GAE HELP FARMERS TO BE WEALTHY

05/05/2010

The Global Alternative Energy Association – GAE, chaired by Mr, Uzochukwu O.Chima has worked with Bac Kan Provincial People’s Committee through the Project on “Pro-Poor Public Partner in agricultural and forestry development” funded by IFAD. The project has a budget of 25.5 million USD supported by IFAD What to grow on the poor land?The mission surveyed the economic development and environment as well as the life of ethnic minorities in Ba Be and Pac Nam districts with an aim to look for investment opportunity and support poor households to plant and process plants with are used for making bio-petrol. “Bio material plays a significant role, its production will bring about opportunities for agricultural development and increasing income for many poor households”, said Mr Chima.

Dr. Hoang Ngoc Duong, Vice Standing Chairman of Bac Can Provincial People’s Committee disclosed that there are over 50% of poor households in both Ba Be and Pac Nam districts. The majority of hills and natural forests in both places are malnutrition. Plants of higher economic value should be grown here.

According to the calculation of policy makers in agricultural and forestry development in Bac Can province, farmers will harvest 70-80m3/hectare if they plant “cay keo” with a life circle of 7-8 years. The farmers will receive 1 million dong per 1m3 of wood. Thus, they will have about 80 million dong after 8 years of planting and the average income a year is 10million dong/hectare. The income is not high. “The province raised the possibility of planting Jatropha which is capable of producing bio-diesel, then the returns can be higher than planting the "cay keo", Mr Duong commented. Is it easy to plant the fence tree?According to a specialist from IFAD, a research conducted by IPSARD disclosed that the fence tree brings about an economic return of 17-35million dong/hector with a duration of 4 years. However, it is not commonly planted in Vietnam and these projects planting these plants are only on the trial period. Farmer Nong Van Hanh, Nghien Loan village, Pac Nam district said the farmers name it as fence tree as it is used to make the fence. Cows and wild animals do not want to eat them so they are not lost compared to other trees. Mr Hanh also added that it is very easy to plant the fence tree. It is growth by branching and it does not require much plantation.

The chairman of Nghien Loan village People’s Committee, Pac Nam district said “People in the village are mainly ethnic minorities. In spite of low education level, the people pay a close attention to agricultural and rural development in order to escape from poverty. In addition, they are willing to learn if the new tree is more efficient than the current trees”. The most important thing is to provide the output for the products of the farmers. This comes to the role of enterprises.

 The role of State is neededThe fence tree planting and bio-diesel tree plantation project is a concrete example of the public-private work in economic development and poverty reduction. Vice chairman of Bac Kan Provincial People’s Committee, Hoang Ngoc Duong stressed the elements of sustainability, input and output. He revealed during the state subside period, there was project asking farmers to plan the oil-plants for producing gas for airplane, however, there was no agencies purchasing the mature plants. The plants are not edible.

Thus, the state should issue policies to attract investment from both local and international private businesses so that they will commit to buy the products of farmers. In addition, the state should support partly the budget for researching and piloting the plantation in different disadvantaged land areas, push up the process of classification and handing over of forest for farmers and enterprises, support training for poor households so that they can develop the new plants. “I believe this task should be closely combined between the Government and enterprises such as ours with farmers with the initial technical support from IFAD”, Mr Chima highlighted.IFAD is a professional organization on rural and agriculture of the United Nations. Currently in the world and in Vietnam in particular, IFAD has been supporting strengthening policies at the central level with pilot projects in 11 provinces to speed up public-private cooperation, promote private investment in rural and agriculture, create jobs and increase income for poor people.

Read the full newspaper article in Vietnamese: GAE guip dan lam giau