Collaboration for Agriculture and Rural Development
(CARD)
Program
110
NEW TECHNOLOGIES FOR IMPROVING GOAT PRODUCTION
IN CENTRAL VIETNAM
Project title:
goat production and increasi
ng small
-
holder income in the central region of Vietnam
Project code
: CARD 009/05 VIE
Author(s):
B.W. Norton
1
, Dinh Van Binh
2
and Nguyen Thi Mui
2
Project implementing organizations:
1
The University of Queensland (UQ), Brisbane Australia
2
Goat and Rabbi
t Research Centre (GRRC),NIAH, MARD
SUMMARY
There have already been clear and demonstrated benefits from this Project for small
-
holder goat
farmers in the central regions of Vietnam. Those that have been supplied with vaccines and medicines
have found a gr
eatly reduced mortality in their animals, resulting in better growth and a bigger pool
of animals to select from for sale or breeding. Farmers who maintained their goat herds through times
of local panic about epidemics of goat pox now have the advantage o
f rapidly increasing prices for
goats (May
-
June 2009) as a result of many farmers selling their goats at an earlier time in response to
the scare. All farmers remaining with the project have more than doubled their goat herd size in the
past year, and whil
e they maintain them free of disease, they will continue to produce goats for profit.
Testimony to the benefits gained came from both small
-
holder farmers and the DARD staff when
describing their experiences during the National Conference sponsored by the
Project in Phan Rang,
Ninh Thuan in November 2008.
A major focus of the project in the first year was the training of DARD officers from Ninh Thuan, Binh
Thuan and Lam Dong provinces in goat husbandry and management, and these officers were then
used t
o advise and teach farmers during the many workshops conducted, and during on
-
farm visits.
Both technical and senior management were included in the training programs building the capacity
of all levels of participation (farmers, commune leaders, DARD tech
nical and administrative staff) for
improving the health and productivity of goats in each region. The creation of demonstration farms is
a key element of this training, providing a long term and practical demonstration of the value of these
technologies
to Vietnamese livestock production systems.
1.
Introduction
Goat production in Vietnam has rapidly
expanded in the north with the introduction of
new knowledge for disease control, feeding
management and the introduction and selection
of both local (Co,
Bachthao) and exotic (Boer,
Saanen, Jumnapari etc) breeds of goats to
village systems. These initiatives have been
lead by the Goat and Rabbit Research Centre
(GRRC) at Bavi, from which an expanding
milking and meat goat industry is being
developed. While
goat meat is not a common
commodity in the markets in Vietnam,
economic returns for goat farming are high and
are attracting many farmers to add goats to
their farming enterprises. Goats are
particularly important for poor farmers,
providing good returns
for little investment.
The project proposal which has been
developed and successfully funded by AusAID
under the CARD program was specifically
aimed at providing poor farmers in the central
provinces of Vietnam (Ninh Thuan, Binh
Thuan, Lam Dong) with some
of the new
technologies which have been developed by
GRRC in the north. This aim is reflected in the
project title “
The improvement and
CARD 009/05 VIE
–
Improving goat production in Central Vietnam
111
implementation of new appropriate
technologies for improving goat production
and increasing small
-
holder income in the
central region of Vietnam
”. This is a program
which included elements of farm survey,
strategic planning for improving health and
nutrition of goats, as well as training of key
farmers and Department of Agriculture and
Rural Development (DARD) staff in the
se new
technologies. Extension of these activities to
the wider community was achieved by
conducting field days/workshops for local
farmers using demonstration farms. The
following report describes the final outcomes
of successfully implementing this proje
ct in
southeast Vietnam over the period March
2006 to March 2009.
2.
C
ontents and method
ology
2
.1
Research Contents
o
Identification and characterisation of
target farms
o
Training and Information
Dissemination
o
Provision of improved housing and
health care
for goats
o
Improve the availability and quality of
feeds and forages for goats
o
Provide local Bach Thao bucks of
proven genetic merit for breeding
o
Economic evaluation of impact of new
technologies on goat productivity
o
Support for pilot meat processing
facili
tie
s at the Ninh Hai Goat
Research
Centre, Ninh Thuan.
Within each objective there were a series of
activities associated with milestones and
expected outputs, and the outcomes from each
of these activities is presented and discussed
below.
2
.2
Approach
and Methodology
2
.
2
.1
General approach
The project was located in Ninh Thuan, Binh
Thuan and Lam Dong provinces which are
located in the south central coast of Vietnam,
334 km from Ho Chi Minh city and some 1400
km from Hanoi. The local people are mainly
Kinh, Cham, Ede and are amongst the poorest
in Vietnam (US$45
-
65 income per annum).
The traditional farming systems vary from rice
cropping in the river deltas in Ninh Thuan to
upland farming systems based on cassava, root
crops, fruit and forest trees an
d livestock. Goat
numbers in 2004 in Ninh Thuan, Binh Thuan
and Lam Dong were estimated to be 93,930;
35,275 and 9309 respectively. Goats are
largely managed by women and children.
Income from livestock forms 22 to 25% of
total income from agricultural pro
duction in
this region. Three broad categories of farming
systems (lowland high rainfall, upland low
rainfall and highland high rainfall) have been
selected. The plan is to develop 27 farms (15
in Ninh Thuan, 9 in Binh Thuan, 3 in Lam
Dong) by firstly surv
eying each enterprise and
then providing new technologies (housing,
health care, nutrition, breeding bucks) as
indicated. These participating farmers will be
also trained in a short course at GRRC and
then on farm by DARD officers in the
implementation of
these management skills. In
each province, 2 farms were selected as
demonstration farms which will be used to
train other farmers in these techniques and as
model of progressive goat production systems.
The selected farmers all had experience of goat
produ
ction, having between 20 and 100 goats
and generally sufficient land to grow the
required forages. This holistic approach to the
introduction of new technologies is preferred
to a more fragmented approach where only
specific interventions (
e.g.
disease con
trol
only) are made. This approach to development
has been successfully applied in north Vietnam
and was expected to provide a rapid
improvement in productivity in similar systems
in central Vietnam. An important new
initiative for this project was support
for a pilot
meat processing plant at the new goat research
centre to be built at Ninh Hai in Ninh Thuan.
Staff and institutional gaps were addressed by
a comprehensive training program, firstly, by
training DARD staff at GRRC and linking
them with specia
list GRRC counterparts, and
secondly by using the trained DARD staff to
train district officers, participating farmers and
the local communities through the
dissemination of information through written
materials, workshops and demonstrations. This
approac
h was planned to build capacity in
Australian collaborators, GRRC staff and
B.W. Norton,
Dinh Van Binh
&
Nguyen Thi Mui
112
farmers to work as inter
-
disciplinary and inter
-
institutional teams, and to foster a more
holistic approach to improving agricultural and
animal production in these poor villages i
n
central Vietnam. The Australian partner
contribution was largely through the active
participation of Dr Norton in all matters
relating to the development and introduction of
the new technologies, and was complemented
by the visit of 5 senior Vietnamese s
taff to
Australia, where they visited goat production
farms and processing facilities for meat and
milk, as well as inspecting a range of fodder
conservation systems.
The training programs had as a central aim the
preparation of materials for distribut
ion to
participating and other local farmers on the
technologies available and relevant to each
farming system. Extension materials from
GRRC for goat farmers in the north were
modified to meet the particular needs of
farmers in central Vietnam. In the sec
ond year,
demonstration farms were used to train farmers
not currently involved in the project, with a
view to spreading information about the new
technologies as widely as possible during the
time of the project.
While many problems were anticipated by
the
Project at the start, few problems were found
when implementing the scheme. All diseases
were effectively controlled, there were no
natural disasters, and all farmers, GRRC and
DARD staff (at all levels) were both co
-
operative and enthusiastic about p
articipation
in Project activities. All planned project
objectives were achieved over the 3 year
period, in many cases, exceeding expectation.
2.2.2
Implementation Methodologies
A key component of this project was the
identification of the resources avail
able on the
selected farms, and it is from this information
that management/ intervention strategies were
developed by project staff to overcome the
perceived limitations to improved productivity.
The first activity of the project was therefore to
conduct
a survey of each farm to provide the
above information, and this information then
formed the baseline against which change was
measured. The expert GRRC and Australian
team then devised strategies for each farm
depending on their circumstances. In some
cas
es, a common strategy was applied to all
farms (replace bucks, improve goat house,
provide vaccines, drugs and recommendations
for use), in other cases, the strategy was
particular to each farm (improved feed and
forage supply). It was recognized that loca
l
knowledge of feed resources and disease
remedies needed to be evaluated and
incorporated into our strategies wherever
possible.
3.
Results and discussions
The progress made in this Project was
documented in two places, firstly, reports on
management vi
sits to Vietnam by Dr Norton
(Management Reports) which were distributed
only to Project Managers (Norton, Dr Mui, Dr
Binh) as a record of decisions made and
secondly as reports on the achievement of
objectives listed milestones set by CARD
PMU. Comprehens
ive and detailed reports of
the outcomes from each Project activity were
recorded in each CARD Milestone Report, and
only broad outcomes in relation to Project
Objectives are now listed in this report.
Implementation Highlights
The following objectives wer
e set as outputs of
Project activity over the 3 year program.
Detailed information from these activities has
been reported in “New Technologies for
Improving Goat Production in Vietnam” by
Barry W. Norton, Nguyen Thi Mui and Dinh
Van Binh. The reader of t
his report is referred
to relevant sections of this book for more detail
on outcomes.
3.1
Identification and characterisation of
target farms
A total of 56 farms were surveyed, and 27
chosen for the introduction of the new
management technologies. This d
ata were
used to describe typical goat farming system in
Ninh Thuan, Binh Thuan and Lam Dong
provinces in south
-
eastern Vietnam (Chapter
2) and was the basis for determining the
impact of Project activities on the productivity
of goats in these areas (Cha
pters 6 and 7). In
addition to this baseline information,
specific
information from selected farms in year 3
.
These activities were completed in two parts, a
CARD 009/05 VIE
–
Improving goat production in Central Vietnam
113
quarterly assessment of progress on each farm
which involved a visit from technical staff to
admi
nister vaccines and drugs as well as to
record the numbers and weights of goats in
each herd (Productivity Survey), and a final
survey of farmers circumstances and attitudes
to the activities of the Project. The outcomes
from these activities were report
ed in Chapters
6 and 7, and publicised in annual Advisory
Board meetings, workshops, and national and
international conferences.
Goat farm survey
3.2
Training and Information
Dissemination
Training at all levels of participation was a
major focus of p
roject activities and consisted
of 8 different programs with various
participants.
3.2.1
Training of provincial DARD officers
at GRRC
These activities continued throughout the 3
year period of the project, starting with a
training course at the Goat and
Rabbit
Research Centre (GRRC) in March 2006,
which was then complemented by on
-
farm
training of DARD officers in their own
districts and also by including these staff in the
workshops held to train local farmers in each
province. These trained staff also a
ttended the
final conference in Ninh Thuan where they
presented their views on the effectiveness of
their training and on the relevance of the new
technologies used to improve goat production
in their districts (Conference Proceedings).
There was a good le
vel of continuing
participation in the Project following this
initial training, with about 75% of staff trained
still being involved at the end of the project.
The effectiveness of this training was assessed
and reported in Chapter 4).
3
.2.2
Preparation
of demonstration and
instructional materials for use with
participating farmers
Four instructional books in Vietnamese were
prepared covering the general areas of Goat
Diseases, Goat Care and Housing, Pastures
Establishment and Management and Goat
Nutriti
on and Breeds and Breeding
Management, and were distributed at all
workshops conducted. These manuals have
also been translated into English, and were
presented as attachments to Milestone 10. The
information was continually upgraded as new
data on local
goat production became available
through project activities.
3.2.
3
Training participating farmers in the
application of new technologies
The selection of participating farmers at the
beginning of the Project involved assessment
of their willingness to lea
rn and implement the
new technologies being recommended.
Instruction in the application of these new
technologies was provided by Project staff
during their quarterly visits to each farm, and
the effectiveness of their implementation was
assessed by senio
r Project staff who visited
each farm at least once every six months. At
the end of the project, 19 of the original
farmers 27 farmers were still involved in
project activities. The effectiveness of their
application of the new technologies was
assessed at
the end of the project by recording
the changes in the productivity of their goats
and farming enterprises (Chapters 6 and 7) and
by assessing the extent to which they
continued with the recommended practises
after the project ended. These farmers were
al
so used in Workshops to describe their
experiences to other farmers interested in
taking up new techniques in goat farming.
3
.2.3
Presentation of six
-
monthly reports and
review of project progress
A total of 6 six
-
monthly reports of progress
were submitted
to and approved by the CARD
PMU as satisfactory. Appendices of large files
were provided as electronic files on an
B.W. Norton,
Dinh Van Binh
&
Nguyen Thi Mui
114
accompanying CD. Agenda and minutes of all
Annual Board
meetings were also reported.
3.2
.5
Field day demonstrations of
improvements in goat
productivity on
selected farms in each province in year
2
A total of 11 training courses involving more
than 279 farmers have been run across three
provinces in 2007 and 2008. Six 2 day
workshops were held on demonstration farms.
The farms used for thi
s purpose were as
follows: Lam Dong
-
Mr Lung (Farm 25, Duc
Trong). Ninh Thuan
-
Mr Hoa (Farm 22,
Thuan Bac), Mr Hung (Farm 23, Thuan Bac),
Mr Duc (Farm 17, Ninh Hai), Mr Thanh (Farm
16, Ninh Hai), Mr Long (Farm 12, Ninh
Phuoc) and Binh Thuan
-
Mr Lang (Far
m 3,
Bac Binh), Mr Man (Farm 2, Bac Binh).
3
.2.6
Training visit to Australia to inspect
goat production systems and
technologies relevant to improving goat
productivity in Vietnam
This visit to Australia took place between 3
-
14
May 2008. The following st
aff came to
Australia: Dr Dinh Van Binh
Director, Goat
and Rabbit Research Centre, and Vietnamese
Director, Vietnam
-
Australia Goat
Improvement Project (2006
-
2009), Dr Nguyen
Thi Mui
,
Senior Consultant, Forage and
Pasture Systems, National Institute of
Animal
Husbandry, Ministry of Agricultural Research
and Development, Mr Nguyen Ngoc Hung
Vice
-
Director, Department of Agriculture and
Rural Development, Phan Thiet, Binh Thuan,
Mr Nguyen Duc Hung, Vice
-
Director,
Provincial Veterinary Department, Lam Dong
Province, Mr Truong Khac Tri, Director of
Animal Breeding Centre, Ninh Thuan
Province. During this visit, an inspection tour
of sheep and goat properties in southeast
Queensland was made, with the intention of
providing information on the application of
a
ppropriate technologies for optimising animal
productivity in Australia farming system. The
relevance and application of such technologies
for Vietnamese goat and sheep production
systems was the main topic of conversation
between the visiting Vietnamese s
cientists.
3.2
.7
Train other local and non
-
participant
farmers in goat management
This activity was related to other training
activities, as stated, a total of 11 training
courses for “other farmers” were carried out in
2007 and 2008. All farmers were prov
ided
with instruction manuals and first
-
hand
experience of goat management on the
demonstration farms listed above.
3
.2.8
National Conference/Workshop in
Ninh Thuan in year 3 to report impact
of new technologies on goat
productivity in central Vietnam
A N
ational Conference sponsored by the
Project titled “
The Development and
Implementation of New Appropriate
Technologies for Improving Goat Production
and Increasing Small
-
holder Income in the
Central Region of Vietnam
” was held at Hoan
Cau Resort, Phan Rang
on 20
-
21 November
2008. The Proceedings of this Conference
(English and Vietnamese) is available from
CARD or Dr Dinh Van Binh at GRRC. The
impact of the new technologies on goat
productivity was reviewed by senior Project
staff (Dr Dinh Van Binh, Dr Ngu
yen Thi Mui,
Dr Barry Norton), DARD and other
government agencies staff and by participating
farmers over a two day period. The
conclusions from this workshop were that the
Project had provided the technologies,
leadership and training to make a significan
t
impact on the productivity and profitability of
goat farming systems in southeast Vietnam.
3.
3
Provision of improved housing and
health care for goats
3.
3
.1
Improved housing for goats
Improved housing for goats on each
selected
farms
was achieved by all farms being
provided with well constructed and
hygienically managed goat houses by the end
of the first year of the Project (Chapter 3)
3
.3.2
Control of all disease to improve health
of goats on all farms.