In January 6th 2016, the final project workshop in 2015 and development plan in 2016 of the project "Improving rural livelihood and sustainable forest management through PLUM and Value chain approaches" – funded by Manos Unidas – was held in the People's Committee office of Phu Luong District, Thai Nguyen Province.
At the workshop, delegations summarized and shared the project results in 2015 and discussed the encountered challenges, as well as unified solutions for 2016. Accordingly, in 2015, there were some encouraging results such as support for groups and the closed-loop zero waste agriculture models to be maintained in the 11 villages from the 5 project communes; initial connections between all factors in the value chain of the production and purchasing in the 3 project communes of Phu Luong District, Thai Nguyen Province; the industrial feed-use habits in animal husbandry were decreased by approximately 80% in the chicken raising groups; continuation of the biological padding models in animal husbandry; and increase in the members for the tree nursery cooperative groups; etc.
Aside from the above findings, difficulties were also faced in the implementation, such as the production linkages not raising the cohesion between the group members, and the project implementation being passive and uneven among interest groups because of the cultivation seasons, holidays, and events in the communes and villages, etc.
Signing ceremony of cooperation between Tam Dat Company and the People's Committee and group leaders from 3 communes
Through the workshop, the participants also gave a number of solutions to overcome the obstacles encountered when implementing the project, including conducting a labor exchange to support other members in deploying the livelihood and animal husbandry activities, actively looking for the output of the chickens fed by red worm, and giving more specific information to the project stakeholders to organize an action plan. Also discussed and finalized were the key issues to be focused on in the project implementation in 2016. For the livelihood component this included replicating the model towards cooperative groups; local people and groups branding for their agricultural products; expanding diverse agricultural products, beyond just the chickens; increasing the red worm farming area for animal husbandry and cultivation; and expanding the purchasing market beyond only one company – Tam Dat. For the forest protection management and development component this included ensuring a strong connection between the VM048 and VM055 project; strengthening the management and monitoring of the forest protection and management groups; and promoting communications activities.
Mr. Hoang Van Tuyen - head of the project management board of Phu Tho Province
The workshop participants consisted of not only the project steering committee from the Thai Nguyen and Phu Tho Provinces, but also representatives from the related agencies and organizations such as the Phu Tho Union of Science and Technology Associations, the Phu Luong Forest Protection Division and Education Department, and livelihood groups of the project areas.
-SRD-
Centre for Sustainable Rural Development (SRD)
Room 301, 3rd Floor, Building No. 25 Truong Han Sieu, Tran Hung Dao Ward, Hoan Kiem District Hanoi.
Phone: +84 24 3943 6676/78 | Fax: +84 24 3943 6449
