Viet Nam is now better placed to meet climate change-related challenges following a three-year FAO project on Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) approaches.

“The project has obtained remarkable results with close collaboration between the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), research institutes, local experts and provincial authorities,” said by Jong-Ha Bae, FAO Representative in Viet Nam.

To further explore the project’s findings, FAO and MARD are holding a workshop from 16-17 July 2015 in Ha Noi to encourage project donor the European Commission, other donor agencies and the Vietnamese Government to engage in sustained CSA efforts.

“The results of the workshop will facilitate dialogues between food security, agricultural and climate change policy-makers in consultation with key stakeholders to develop consensus on priority activities to be included in a country-owned strategic document on CSA,” he told the workshop.
 
The project, which closed last month, was successful in developing an evidence base, enhancing capacity, policy analysis, dialogues and scenario workshops to address climate change and its potential impacts through agricultural policies while identifying CSA investment opportunities.   

Under the umbrella of FAO’s Economics and Policy Innovations for Climate Smart Agriculture programme in Rome, the project in Viet Nam was co-implemented by MARD and the North Mountainous Agriculture and Forestry Science Institute (NOMAFSI) was the project focal point. Dien Bien, Son La and Yen Bai provinces in the northern mountainous region were selected for project field activities.

The project made a cost-benefit analysis of a number of suitable CSA practices, barriers to their adoption and impacts on productivity taking into account agro-ecological settings, climate patterns and relevant institutions. A value chain analysis was conducted to identify potential development of Shan Tuyet tea and Arabica Coffee in the northern mountainous region.