Biosecurity in poultry farms contributes to a crucial role not only for the prevention or the containment of animal diseases but also the improvement of flock health, thus bringing better productivity of farm products. In order to improve the biosecurity along the livestock production and market chain, FAO Viet Nam’s Emergency Centre for Transboundary Animal Diseases (ECTAD), in collaboration with Department of Livestock Production (DLP), is rolling out the < Evidence-Based Risk Management along the Livestock Production and Market Chain> project. This project started since December 2017 with the financial aid from United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT).

FAO ECTAD Viet Nam and DLP organized a coordination meeting in Bac Giang Province to review the progress and share achievements and lessons learned from the project. Leaders and staff members of DLP, Bac Giang Sub-Department of Livestock Production and Animal Health (SDLPAH), district veterinary stations of seven districts, and FAO consultants joined the coordination meeting.  To date the project has provided, (i) biosecurity training courses for 166 hatchery and poultry farmers, 13 district veterinary station officers, (ii) certification auditing training for 28 livestock and animal health authorities, (iii) development of biosecurity improvement action plan for 8 selected hatchery/poultry farm models, and (iv) technical consultation for selected farm models.

From the review, behavioral change and operational challenges were identified. For the behavioral change component, only few women with decision-making power in the family participated in the training, as men are commonly the decision makers in Vietnam. Furthermore, farmers had low incentives to keep records regularly, even it was recommended for model farms. Operationally, fund transfers from central to provincial level (Bac Giang) was delayed due to the long project approval process, hence resulting in the delay of activity implementation.

To fill these gaps, the project team and government counterparts discussed ways to improve behavior change through advocacy and communication workshops and ensure timely approval from government to transfer funds from DLP to SDLPAH on time. Additionally, the project should engage more district DLP and AH staffs in training and model farm activities, which they will be informed of their duties through meetings.

“At this half way review, we found meaningful achievements such as mainstreaming gender in all the activities including selecting female farmer trainees for the pilot models of hatcheries, and poultry farms. In addition, we involved both grass-root level stakeholders (farmers) and local authorities increasing the engagement of the whole community to ensure the sustainability of the project results.” said Pawin Padungtod, the Senior Technical Coordinator of FAO ECTAD Viet Nam.

Building on the achievements, activities to fill the identified gaps will be applied and the remaining trainings and pilot modeling will be finalized in 2019.