| 1. ADB-funded project (2002-2005): - COGENT project on poverty reduction in coconut growing communities in Viet Nam funded by ADB was started from 2002 and completed in September, 2004. After 3 years of implementation, the poverty reduction project tested successfully the COGENT 3-pronged strategy in 3 coconut growing communities (2 in Ben Tre province and 1 in Binh Dinh province) and proved clearly that the Vietnamese coconut growers need not be poor when they were organized and operated under a CBO with the assistances from coconut researchers, coconut product traders as well as policy makers/local authorities, and as a result, a close link among them helped coconut growers to know which kind of coconut variety/intercrops they grew, which kind of coconut high-value products and how they produced and where they could sell their coconut products with acceptable prices. Of course, high income brought from coconut was a prerequisite for Vietnamese coconut farmers to maintain and develop their coconut as well as to conserve coconut genetic resources for sustainable development. - During the implementation of the ADB funded project, delegations of IPGRI, Malaysia, Mexico, China, Inter-American Development Bank… visited Viet Nam to study experiences on poverty reduction activities in coconut growing communities. - Country project leader visited ADB-funded project sites in Sri Lanka in August, 2004. Two sets of VCO producing equipment (medium and household use model) were transferred into Viet Nam to test. - The final ADB-funded project meeting of this project was held in Ho Chi Minh city from 27 – 30 September 2004. The meeting achieved fully its objectives as proposed: evaluated the progress and outputs of the ADB-funded project in 8 Asia Pacific countries, updated work-plans for the remaining period of the project, identified the lessons learned, areas for improvement and enhancing sustainability of the project as well as discussed initial development impact and strategy for up-scaling and replication the project. - Receive COGENT delegation (Dr. Pons Batugal, Mr. Jeffrey Oliver) for monitoring ADB-funded project and prepare for IFAD-funded project in Viet Nam. - Mr. Menno Keizer, agricultural economist, COGENT/IPGRI finished his study “midrib basket research in Ben Tre province”, a seminar on this subject also was organized in OPI. 2. IFAD-funded project (2005-2008): - The IFAD-funded project titled “Overcoming poverty in coconut growing community – Coconut genetic resources for sustainable livelihoods in Viet Nam” (2005-2008) with the following objectives: * To undertake capacity–building for community-based organizations (CBOs), collaborative research, training and institutional development so as to develop sustainable livelihood intervention models for coconut-growing communities; * To promote farmer participatory activities in in-situ and on-farm conservation and to enhance sustainable coconut genetic resources conservation and utilization; * To develop viable community-based income-generating technologies in support of sustainable livelihoods that directly benefit resource-poor coconut farmers and socio-economically disadvantaged women in coconut growing communities; * To collaborate with other development organizations in mobilizing additional resources for scaling up and replicating sustainable livelihood interventions nationally, including funding of the envisaged micro-credit system. The IFAD-funded project officially started since September 2005 after the official meeting held in Hat Yai, Thailand in May, 2005. - The project has been caried out in the same purposes with the earlier ADB funded project in Chau Binh commune, Binh Khanh Tay commune – Ben Tre province and Duc My commune, Tra Vinh province. 3 CBO staffs has been established for operation. Surveys for before project start data and other project activities were collected for evaluation as scheduled. - Nominated for COGENT Steering Committee and TWG-SPS. - Country project leader attended annual meetings in Bogor (Indonesia, 2006) and Hainan (China, 2007), visited IFAD-funded project sites there. This IFAD-funded project will be ended in the mid of this year as planned. 3. Viet Nam project counterpart: - A national project on production and deployment of high-yielding coconut varieties (2001-2005) was implemented in 11 coconut growing provinces from Mekong river Delta to the Coastal Area Line of the Central. Thru this project, many high-yielding and high-value coconut varieties, coconut hybrids were introduced and released to farmers, techniques of coconut selection, planting, intercropping, livestock production under coconut were transferred to the coconut growing communities. - Annual coconut R&D projects, coconut germplasm collection and conservation, coconut extension, coconut industrial extension continued to be funded by the government. Further, provinces of Tra Vinh, Ben Tre, Tien Giang, Phu Yen, Binh Dinh… requested OPI coconut staff to assist them in coconut development and trading. One success story was that a DC factory in Tra Vinh province was builded up with the consultancy of OPI and after 2 years of operation, it covered completely its investment capital. - Conducted a Macapuno project in Tra Vinh province (2005-2007) to conserve, characterize, multiply and build up demonstration site for macapuno coconut variety. - Dong Go Experimental Center has been asked for coconut seedlings with big amount. Projects with joint-ventured company (Silver Mill, Sri Lanka) and US program (ACDI/VOCA) were carried out successful to help increase knowledge of farmers on coconut selection and cultivation techniques, increase amount of coconut material for processing industry. Dr. Vo Van Long Coconut Scientist Country Project Leader Research Institute for Oils and Oil plants |