Cultural values
The Forest and Farm Facility (FFF), hosted by FAO, and the Viet Nam National Farmers’ Union (VNFU) supported groups of farmers in forming cooperatives in the Yen Duong area. By getting organised into cooperatives, farmers can sell their products more effectively, have a joint voice to influence policy and help their members get access to basic services. The FFF seeks to strengthen these groups as primary agents of change in communities.
Ninh immediately saw the benefits of getting involved. She quickly became the director of the Yen Duong farming cooperative, aiming to improve incomes, protect natural resources and strengthen collaboration between farmers, particularly considering the area’s many different traditional methods and approaches.
Ninh focused on creating an environment in which both men and women from all ethnic minority groups could flourish and benefit from agricultural innovation, sharing knowledge and helping each other implement their agricultural initiatives. All of her members, including Ninh herself, are from various ethnic minorities, including the Tay and Dzao groups. These mountain communities differ from one another in terms of their way of living and family life, including customs and beliefs related to building a home, traditional clothing, culinary culture and marriage customs.
Understanding the customs and cultural values of the people in her area, Ninh actively makes this an important part of her cooperative. These values are taken into account when setting the group’s regulations or applying farm production techniques, and this approach has encouraged many people to join the group. The cooperative also integrates cultural and religious activities into farming activities, which has inspired the whole community to participate in the cooperative's activities in some way.
Ninh’s cooperative now has 45 regular members and nearly 100 associate members, with their land totaling over 100 hectares of forest and 50 hectares of cropland.
The benefits of working together
Working together with the community, VNFU and FFF helped farmers improve their technical knowledge and business skills in seven value chains: tree nurseries, timber, cinnamon products, star anise oil, herb, rice, pomelo and forest chickens.
By coming together and forming cooperatives, smallholder farmers have found it easier to earn organic certifications, invest in new production techniques and sign contracts with companies and traders.