Project News

Maize and other plants and trees are planted in the agroforestry model garden

From 3, November 2010 to 6, November SUSFORM-NOW project team visited Ecovillages located in Lao Cai province. The project team was accompanied by Ecovillage Field Rresearch team lead by Professor OGATA, Chuo University. From SUSFORM-NOW project Ms. Hien, officer of Dien Bien Province Sub-DoF, Mr. Huong, Dien Bien Phu City, Mr. GOSEKI, Chief Advisor, and Ms. NONAKA, Administrative Coordinator took part in this study tour. We found that the villagers there are actively applying VACR model, integrating "Vuon" (fruit tree garden), "Ao" (fish pond), "Chuong" (animal husbandry), and "Rung" (forestry), which is being introduced all over the country of Vietnam.

On 4, November we visited the Tong Chu I village in Cuc San Commune, Bat Xat district. We observed an agroforestry model household cultivating many kinds of plants such as cassava, maize, taro, persimmon etc. together with trees such as Gioi (Talauma gioi) and Que (Cinamomum cassia). Cuc San Commune supports to cultivate these agricultural crops by providing required seeds and fertilizer. This household is not only cultivating crops but also doing animal husbandry such as pig farming, poultry raising and producing organic fertilizer. They are going to establish an environmentally friendly village by enabling food self-sufficiency of each household.

Cooker utilizing biogas

We saw another household using a modified toilet supported and introduced by ECO-ECO, (Institute of Ecological Economy), and BfWD (Bread for the World). This toilet has a system to be able to separate liquids and solids of human waste. It is amazing that this toilet doesn't have any bad odor. In addition, after construction of a common clean water tank for 5 neighboring households, women's household works have been improved since released from heavy water drawing works in the every early morning going down to the river.

In the neighboring village, Tong Chu II, we found that a family has a facility which can make Biogas from pig excreta and sharing the gas with other families. According to the head of the family, for 1 month, they can produce 11m3 of biogas. After the introduction of this facility, their gas cost has reduced from 1.2 million VND to 0.25million VND. In case they have surplus gas, they can sell. The head of the family is very satisfied introducing this biogas facility.

Children in Ta Van Chu village give us cheerfully send-off

On November 5, we visited Ta Van Chu village in Bac Ha district. In this village, an accommodation for the visitors who will visit this eco-tourism village is under construction. In the near future, this village will be able to accept many tourists. Each household has 45L water tank supported by UNICEF for stocking water, which is gathered from mountain. We felt that this village is very vibrant as the children are very energetic and bright.

Visiting such various activities in other provinces is very much useful in developing future pilot activities in the pilot sites of SUSFORM-NOW.