Experience and Insights from Tanduc Commune, Viet Tri City, Phu Tho, Province

1. Experience and Insights from Tanduc Commune, Viet Tri City, Phu Tho, Province Eduardo A. Sabio, Ph.D. Regional Representative in Vietnam SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURAL CHAIN DEVELOPMENT (SACD) IN SAFE VEGETABLES

2. VECO Program Mission SACD approach & VECO roles Safe Vegetable Chain Development in Viet Tri City Chain-related issues & implementation strategies Target groups & implementing partners Some outcomes and impacts Implications and Relevance TWO-PARTS PRESENTATION

3. MISSION: To contribute to viable livelihoods and empowerment of organized family farmers. VECO wants to: • Improve position of organized family farmers (OFFs) in the whole agricultural chain, from production to consumption. • Improve policies at national and international level. • Stimulate consumer buying practices for more sustainable consumption.

4. Programme 2008-2013: Viable Livelihoods for Family Farmers through Participation in Markets

5. ROLE OF VECO Build capacity of family farmers and their organizations to operate as business farmer organizations. Build evidence from field and advocate results: = through innovative and creative experiments at field level, and advocating for the adoption of results to other actors better placed for scaling up and extending the application of the successful results. Facilitating multi-stakeholder processes: = Bring together other stakeholders and motivate them to create the conditions for a fair and sustainable market access for family farmers.

6. Main issues in the safe vegetable (SV) chain in Tan Duc Commune, Viet Tri City • Awareness level of consumers on safe vegetables is low. • The quantity and quality of SVs are insufficient to meet market demands. • Farmers do not have assured markets for their produce, and typically women sell at wet markets for long hours. • A certification system does not exist to guarantee that SVs do not exceed maximum levels of chemical residues.

7. Implementation Strategies Employed • Strengthening of production capacity by farmers; • Develop collective input supply; • Collective marketing thru the safe vegetable outlets, as well as wholesale to restaurants and institutions; • Cooperative formation; • Participatory guarantee system (PGS); • Awareness of consumers in food safety and stimulate demands;

8. Target Group and Agency Partners Organized family farmers: Tanduc Safe Vegetable Cooperative • Implementing Partners - perform different roles (Viet Tri City, PhuTho Province): • Plant Protection Department • Women’s Union • VINASTAS/Phutostas • Economic Department

9. Outcomes and Impacts • 1. Certification of production areas & adoption of sustainable agriculture practices aligned with VietGAP; • 2. Higher volume and better quality of vegetables produced; • 3. Four selling stalls established around the city enabling direct selling to consumers; • 4. Organized collection and selling by authorized members; • 5. More educated consumers and level of trust increased; • 6. Women members could now sell vegetables faster;

10. Outcomes and Impacts • 7. Vegetables sold 10-30% higher than ordinary vegetables; • 8. Increased income: • 2009 versus 2010: average increase net income of 21% in every 360 m2 (1 sao) plot of land; • 9. Formed into cooperative and starting to strike deals with institutionalized markets: restaurants & hotels; and • 10 Participatory Guarantee System (PGS) adopted and implemented to ensure product quality and sustain trusts.

11. RELEVANCE & IMPLICATIONS • Goal of Conference: To popularize the image of Vietnamese tropical fruits and vegetables sector in order to seize opportunities for development and assert its position in the international market.

12. RELEVANCE & IMPLICATIONS: Context and opportunities • Presence of (internal) international market in Vietnam is not yet fully exploited (supermarkets, high-end hotels & restaurants, tourism industry, specialized stores, etc.). • Emerging and growing demands for safe products, enhanced partly by recent passage of Food Safety Law and Consumer Protection Law, and other triggers, such as ODAs & INGO programs. • Quality assurance of domestic production and consumption could greatly boost the image of the vegetable industry for external markets: • “Outward orientation thru inward consolidation”

13. RELEVANCE & IMPLICATIONS: Context and opportunities 4. Great majority of vegetables are produced by small farmers, as such, they cannot be ignored in developing the industry – there is need for twin goals of industry promotion and poverty reduction of farmer producers. 5. Link farmer organization producers with markets, along with consumer education.

14. RELEVANCE & IMPLICATIONS: Context and opportunities 6. Growth, productivity and profitability objectives are important but adoption of sustainability measures and practices in vegetable production is a must. 7. VietGAP standards are stringent and difficult for farmers and farmer organizations to comply; also difficult to enforce – there is need for doable alternative system to guarantee high quality in order to gain sustained consumer trusts.

15. THANK YOU VERY MUCH