The World Agroforestry Centre in Vietnam just completed a survey in the middle of January to the mountainous northwestern province of Yen Bai to understand how upland farmers cope with natural hazards.

The ten-day survey is part of a project funded by the Consortium of International Agricultural Research Centers (CGIAR) and is conducted in Vietnam and the Philippines ﾖ two of the worldﾒs most exposed countries to extreme weather events.

Titled ﾓAdapting to Extreme Events in Southeast Asia through Sustainable Land Management Systemsﾔ, the project seeks to assess the impacts, vulnerability and adaptation strategies of small holders to extreme events. The project just started in 2012 and is designed to build local farmersﾒ capacity to use land in a more sustainable manner to better resist extreme weather events. By the end of 2014, it will support local government units in land use planning and adaptation management.

During the survey trip, the research team visited nine villages in the three communes of Lam Thuong, Khai Trung and Tan Linh in Luc Yen district.

ﾓOne big challenge here is that every year, farmers have to be prepared for at least five types of hazards: cold spells, droughts, hot spells, floods and heavy storms with landslides,ﾔ said Elisabeth Simelton ﾖ the project leader.

The long winter in northern Vietnam in 2008 caused the total damage of over 400 billion VND (or 21 million USD), killing 52,000 cattle and destroying 146,000 hectares of rice. Early in 2011, prolonged and continuous cold spells in the northern and central regions killed tens of thousands of livestock, mainly buffaloes and cows, in 20 cities and provinces.

ﾓDuring our focus group meetings, we discovered that most adaptation strategies are reactive rather than proactive,ﾔ Simelton shared. For example, farmers may have to replant three times in order to have one harvest. ﾓThis is costly and may also delay the subsequent growing season,ﾔ she said.

During the next two years the project will identify some mixed tree-crop systems that diversify the risks of crop failures and at the same time help improving local livelihoods. Farmersﾒ ideas will be taken into account, such as the preference of Tong Pang A villagers to grow more ﾓmaiﾔ bamboo. Bamboo is proved to prevent soil erosion and give good income.

According to a district leader, poverty is a major reason for forest extraction here. Deforestation obviously leads to more landslides and environmental degradation in the uplands, but to motivate farmers to change, it is necessary to increase the household incomes from the lowlands first. Meanwhile, Simelton said economic incentives remain critical for adopting new farming systems.

The survey was jointly conducted by the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Yen Bai province and extension workers in Luc Yen district.

ﾠ