Hope for vine tea: Chance for revival

Mr. Nguyen Duc Thiep, Specialist Pharmacist I, Head of Project Management Board, Clean Herbal Medicines Project, Binh Dinh Pharmaceutical and Medical Equipment Company (BIDIPHAR), shared that in October 2020, Global Environment Fund and BIDIPHAR cooperated with An Lao People's Committee and An Lao Women's Union to launch a project to transfer tea cultivation techniques to ethnic minorities.

The funding offered by GEF was USD 50,000. Binh Dinh province and An Lao district received a reciprocal budget of USD 25,000 to develop vine tea in An Toan.

“The requirement of the Global Environment Fund is that the project must be assigned to local associations and organizations for better access towards the people. Upon receiving the project, An Lao Women's Union organized training sessions for women of An Toan commune to familiarize themselves with planting, caring for and developing vine tea tree through models deployed in 3 villages in the commune,” said Mr. Do Tung Lam, Vice Chairman of An Lao People's Committee.

Regain the heart of the people

Although the steps have been carefully prepared, there were problems upon implementation.

Before implementing the indigenous vine tea growing technique transfer, there was once a time when An Toan commune are full of energy amidst many projects on pineapple and passion fruit. The locals were also supported with seedlings, technical instructions and especially a commitment to sell products.

All seemed to be going so well. However, when the time to harvest come, no unit consumed the product as they initially committed. The people then tried their best to reclaim the capital and effort they put out by selling the fruits at a cheap price, but a satisfactory recovery was impossible to happen.

Nobody cared for those pineapple and passion fruit orchards anymore, and readily shook their head everytime they hear about a new project. The vine tea project was no exception.

“Faced with the above situation, in order to successfully implement the project, we had to break the ice layer of apprehension in the heart of the indigenous people. We started by disseminating how meaningful this project is. We talk with them, getting closer to them one step at a time. The Women's Union established affiliate groups and mobilized local reputable individuals to act as the core to build pilot models. The characteristic of ethnic minorities is that their trust cannot be earned by talks alone. They have to see it to believe it, they need successful pilot models to follow,” said Ms. Nguyen Thi Ai Dan, Chairwoman of An Lao Women's Union, Head of the Project Management Board.

Technique transfer - The next obstacle

After removing the problems in the hearts of the people, the project's team of experts encountered the next difficulty in transferring the vine tea growing and harvesting techniques in the direction of resource conservation to the people.

Mr. Ho Quang Thach, an officer of Binh Dinh Agricultural Extension Center, Head of the expert group, said that this project is implemented in groups of households with each village having 20 households divided into 2 groups.

Households participating in the project were provided with seeds, received training in techniques to grow vine tea under forest canopy and intensive farming techniques in upland areas. The locals were also instructed on how to collect wild vine tea growing naturally in the forest following the conservation process.

Even so, the transferring process was nowhere easy. The majority of those from ethnic minorities cannot learn through training classes in a hall. The project team must guide them in the field in a hand-held manner. Experts had to take the seedling gourd, dig holes and put the seedling down to plant each specific move, then the locals imitated the process step by step.

"People here have this concept that 'a tree in the forest doesn't need anyone to take care of it but it still grows big and strong', so they just let the grass grow thick and cover the vine tea whole. How will it truly grow like that? If I want them to take care of this, I have to constantly go to each village to rile them up. And for every trip to encourage them, I have to go at night, since during the day children are the only ones in the house. All adults have already gone to work in the fields. And alcohol is something indispensable and of course I have to drink wine all night to ‘have a little chat’ with my fellows about the difference between naturally-grown vine tea and domestic-planted vine tea. The tea we ourselves grow needs caring. Talking to the people without drinking lacks spirit, so everytime I go to their house, I go all out with those wine jars," Mr. Ho Quang Thach gleefully said.