Growing rice - and fish - in Vietnam
25 February 2008
Fifty-three-year-old rice farmer Ngo Van Vung, with three sons and four daughters, is head of one of the poorest families in An Lap, in Vietnam’s Bac Giang province. Although they still live in a deteriorating, run-down house, their lives have recently improved greatly – thanks to the fish growing in their rice field just across the road!
Dual ‘crops’
In
2005, having been classified a poor household, Vung’s family was selected to
take part in a project helping farmers to raise fish in rice fields. This was
part of the Northern Mountain Poverty Reduction Programme, which was funded by
DFID and the World Bank.
The project helped Vung widen the ditch around his rice field to about two
metres – effectively creating a 360-square-metre fish pond around a
1,000-square-metre rice field. In the first year, he was provided with rice
seeds, chemical fertiliser, insecticide and fish fry, as well as training on how
to manage his dual ‘crops’ of fish and rice.
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Stirring up mud
When the rice has grown to a certain height, the
ditch is filled with water until it overflows into the field – taking the fish
with it. Once in the field, the fish eat insects and other pests and stir up
mud, helping to add oxygen to the soil. Then, after a few hours, the water and
fish are drained back into the ditch. The process can be repeated whenever pests
threaten to harm the rice.
Vung says: “Since we started raising fish in the rice field, the rice has been
better. We always have water available when we need it and I save money because
I don’t have to pay for pest control or insecticide.”
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Double the income
The cost of raising these freshwater fish is
minimal. Vung buys them as fry and was able to pay for them himself from the
second year. For the first two weeks, he feeds them cattle manure or fertiliser,
and then grass and cassava leaves.
Before changing the way he farms, Vung grew maize between the summer and autumn
rice crops. With the fish ditch now in place, the land has now become too wet
for maize, but he is happy to sacrifice this crop because he can now sell fish
instead – and for double the income.
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Essential expenditure
Vung earned 1.8 million Vietnamese dong (VND) -
about $120 (£60) - from his fish in 2007, but he expects to nearly double that
in 2008: fish prices have risen and he has extended the ditch by 50% to
accommodate more fish. This means that fish breeding will contribute nearly
one-third of his family’s annual income of about 10 million VND.
“We have cash for our essential expenditure,” says Vung. “It’s very convenient
as we have fish to eat whenever visitors come, and our daily meals have also
improved. This is only the third year we have applied this model, but our family
life has improved a lot.”
Key facts
- The Northern Mountain Poverty Reduction Programme was administered by the World Bank. Covering six mountainous provinces in the North of Vietnam, it ran from December 2001 to December 2007, and was worth $132.5 million.
- DFID contributed £7.5 million to the programme.
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