels of up to 100,000 tonnes.

The delta lacks a well-connected transport system as well as logistic centres, warehouses and a deepwater seaport, which has led to higher costs for logistic services for export.

The region exports 17-18 million tonnes of rice, seafood and fruit a year, and 70 per cent of the goods have to be transported to seaports in HCM City and Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province for shipping overseas, which has increased transport costs by 10-14 per cent, according to the Sai Gon Newport Corporation. – VNS

Cold storage of Hanh Nguyen Logistics Center is expected to meet the fruit processing demand in the Mekong Delta. (Photo: SGGP)

By Cao Phong – Translated by Thuy Doan

A group of red-crowned cranes gather at Phú Mỹ Biosphere Reserve in Kiên Giang Province. Photo nld.com.vn

A representative of Phú Mỹ Biosphere Reserve confirmed that 30 cranes had been here for half a month.

The red-crowned cranes have returned, but have not gathered among the grey sedge. Instead they have found a quiet corner within the reserve. In the afternoon, the cranes typically fly to Anlung Pring, Cambodia to rest.

About 150 kilometres away, a family of three cranes was spotted in Tràm Chim National Park last week.

Lê Thành Cư, deputy director of the park, said that that the crane family returned from 2017 to 2019, but in 2020 they did not come back.

Tràm Chim National Park has been recognised as the world’s 2,000th Ramsar site (a wetland designated to be of international importance under Ramsar Convention) and the first in the Mekong Delta, with an area of more than 7,300 hectares. It is one of the world’s most famous stops for red-headed cranes, a factor that helped Tràm Chim become a Ramsar site.

Before 1975, when Vietnam was reunified, Go Cong – nowadays Tien Giang Province in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta – was a hub for well-attended martial arts exhibitions, which appealed to highly-skilled fighters from famed schools in the south of the country.

To add drama to the events, two opponents customarily prayed to their coffins before engaging.

Martial arts fights in Go Cong could be comparable to the present-day soccer matches considering the number of spectators.

Thousands would gather around the ring to witness fierce fights similar to modern-day boxing.

Fight to the death? Coffins and pride

In the 1960s, the organizing committee wanted to inject a sense of theater into the fights and placed a coffin on each side of the ring, which the fighters would touch and pray to at the beginning of their match.

Fighting to the death was the spirit, but no one ever died in any actual encounter.

However, the props were effective enough to force younger audience members to keep their light on at bedtime.

According to Le Tan Long, now 65 years old, a once famous boxer at the Trieu Tu Long martial arts center in Go Cong before 1975, what made these fights tick was essentially its sense of naked reality.

Boxers came to the stage with a pair of shorts, no chest and rib guards and very thin boxing gloves.

Their punches, kicks and special moves were as naturally done as they could be.

Long had a genuine passion for martial arts, but it took him years to talk his parents into giving their approval.

The raging ring was the stage where fighters pulled out all the stops in their martial arts center’s name.

According to Long, one could earn around VND6,000 (US$0.26) for every fight.

“People stepped into the ring simply for the pride of their center,” he said.

“Merely voicing their name was a source of pride and a catalyst for the fight.”

Money or not, they all rushed to the ring

Bui Minh Loi, 65, used to escort fighters to their spot and act as their cutman.

He informed that people were wrong to think only the wealthy could afford to attend these combats.

Quite on the contrary, even farmers saved for these events.

“Tickets sold out every time,” he said.

“The have-nots and children used to sneak in across the fences or through wall holes.”

During festivals like Ky Yen – a peace prayer ceremony by a small local religion in the south of Vietnam – or the mid-February fest of the lunar calendar when people commemorated a local deity, the fiery fights attracted more people than ever.

Whether they were friendly fights, challenges or duels, the crowds were cheering.

When Go Cong began to popularize a lunar new year fun fair in the early 1960s, the authorities decided to add a boxing ring.

The ring was established on a soccer pitch opposite a high school.

It was made from wooden panels and was well lit with bright yellow stage lights, making every single move clearly visible from a distance.

Phan Van Nam, 70, used to live near the governor’s mansion in Go Cong.

He recalled that a tournament lasted two to four nights, with as many as six pairs of fighters every night.

According to him, fun fair goers tripled in numbers thanks to this novel feature, amounting to thousands of people.

Some of them crossed over 40 kilometers on either horse carts or mini buses.

“Even my cousin came. He took his whole family there just to watch these fights,” Nam said.

Ladies were part of the scene as well. Young girls dressed up nicely and constituted an indispensable proportion of the spectators.

Some simply hoped to hold the hands of victors in their glory. Others could afford to bring over a bunch of flowers or a little lovely card.

One point of interest was that there were as many female fighters as male boxers in the Trieu Tu Long martial arts center.

Fighters’ stories

Tan Long was a boxer from the Trieu Tu Long martial arts center.

Beginning his career in 1973, he made four appearances in Go Cong tournaments by 1975, not including undocumented challenges.

He asserted that Go Cong called more spectators than other places.

“Once there were too many people around that I got overwhelmed for a while. It took me some time to regain my vigor,” he recalled.

“And there was one fight when spectators were crowding onto the ring.

“The policemen had to step in and protected us.”

A few boxers left Go Cong for the urban tournaments. One of the most impressive fights on record was between Nguyen Van Doan from Can Tho and Nguyen Phi Long from Go Cong.

The fight took place in Saigon, which is present-day Ho Chi Minh City.

Based on an article written on the October 28, 1974 by the Sports newspaper, the event occurred on October 27.

“In the first round, Doan tried to win it fast and knock out Long, who remained calm and smartly fought back,” the article reads.

“Carefully calculating his moves, Long suddenly sent out his knee attacks, sending Doan to the ground and unable to get up.

“The spectators were disappointed as the KO came too soon – merely 1.25 minutes into the first round.”

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!

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.”