Dien Bien (VNS/VNA) - The climate in the valley of Muong Phangin the northern mountainous province of Dien Bien is no longer as it was overprevious centuries. But the change has brought some benefits to local farmers.

The valley, roughly 21 km to the northwest of Dien Bien Phu city, has gottenwarmer over the last decade. The ethnic minority families who were born andgrew up in the valley, in poverty, had relied mainly on a single summer-autumnrice season to make a living as the winter was too cold to plant anything. Nowthey have managed to double their incomes as the rising average temperatures inthe coldest months allowed another rice harvest in winter and spring.

This kind of climate change is, of course, not all good news.

Alongside warmer temperatures, it has brought about more flash floods that burythe village under mud, unexpected drops in temperatures, hoar frost thatfreezes crops and heavier rains that flood the fields.

It became harder for the locals, who had little idea about what climate changemeans and struggled to adapt their lives and farming to the changes already inmotion.

“According to the meteorology unit’s forecast, the chance of highertemperatures over years’ average is 75 percent, the chance of more rain overyears’ average is 60 percent. But in people’s experience, temperatures thisyear would drop lower than last year because we had a better chestnut season,it was already cold at the start of the winter-spring season while the Mexicansunflower bloomed earlier than normal,” a young woman, Lo Thi Duong, read outloud in front of another 31 Thai ethnic women from Phang 1 village in Muong Phangcommune.

What Duong was reading was a weather forecast for the whole winter-spring riceseason in the first three months of 2018. The report shows the weather predictionsof the meteorology experts in temperature and rainfall with different possiblescenarios, together with recommendations for what farmers should do to preparetheir valuable crops for such weather.

The report was the product of a regional project called Agro-ClimateInformation Services (ACIS) for women and ethnic minority farmers in SoutheastAsia. The project has been carried out simultaneously in Laos, Cambodia and Vietnamby the non-Governmental organisation CARE International and the World AgroforestryCentre since 2015.

In Dien Bien, two communes of Muong Phang and Pa Khoang were selected as theproject sites due to their distinct climate to the rest of the province. 

CARE Vietnam project coordinator, Le Xuan Hieu, said that the communes were classifiedas sub-climate areas, with different weather patterns. That was where theproject started.

“In Dien Bien in particular, and Vietnam in general, we only have weatherforecasting down to district level, not for communes, so it is impossible for theresidents, especially farmers, to know exactly what the weather in theirneighbourhood will be like,” he said.

“It is even more important in sub-climate areas where the district weatherforecast might be very different from the reality.”

To help the farmers overcome this problem, the project issued weather forecastsfor two rice seasons, adding farming recommendations like how to prepare seedsfor the predicted weather, the suitable timeline to start transplanting theseedlings into the wet field or which pesticides to use to save money with themost effective results.

27-year-old Duong was the leader of a group of women in the village who poolmoney together and let members take small loans from those savings. The goal ofthe group was to provide sustainable financial support to members and moreimportantly, help them to steer clear of loan sharks.

Such a group was a perfect launching platform for the ACIS project.
Twice a month, the group would meet up at one of the member’ Thai-style stilthouses and discuss what they should do with their fields at the time based onACIS’s weather reports.

Only a few women in the group, who were fortunate enough to go to school andproperly learn Vietnamese, were able to read the reports. Many more were just alittle better than illiterate.

Though every family in the village managed to get a handout of the report, opendiscussion at the meetings, in Thai language, helped answer any questions andallowed all members to really understand how to best do their farming.

A project assessment by CARE shows that the rice yield in the winter-springseason in 2017 of 612 group members in Dien Bien increased by 910 kg per haover the previous year, while that of 168 families in the same village but notjoining the community group only rose by 780 kg. 

The improvement in productivity was remarkably high when compared with another315 families of the same conditions in other villages but not accessing theweather reports, as they only harvested 230 kg per ha more than 2016’s season.

“Folks in the past grew crops spontaneously so there were many pests and bugswhich should appear at different rice growing stages, all coming at once,” Duongsaid.

“But they now plant rice at the same time (as the weather reports recommend),there might be only one kind of pest appear and the prevention work waseasier.”

Duong added that what she appreciated most from the reports was learning how touse herbicides and pesticides correctly.

“At first many others and I didn’t know which pesticides to spray. I justbought everything I could and the pest might still be alive. Now I know exactlywhat to buy and when and how I should use it.”

Vi Van Thanh was a Thai ethnic farmer in the neighbouring commune of Pa Khoang,and also the leader of the local Learning Farmers group. He said that theresidents have been using fewer pesticides and fertilisers since the ACISproject began.

According to Thanh, the residents stuck to nitrogenous fertiliser for everyrice season regardless of the weather or the condition of the soil.
“Now thanks to the project they know which particular fertiliser should be usedeach season,” he said.

“And also pesticides. People used to spray all the time, in the morning,afternoon and evening.”

That has changed. Thanh said instead of eight to nine pesticide tanks sprayedover 1,000 sq m of rice field in the past, he and his wife, who was also amember of the village’s loan group, only used a half of that, four to fivetanks.

“It saved a lot of money while still being very effective,” he said.

Muong Phang People’s Committee Vice Chairman Mua A Kenh, meanwhile, called thewomen who joined the project ‘agriculture engineers’.

“For example, they now know very well the fertilising techniques so that thefertilisers won’t be washed away in the rain,” he said.
“If the project continues, I believe that the people will have the knowledgeand skills to improve even more in the long-term”.-VNA