Environmental policy and administrative management

In Vietnam, cassava is one of the most crucial agricultural plants and is vital for food security of the upland people. For many decades, manioc has been sold easily in the markets for household use. Nowadays, it is raw material source in starch processing plants for domestic demand and export. Cassava is a traditional plant of ethnic people in Hoa Binh province. Nowadays, manioc is used not only for feeding but also taking an important position in growing of commodity economy. Harvest productivity is up to 15-20 tons/ha with new seed KM-94. Hoa Binh has some advantages to develop cassava plant such as: land budget, traditional experience, human resources and consumer market. There are 16 community hamlets of Muong ethnic group in Xuat Hoa commune, Lac Son district where cassava is connected with livelihood and income. However, there are some disadvantages that Hoa Binh (in general) and Xuat Hoa, Lac Son (in specific) have to deal with: - Cassava plant has low degree of coverage so the nutritional wash out and land erosion require more and more efforts in soil preparation. - Decline in soil fertility because of intensive cultivation of cassava. - The progressive science and technology has not been applied synchronously (planting harvesting roots and preserving). - Lack of good cassava seed. Farmers, managers, technicians, factory directors and bankers are interested extremely in how to produce cassava sustainably. Goals of the project Common goal: to contribute to sustainable use of land resources and cultivation of cassava, to promote cassava commodity production, to eliminate hunger and reduce poverty and to improve the life quality of ethnic people in highlands in Hoa Binh province. Specific goals: - Building two sustainable presentation models of cassava in Xuat Hoa commune, Lac Son district, Hoa Binh province. - Promoting sustainable cassava production by summing up and disseminating the lessons learnt of project s models. Building up the community s capacity in market approach. Setting up the relationship between the organizations related to producing and consuming cassava. Main activities of the project: - Building sustainable models for producing cassava by combining agri-silvicultural method (cassava keo) in silvicultural land with scale 20ha and productivity of fresh manioc 25 tons/ha (increase 20% in comparison with it before the project). - Building a restoring fertility model of soil specializing in cassava cultivation by intensive farming and interpose cultivation that are successful with 20ha scale and 30tons/ha fresh cassava productivity (increasing 20% in comparison with before the project implementing) and average profits from cassava reaching to 7millions VND/ha/year (raising 35% in comparison with before the project implementing) - Holding up dialogs among partners (businessmen, bankers, national and local authorities and farmers) to establish partner relationship to back up farmers in producing and consuming cassava. - Building and supporting technology for groups of sustainable cassava cultivation. - Holding workshops to evaluate results and share experience. - Printing and diffusing the technical documents.

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