Hanoi (VNA) –A climate change adaptation project has been launched tostrengthen the resilience of smallholder agriculture to climate change-inducedwater insecurity in the Central Highlands and the south-central coast.

Financedwith 30 million USD by the Green Climate Fund (GCF), it was launched by theUnited Nation Development Programme (UNDP) and the Ministry of Agriculture andRural Development (MARD) on October 15, covering the five provinces of Dak Lak,Dak Nong, Khanh Hoa, Ninh Thuan, and Binh Thuan.

Morethan 500,000 people, of which more than 50 percent are women, will benefitdirectly and indirectly from this project, which will be implemented from 2021to 2026.

The project is designed to empower vulnerable smallholdersin the target provinces - particularly women and ethnic minority farmers - tomanage increasing climate risks to agricultural production by securing wateravailability, adopting climate-resilient agricultural practices, andstrengthening access to actionable agro-climate information, credits andmarkets.

To address water insecurity, the project will support thesmallholder farmers, whose income do not permit investment in climateresilience-enhancing inputs, technologies or infrastructure to cope effectivelywith impacts of droughts, to directly address the need for investments inlast-mile connections to the larger irrigation infrastructure invested by thegovernment with the finance from the Asian Development Bank. Similarly, farmers inrain-fed areas will benefit from the upgrading and construction of 1,159climate resilient ponds.

Farmerswill be provided with training on how to manage climate risk to theiragro-ecosystems by applying climate-resilient soil and crop planning andmanagement practices to reinforce the investments in water security. They willalso receive technical guidance and financial support on climate smart- andresilient agriculture practices to improve production and increase yields.

Farmers will be engaged in the co-development of localisedagro-climate information in the form of advisories, through which they will beable to synthesise traditional knowledge with contemporary scientificinformation to manage risk at local level.

The projectwill enable farmers to address production problems and bottlenecks, accesscredit, negotiate contractual arrangements, and smooth access to existingmarkets through promotion of value chain partnerships.

MARD Deputy Minister Nguyen Hoang Hiep said the projectreflects the strong commitment and efforts by the Government of Vietnam, one of the countries most vulnerable to climate change, to supportvulnerable communities, ethnic minority groups, the poor farmers, women and mento be resilient to increasing climate change impacts in the new situation withuncertainty from the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Thisproject complements the ongoing GCF project that UNDP supports in 28 coastalprovinces for building the resilience of poor communities vulnerable to floodsand storms, bringing together these innovative and integrated approaches willensure to improve the resilience of more than a million most vulnerable peoplein Vietnam,” said Terence D. Jones, UNDP Resident Representative a.i. in thecountry./.