On June 16, 2020 in Ca Mau City, Centre for Marinelife Conservation and Community Development (MCD) in collaboration with the Sub-department of Fisheries of Ca Mau Province organize “Technical consultation workshop on the organic rice-shrimp farming” to enhance community capacity in the adaptation to climate change in Ca Mau province.

The workshop attracted about 50 representatives of the stakeholders including local agencies: Ca Mau Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, Ca Mau Fisheries Sub-Department; Ca Mau Crop Production Sub-Department, Ca Mau Agriculture and Fisheries Extension Center, Ca Mau Agriculture and Rural Development Sub-department, Thoi Binh District Department of Agriculture, Tri Luc People’s Committee; Ca Mau Women’s Union; Ca Mau Farmers Association; Rice-shrimp farming cooperatives in Thoi Binh district: Tri Luc Cooperative, Doan Phat Cooperative, Quyet Thang Cooperative;  Enterprises: Minh Phu, Co May, Tan Vuong, Dai Duong Xanh; relevant experts from Can Tho University, Research Institute for Aquaculture No.2 (RIA 2); representatives of NGOs: MCD, SNV, OXFAM and local media agencies.

Image: Participants attend the workshop

The main focus of workshop is: (1) Sharing documents and technical processes of sustainable community organic rice-shrimp farming and climate change adaptation; (2) Consulting with relevant stakeholders to finalize and disseminate technical processes, contributing to the promotion of organic shrimp farming towards climate change adaptation and (3) Strengthening cooperation and promoting sustainable rice-shrimp model towards certification standards in Ca Mau.

Due to a consumer demand of Vietnam and the world, organic agricultural production aims to improve the quality of agricultural products, ensure food safety, and be environmentally friendly. Vietnam’s agriculture production has gradually developed towards organic and supported by relevant policies including: Decree 109/NDCP on August 29, 2020, Circular number 16/2019/TT-BNNPTNT on January 11, 2019 of The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development that regulates a number of articles of Decree 109, and recently the plan of developing organic agriculture production in the period of 2020 – 2025 in Ca Mau province has been approved by the Provincial People’s Committee on March 2, 2020 including rice-shrimp product.

Image: Ms. Than Thi Hien  – Vice Director of MCD

At the workshop, Ms. Than Thi Hien – Vice Director of Centre for Marinelife Conservation and Community Development (MCD) introduced and shared the initial results of the project. One of the project’s approaches to promote climate change adaptation initiatives with the participation of stakeholders, practice and documenting sustainable production models, rice shrimp is considered a good example. From January to May of 2020, MCD has collaborated with the expert group to develop a technical manual for organic rice-shrimp farming to be applicable in Ca Mau province. This manual helps producers, local technical officer, and cooperative managers apply technical principles and criteria to get the sustainable production and in compliance with market standards. Through this workshop, MCD coordinated with Ca Mau Sub-Department of Fisheries to get the technical manual finalized and provided to farmer’s for improving practices that are applicalbe in Ca Mau.

Image: Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Huy – Climate change specialist of Oxfam

At the workshop, Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Huy, Oxfam’s specialist presented the impacts of climate change (including drought and saline intrusion) on shrimp aquaculture in Ca Mau and proposed adaptive solutions.

Image: Mr. Nguyen Cong Thanh – Director of Asian Organic Agriculture Research and Development Institute (AOI)

Dr. Nguyen Cong Thanh – Director of Asian Organic Agriculture Research and Development Institute (AOI) shared requirements for organic shrimp standards, and provided his inputs for current production practices towards certification. The representative of expert group presented the principles of organic rice-shrimp farming,  guiding on technical process of organic rice-shrimp and basic criteria in production practices towards environmental, landscape sustainability and minimizing ecosystem impacts.

Representative of Ca Mau Sub-Department of Fisheries shared his opinion: In the context that the shrimp disease has become more complicated, at the same time the impacts of climate change are increasing, organic rice-shrimp farming system brings many benefits to farmers. For example, it can reduce the inputs cost, shrimps grow naturally and have less disease due to low density, rice plants  can improve the pond bottom that is good for shrimp farming environment. Ca Mau has 36,000 hectares (ha) of rice- shrimp with great potential advantages to develop organic shrimp model in the near future, Thoi Binh district has many advantages to develop this potential model.

At the workshop, useful inputs and comments were provided from stakeholders to finalize the technical guidelines and put into application in Ca Mau. According to the work plan, MCD will coordinate with the Sub-Department of Fisheries to provide suppport in improving sustainable rice-shrimp production practices adapting to climate change,  facilitating linkage development in the businesses and certification; and documenting exprience and learned lessons in Ca Mau for possible scale-up.

This activity is conducted within the framework of the Project: “Gender Transformative and Responsible Agribusiness Investments in South East Asia (GRAISEA 2) implemented by MCD in Ca Mau province and supported by OXFAM in Vietnam. The goal of the project is to strengthen the capacity of small-scale producers especially women to get equal opportunities and benefits, and to support enterprises in increasing their business effectiveness, application and implementation of social and responsible standards in the shrimp value chain in the adaptation to climate change, contributing to the improvement and implementation of national and local policies.