Five provinces supported to develop drought-resistant smart agriculture

The United Nations Development Program UNDP in collaboration with the Central Management Board for Irrigation Projects (CPO) and the Central Committee for Irrigation Projects. Project manager GCF2-SACCR Ninh Thuan co-organised a workshop on “Community-based Drought Resilient Agriculture – from Experience to Scalable Practice” on July 14.

The workshop aimed to discuss ways to improve the resilience of agriculture to drought and water insecurity through analysis, learning and application of community experiences and initiatives as well as agricultural programme.

Under the Project "Strengthening the resilience of small-scale agriculture to water security due to climate change in the Central Highlands and South Central of Vietnam" funded by the Green Climate Fund through UNDP, activities will be deployed in five provinces of Khanh Hoa, Ninh Thuan, Binh Thuan, Dak Lak and Dak Nong in five years from 2021 to 2026.

Tran Chi Trung, an irrigation expert from Centre for Irrigation Management and Consulting, said that although drought was a harsh natural phenomenon, it was still possible to mitigate its damage through prevention and control.

Accordingly, localities need to closely monitor the situation of water resources, following the warnings and forecasts of the forecasting agency to timely prevent and have a strategy for rational use of water resources in production and daily activities.

Analyzing solutions to cope with drought, Trung said that in production, especially agricultural production, saving water should be implemented in all three aspects - reasonable irrigation planning, building fields capable of enhancing water retention in the soil and select crops with high drought tolerance.Besides, it was necessary to build new reservoirs with suitable capacity to increase low flow for river systems; to build new and upgrade irrigation works; to ensure active irrigation on most of the agricultural cultivation area. "This is both a short-term solution and a long-term one for drought prevention and control," he said.

On the other hand, provinces need to implement advanced water-saving irrigation solutions for rice and upland crops, ensuring to meet the minimum water demand in water-sensitive periods of crops, especially for fruits and crops of high economic value.

Participants to the workshop on Friday went on a field trip in Nhon Hai commune, Ninh Hai district, Ninh Thuan province and discussed the practice of community initiatives on drought-resilient agricultural production.