First-year sum up meeting of the project "Mitigating and adapting to climate change in the agriculture and forestry sector of the Northwestern highlands"

The Centre for Sustainable Rural Development cooperated with Thuan Chau District People’s Committee to organize a meeting to review the project activities in 2021, on December 17, 2021. The meeting is one of the activities in the framework of the project “Mitigating and adapting to climate change in the agriculture and forestry sector of the Northwestern Highlands”, which is funded by Bread for the World and implemented by SRD.

The meeting took place at the Hall of Thuan Chau District People's Committee with the participation of Mr. Tran Dung Tien – Director of  The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Son Son Province, Mr. Nguyen Xuan Hoang – Vice Chairman of Thuan Chau District People's Committee and representatives from The Department of Horticulture and Hospitality, Ranger County, Thuan Chau District Agriculture Department, leaders of The People's Committee of Chieu Pha, Nam Dai, Bon Phang, Muoi Noi communes and 32 representatives of village chiefs and leaders of interest groups in 16 project villages. There were also reporters of Son La Newspaper, Thuan Chau District Information and Culture Center participating in the meeting to write articles and report.

The meeting aims to share the results achieved in 2021, discussing difficulties, challenges, and solutions, activities to be implemented in 2022.

In the sharing of the results achieved in 2021 by representatives of the SRD, Thuan Chau District People’s Committee, Son La Provincial Development of Information and Communication, and Thuan Chau District Forest Ranger was synthesized, as followings:

The project has established and operated 8 village saving groups with a membership of 263 people, 10 rice farming groups adapted to climate change with the participation of 300 people, 4 sustainable coffee farming groups, 2 groups of indigenous glutinous rice varieties, and 8 indigenous chicken farming groups with a membership of 120, 60 and 230, respectively. All members of the groups have been trained, shared experiences, and guided, promoted to practice, and applied to farming and breeding activities at home. According to the report and evaluation from the Department of Information and Communications of Son La province, the above-mentioned training activities initially had a positive effect. Most people apply and find that the farming method uses a lot of organic fertilizers, composting manure, reduce spraying of pesticides, fire herbicides...will help them protect the environment and better adapt to extreme weather patterns caused by climate change today.

For the combined forestry and agroforestry components, the project has organized 24 forums on forest roles; on payment of forest environmental services, and community forest management to more than 861 people representing households in 16 projects. These activities have been evaluated by the people and forest rangers as very positive because it is in line with the reality in the villages, communes inside and outside the project, especially now the projects are paid by the state for forest environmental services. This makes the care, protection, and enrichment of forests of people very active. In addition, in the combined agroforestry model, with the promotion and technical support of SRD, the Forest Ranger County and The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Son La province have trained 4 classes of coffee mixed with plums for 120 households in 4 project communes. The households after the training have actively planted nearly 3000 black filling trees, greening into the coffee grants interspersed with plums. This will help coffee trees have more shade trees, in the long run, will help limit the harmful effects of salt mist, limit washing, soil erosion, increase coverage, and also help people have more income.

With the water component, the project has conducted water supply and demand assessment activities; establishment of water user associations; training on regulations on use, management, regulation, and maintenance of water systems for people, management and maintenance of water systems for people, management and management in 16 projects. Thuan Chau District People's Committee must conduct reciprocal capital to build a water supply and water regulation system in Ching Pha commune. Good water management and regulation will help people better respond to the negative impacts of climate change in the future when drought and water shortages have occurred more and more in projects.

After sharing the results, the delegates discussed the difficulties and challenges in the process of implementing the project activities. Accordingly, the typical difficulties are due to the COVID 19 pandemic that has greatly impacted people's lives as well as the progress of the project. People also face great challenges in water management and regulation, when the conventions and treaties of the villages are hardly effective, so water regulation is difficult, many households lack water while some households are redundant.

Regarding the 2022 plan, the delegates agreed with SRD that they will continue to maintain training courses that are both learning and applying on agriculture and forestry; continue to discuss community forest management, payment for forest environmental services... and persistently seek solutions to solve the challenges in water management and regulation in 4 project communes.

Speaking at the meeting, Mr. Tran Dung Tien – Deputy Director of The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development was aware of the project implementation as well as the management. He highly appreciated the success of the project and highly appreciated the participation of communes and participants. The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development is very supportive and ready to support the SRD Center as well as the project in implementing and coordinating the implementation to achieve the best results, in line with the policies of agricultural and rural development in response to climate change of Son La People's Committee.

Mr. Nguyen Xuan Hoang – PCT of Thuan Chau District People's Committee also had an opinion to share. He thanked and appreciated the project that SRD is implementing in 4 communes because it supports sustainable agricultural development in the right direction of the district. He also pledged reciprocal components, including waterworks and additional reforestation, as well as commitments on legal support, creating all conditions for the project to be successfully implemented in the Thuan Chau district.

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