After half a day of workshop, Hoang Thi Thoan learned how to make silage, that is, to store forage, the plants used to feed livestock, in a large sealed bag to promote anaerobic fermentation, protected from the air. Dip your hand into the ball of hair, a high bun on the crown of your head, typical of married women of the Taï Dam ethnic group, the majority in this mountainous province of Son La, in the northwest of Vietnam. The family has 30 cows. However, pastures are very scarce.
“It is very useful when you don’t have time to look for herbs”argues. A ventilated space near the barn is used to compost manure and organic waste. A compacting machine shared by several families produces black, light, odorless granules: fertilizer for coffee plantations. This is how the village of Nam, with a hundred wooden houses nestled in the hollow of a green valley, adopted agroecology. The approach is to reconcile agricultural development with the imperatives of sustainability and environmental protection.
These innovations in the field of the circular economy such as the “forage, silage and composting” cycle have the support of the Agroecology and Transitions of Safe Food Systems (Asset) program, which is ensured by the Center for International Cooperation in Agronomic Research for Development ( CIRAD). Scientific coordination with fifteen Vietnamese partners (research centers and public authorities) and international partners. Implemented in 2020 for five years, Asset is also implemented in Laos and Cambodia. Its financiers are the French Development Agency and the European Union.
Improve biodiversity
Twenty-eight Nam villagers volunteered to transform their farming and livestock practices through the circular economy. “It is about reinvesting in livestock farming, neglected in favor of monocultures, and demonstrating that the circular economy allows farmers to earn more”explains Pascal Lienhard, one of CIRAD’s agricultural engineers, based in Vietnam, who supervises the program. Six other villagers are learning how to improve the biodiversity and health of plants and soils on their coffee plantations through agroforestry, which advocates for a kind of return of the forest.
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