This summer Hiep Duc district suffered from a severe prolonged drought. There was no single rain drop for the whole months of May and June, leaving more than 500 hectares of rice fields in the area with little water for irrigation. Many families could not choose but leave land fallow, while some others could only maintain their crops in smaller plots. “God doesn’t love us; not enough rice to eat again,” sadly sighed most farmers.

Ms. Ngoc, a poor single mother in Phu Binh hamlet of Que Tho commune of the district, was sure that her families would be one of those many.

Ms. Ngoc has been struggling to raise two little daughters at their school age. Because of high mortality and price volatility of chicken and pig she raises and lack of other valuable cash crops, the whole family relies on the two sao[i] of rice field. Normally, she has to sell half of each harvest right away to pay for fertilizers, seeds, pesticides and other inputs she bought on credit before the crop, and also cover other household’s necessities. The remaining half from both the rice crops a year is merely enough to feed her and the kids for 9 months. For the other months, Ms. Ngoc buys rice with cash she earns from all sorts of possible odd work away from home.

This summer, due to the drought, she could grow rice on one sao. And she could not hide her looming worries that no way cash from her odd work could be sufficient to supplement the greater rice shortage early next year because half of the land was left fallow.

Ms. Ngoc first heard of FDP at a village meeting conducted by the Women’s Union, but she doubted that this technology would work in such drought. After asking lots of questions and thinking over, she felt more confident and decided to buy and apply on the one sao that she could grow rice on, cherishing a strong hope for a better harvest with it. Whist hoping, Ms. Ngoc was still worried. She told us: “Ten days after applying FDP, I couldn’t see any sign of my rice growing better than my neighbors’ one, and I got nervous, like a cat on hot bricks. I started to think how stupid I was, because I’ve never seen anyone applying before. My children would be starving if things just went wrong!”

Ms. Ngoc happily said that ten days later she noticed a difference. “Thanks God, after three weeks, the rice began to grow amazingly fast! It’s really incredible!” In most nearby fields, rice turned yellowish as the soil got dried off, whilst Ms. Ngoc’s rice plot continued to grow, strong and green, showing such a conspicuous contrast that drew lots of farmers’ attention and curiosity. Everyone said that Ms. Ngoc would get a good harvest for sure.

And they were correct.

Despite the drought, the harvest was even greater than normal! Ms. Ngoc got 360 kg of rice on that one-sao plot, and she said that now she could secure enough rice till next harvest in May next year. Compared with last summer crop without drought in the same plot, it was 80 kg more rice. “Save money on fertilizer and get more rice with no fear of drought – What surprising pellets!” – Ms. Ngoc was excited, and she told us that she will of course apply FDP for all the rice fields for the next crop.

Some of Ms Ngoc’s neighbours have even said that they would definitely follow Ms. Ngoc to switch to FDP.

Since April 2010, IDE Vietnam has been implementing a 3-year project with the help of funding from the innocent foundation.  In the poor upland district of Hiep Duc in the Quang Nam province, one third of the population is living below the poverty line. 90% of the population is dependent on agricultural activities.  Low productivity of rice production has been observed as a main cause of poverty.

IDE have been undertaking work to help rice-farmers through this project.  The aim is to introduce Fertilizer Deep Placement technology (FDP) in order to increase rice yields.  The 3 year project has the following objectives:

• To help 4,000 rice farming families increase their rice yields by 30%
• Help set up a local private sector network to produce and supply fertilizer pellets.
• Support market development of FDP to the whole district without external funding.

Despite setbacks from a severe drought this the summer, the project has seen some considerable success.  Local marketing strategies employed by this project have ensured this including:

Mass marketing activities have been implemented such as leaflet distribution to homes, information dissemination on local the TV station, district/commune loud-speaking systems, and posting of FDP posters. A quick assessment by IDE indicates that about 50% of the population in project communes are aware of this information.  In addition, some farmers have even learned how to apply FDP from the information disseminated in this way without going to a training session.

IDE is also undertaking targeted marketing activities.  A total of 30 demo plots were set up during the crop to train poor farmers on FDP application.

The results so far are impressive. 89 farmers have adopted FDP so far.  This is considered an good result by the local authorities. No previous project has ever achieved such a level of adoption without providing hand-outs to farmers.

Ms. Ngoc, pictured above with her daughter, is a poor single mother of two from the Que Tho commune.  This year due to severe drought, she could only grow rice crops on her one-sao plot, (equivalent of about 500sqm) instead of two-sao.  After hearing about the Fertilizer Deep Placement technology, she decided to buy enough for one-sao.

Three weeks later Ms Ngoc told IDE:  “Thanks God, after three weeks, the rice began to grow amazingly fast! It’s really incredible!”

Despite the drought, the harvest was even greater than normal! Ms. Ngoc got 360 kg of rice on that one-sao, 80 kg more than the previous year when there was no drought.

Related Links:

http://www.innocentfoundation.org/

http://ide-vietnam.org/default.asp?sel=three&OneID=4&TwoID=5&ThreeID=11

http://ide-uk.org/news/real-stories/vietnam-%E2%80%93-2010/ms-ngoc-vietnam/

UK based fruit drink company innocent drinks (through the innocent foundation) works with organisations in developing countries where its fruit is sourced building secure futures through sustainable farming.

Between 2006 and 2009 IDE-UK and innocent partnered on a project that helped small farmers in Ethiopia  grow apples which were  sold at market to generate additional income.  So far, the project has helped 226 farmers get started in the apple business; it’s a great example of IDE’s method in action.

In April 2010 the innocent foundation and IDE UK have initiated a further three-year project together in Vietnam.  Read more about the new project.

>> More about the partnership with the innocent foundation

With the support of innocent foundation, IDE UK is adapting the Fertiliser Deep Placement (FDP) technology with 4,000 rice farming families  in the province of Hiep Duc, a poor upland district in Quang Nam, Vietnam.  The increase in yield/income for the 4,000 families will be estimated equivalent to GB￡35 per year per household.

.>> Read more about partnership.

IDE (International Development Enterprises) aims at introducing and promoting a new innovative and efficient method of applying fertilisers in tablet form to poor farmers in an upland district in central Vietnam to improve their rice production, which is a major source of their livelihoods.  IDE will employ its unique market-based approach to ensure we leave behind an unsubsidised self-sustaining market system that will continue to expand in the district beyond end of the three-year project for more farmers to benefit.