Challenges for farmers in Vietnam: VNFU & exports

Agriterra’s –and later AgriCord’s involvement with Vietnam was due to liaison officer Rik Delnoye who was previously stationed in that country. In a first mission in 2001, he assessed the possibilities and priorities for establishing more structural collaboration between the Vietnam National Farmers Union (VNFU), Agriterra and its supporting Dutch farmers’ organisations. He linked this prospection visit to a three-days workshop organised by the Vietnam Cooperative Alliance and the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA). This worldwide alliance of cooperative enterprise implemented a project (financially supported by Agriterra) in six Asian countries in order to strengthening the cooperative movements.

VNFU claims 8 million members and is a mass organization of the ruling communist party. Its structures go up from cooperative and community level up to the national level. In 2003 Agriterra started to financially support six provincial level farmers associations of the VNFU, using the network of organised farmers and selected outstanding farmers to promote improved agricultural systems and techniques. The activities are linked to the national policy of reforming the agricultural sector by stepwise integration in the market economy. Model farms demonstrate the advantages of new agricultural techniques to the network of outstanding farmers. Farmer-to-farmer extension is used to disseminate knowledge and skills, including post-harvest treatment and marketing issues. Not by the establishment of parallel extension programmes, but by benefiting from the improved farmer organisation and linking them to existing extension services.

In that same year the president of VNFU participated in the festivities of the V anniversary of Agriterra, meeting farm leaders from all over world in an AgriCord patronized seminar From Plunder to Economic Democratization. His plea was in favour of lowering trade barriers to European, Oceanic and North-American markets.

Trade issues came high on the agenda in 2003, mainly due the development and trade agenda of WTO. A consortium of Development organisations SNV, Oxfam, Agriterra informed the Vietnamese VNFU and women’s organisation VUSTA in workshop ‘WTO , Food security and Poverty Alleviation’ about the challenges and hazards of the upcoming WTO membership of Vietnam. LTO director Mrs. Ria van Rossum reflected the standpoints and experiences towards the WTO from a Dutch (& European) farmers view.

Later that year, the nascent Asian Farmers Alliance organized its sub-regional consultation for the Mekong cluster in Thailand with farmers representatives of five countries, including 16 vietnamese farm leaders to formulate a joint Asian Peasant Agenda on Sustainable Rural Development. The agenda of the AFA Executive commission meeting linked to the consultation addressed the further strengthening of the organisational structure of AFA and preparations for the AFA General Assembly to be held early 2004 in Indonesia. Regretfully, the national direction of party objected full AFA membership to VNFU.
With support of AgriCord VNFU started in 2004 an extension of the agricultural technology improvement and extension programme. In six provinces model farms and demonstration plots were established. Crops are selected after research into profitability and include aqua-culture, livestock, agriculture, agro-forestry and floriculture. The activities are seen as an integral part of the national policy to restructure agricultural production and integrate it into the world market.


Evidence demonstrate that in aquaculture good results were realized as in shrimps in Quang Binh Province income of farmers increased tenfold and with turtles in Hang Giang Province even 15 times. Yet, also became notably urgent the introduction of measures to guarantee sustainability of the cultures. Vietnam was at that point, as was also the conclusion of the referred workshop, not yet prepared to compete in international markets due to their lack of knowledge and skills to produce in line with international food safety and quality standards.

A new project enhances the capacities and skills of farmers to maintain international food safety and quality standards by formulating and setting out standard protocols for safe and high quality food production. At the same time testing facilities (for crop residues) were established and made available for farmers. These activities were especially focussing horticultural products. Agriterra launched a technical support mission for training about quality and safety regulations (EurepGAP, MRLs etc.), to indentify promising product-market combinations.

By then, and we are now talking 2006, Agriterra also made progress on its other front in Vietnam with the ICA Asia Chapter. The all-Asia Conference on the role of cooperatives in Poverty Alleviation, hosted by the Viet Nam Cooperative Alliance (VCA) stressed the role of cooperatives in implementing the Poverty Reduction Strategies (PRSPs). Agriterra supports VCA in the implementation of an enabling legal environment for the development and operation of (agro-) cooperative enterprises.
Vietnam shows a case of a powerful farmers organization that efficiently builds new services and tries to catch up with globalization following national policies. The lack of two-way communication in VNFU is due to the overall political setting in the country. Following previous experiences in Nicaragua, a political machine of this kind can eventually be turned into a powerful instrument for services to farmers, access to agricultural inputs and credit covering all remote corners of the country. When obeying Lenin’s democratic centralism, it could even turn into a voice and advocate of true farmers interests. The opportunity arises to gradually transform VNFU in a genuine spokesman of farmer interests. This a long way to go, but worth the effort.