As the excessive use of pesticides in farming becomes a more common issue in Vietnam, so too do the dangers associated with it, including a range of negative effects on health, on the environment, on land and on water resources. In order to address and resolve the problem, a host of local and international non- governmental organizations has jointly launched many projects and activities to raise farmers’ awareness of pesticide use and help them to form a network of farmers on organic farming or groups of organic production processes, with support from multi-level authorities to sell communities safe and high-quality produce.
A prime example of such activities is the “Farmers’ Market Day” that was held on August 9 2015 at the Community House of the Nam Thang Long urban area in Hanoi city. The initiative was launched by three VNGOs, that is, the Centre for Sustainable Rural Development (SRD); the Research Centre for Gender, Family and Environment in Development (CGFED) and the Vietnam Participatory Guarantee System (PGS), in collaboration with the Nam Thang Long urban area – Ciputra Hanoi.
Farmers had the opportunity to promote organic farming processes, share the difficulties and challenges that they face when farming organically– which is a relatively new concept in Vietnam – and increase selling opportunities to consumers. At the same time, consumers were able to learn more about the dangers of using agricultural products that contain a large amount of pesticides. As a result, it was hoped that they would believe in, and support, organic produce.
The event was inspired by activities organized by Danish farmers, the SRD’s successes in Laos and ideas raised in the “Organic conversation” of February 2015, which involved farmers, consumers, enterprises and non- governmental organizations.
Besides the support from NGOs, some social enterprises that are purchasing products from farmers such as Rau Bac Tom and Tam Dat were also involved in the event. Their attendance acted as a “bridge” between famers and consumers.
The event featuring various kiosks of organic products (e.g. rice, vegetables, fruits and fish) has been warmly welcomed by the residents at Ciputra urban area, Hanoi. The initiative of a farmer market was well received and people look forward to organization of such markets in the future so that they can get access to organic products. In addition, people believe it’s a good way to support farmers in remote area.
Mrs Nguyen Thi Hoa - the Deputy Director of SRD, which is one of the organizing partners – said that, “All of the products were delivered from our projects’ sites or were supplied by social enterprises who specialize in organic products. This first event is regarded to have achieved remarkable success, especially in helping to raise public awareness of organic products and to develop a linkage between consumers and farmers in poor areas. This has also laid the first stepping stone for similar events in the future.”
What is organic agriculture?
Organic agriculture is a cultivation system in which plants are grown and animals are raised to develop naturally in a balanced ecosystem. In order to create truly safe products and rebalance an ecosystem which has been overturned by the abuse of agrochemicals in the past 20 years, organic produce excludes all chemicals such as fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, growth stimulants and GMO. Farmers have to make their own compost instead of buying chemical fertilizers, grow plants which lure and repel pests, perform rotational inter-cropping of different crops and use homemade herbal medicines such as ginger garlic for pest control. Because organic produce does not contain chemicals, it often has a low yield, a longer growing time and an unattractive appearance, while farmers have to spend a considerable amount of time catching pests and weeding by hand.
While consumers have lost trust in a chaotic market, they still know very little about organic produce and are therefore unwilling to buy, or do not know where to buy, safe, quality produce.
One of the biggest challenges is to encourage farmers to continue expanding the use of organic production processes and safe produce, namely how to encourage people to consume it.Agricultural fairs will offer farmers the opportunity to bring their products directly to consumers, so that customers can exchange and share information with farmers, understand how they grow produce, and learn about the hardship that organic farmers are facing in an unstable ecological environment which currently lacks the support of governmental policies.
Centre for Sustainable Rural Development (SRD)
No.31, Alley 19 Kim Dong Street, Hoang Mai District, Ha Noi
Phone: +84 24 3943 6676/78 | Fax: +84 24 3943 6449
