- From the result of the project VIE/ 00/ 001, extension workers of communes in the district have encouraged communities to invest their resources in grafted cashew cultivation with 60ha, including 15ha from Cam Hai Dong Commune
- The revolving loan programme was maintained and expanded in other households for grafted cashew production
- The project model was widely introduced to others by the department of science and technology.
- The people?s committe of Khanh Vinh district visited the project area and learned and encouraged their relevant aegncies and communities to grow grafted cashew in the localities
- Thanks to the success of the project, Cam Ranh township and other districts in Khanh Hoa Province have planted grafted cashew in their areas, about 300 - 400 ha yearly
- The People?s Committees of Kh¸nh Hßa province and Cam Ranh Township have included the cashew tree in the structure of cultivation plants in both short-term and long-term plans.
- The People?s Committe of Khanh Hoa province and Cam Ranh Township have decided to grow grafted cashew in 743 programme, especially 132 Programme for resettlement of indigenous peoples
Inovative Financial Mechanisms
- The Project Management Board formulates a revolving loan programme suitable to the project models (criteria on electing borrowing households, rights and duties of the Management Board and the borrowing households, loan duration, loan capital, interest rates ...)
- The Project applies the revolving loan programme to households developing the cashew trees on their own land. Upon the completion of the project, the loans will be reclaimed and turned over for the building and enlargement of the models;
- The project loans will be granted in kind to the borrowing households to set up the model during 3 years, including: (i) Seedlings; (ii) Fertilizer; (iii) Pesticides and insecticides; (iv) Technical implements: mowers;
- The loans will be managed by the community with simplified and effective loan formalities at interest rates similar to those regulated by the Bank for the Poor.
Policy Impact
- The government reforestation programme (known as the 5 million ha of forest programme) aims to reforest, especially for the barren land, for the purposes of environemntal protection and economic development. The project models fit well with this government programme and therefore will be applied, contributing to regreening the area and grafted cashew production on the barren land of the project area.
- Grafted cashew becomes one of the key crops the project area.
- The project models will be sustainable and replicable thanks to the favourable policies of the local government for cashew production.
- The People?s Committee of Kh¸nh Hßa has issued the following policies concerning the development of cashew trees:
- Policy on land: (i) Boosting land allocation and land rental to plant cashew trees; (ii) Determining areas with potential barren land suitable for the cultivation of cashew trees with enlarged boundaries;; (iii) Planting cashew trees on barren land on hills and mountains with exemptions of land rentals and land use taxes during basic construction stage; (iv) Not leaving the land unplanted when transferring from planting eucalyptus trees to planting cashew trees;
- Policy on capital, investment and credit: (i) Applying the policy on encouraging plantation economy development in granting loans; (ii) The State?s financial support in planting cashew trees in upland areas for environmental protection; (iii) Subcidising in purchasing seedlings; (iv) Processing establishments may be granted capital loans from the provincial Development Investment Funds.
- Policy on price insurance and product purchase.
Notable Community Participation
- The project gives priority to community participation. During the project design phase, knowledge and traditions of local people were studied and taken into consideration in project design. The local people were in consultations about the project issues and solutions at community meetings and through surveys/interviews.
In order to promote the role and responsibilities and to ensure community ownership, during the project implementation and M&E, the project will:
- Provide the community with full information on the project. Representatives from the community will be given the opportunities to attend project opening, mid term and final meetings, and project workshops.
- Give community opportunities to participate in all project activities.
- The project team will develop the revolving loan mechanism to assist the participating community in purchasing the materials for the project model building. The community select among themselves the participating community based on the selection criteria developed by the project team. The community manage the revolving loan programme.
- The community is given opportunities in project monitoring and evaluation.
- Mobilising the community to invest their labor and resources in model building.
- The project take into consideration the community needs and cultivation techniques when developing training materials.
- The community ownership, benefit and participation are cornerstone in project implementation and M&E.
Gender Focus
- Women are given prioroties in the project capacity building activities and revolving loan programme.
- Women take part in most activities of the project model building, including making seedlings, planting, caring, harvesting, and selling cashew.
- The project will assist to estanslish working partnership between community, including women, and cashew companies and convince to develop some workshops to process cashew after harvesting in th eproject area so that jobs are created for women, brining additional income.
Promoting Public Awareness of Global Environment
1. One of the key objectives of the project is to enhance awareness and understanding of the project stakeholders on the following issues.
- global environmental issues such as biodiversity conservation, climate change, land degradation and desertification
- linkage between poverty and enviornemntal degradation
- enviornemntal protection and sustainable development
- millenium development goals (MDGs)
2. The project has awareness raising activities on global enviornmental issues, focusing on the project issue of land degradation and desertification.
- Oragnising training workshops, dialogues, community contests on the issue of land degradation and desertification
- Mainstreaming the project issue in the farmers? association activities and programmes
- Using public media when possible
- Attending in exchange visits, workshops and environmental communication activities organised by GEF SGP where GEF issues are discussed.
Capacity - Building Component
The project capacity building activities include the followings.
- Training workshops in grafted cashew cultivation
- Community meetings and workshops for assessment on project model building on grafted cashew cultivation and experience sharing in grafted cashew cultivation
- Study tours/exchange visits to learn from other localities in grafted cashew cultivation
- Training items include (1) techniques in selecting the mother trees, (2) techniques in developing nurseries of grafted cashew, (3) grafted cashew cultivation techniques in an agro forestry model, and alternate cultivation of grafted cashew and other trees (4) improving yield of cashew trees growing from seed, and (5) sustainable land management techniques.
- In addition to the project capacity building activities, the project team members attend exchange visits, training workshops on project design and implementation, M&E as well as themtaic workshops for sharing experience and lessons learned organised by GEF SGP.
- In addition to the project capacity building activities, key community members attend exchange visits, themtaic workshops for sharing experience and lessons learned organised by GEF SGP.
- Training participants are project participating farmers, and commune key farmers and extension workers of Cam An Bac Commune.
Emphasis on sustainable livelihoods
- Land degradation and desertification together form one of the serious problems concerning the environment and natural resources that the project locality is facing with and trying to solve to develop a sustainable agricultural economy in the specific climatic and hydrologic conditions of an arid area affected by various natural disasters such as drought, flooding ...;
- Agricultural production in general and cashew production in particular are the main income of the residents of the project area. The cashew tree has proved its adaptability to the conditions of the project area; yet, limitations still remain: low yield and poor quality resulting in poor productivity ?
- The project?s main objective is to set up models of sustainable cashew cultivation, two of which are (1) Intensive cultivation of grafted cashew trees in an agro forestry model, and (2) Reforming the plantation of low-yield cashew trees planted from seeds. The intensive cultivation of high-yield grafted cashew trees in an agro forestry model will contribute to preventing land degradation and desertification, increasing the people?s income and improving the cashew growers? livelihoods;
Project sustainability
The project will be sustainable thanks to the followings.
- Enhanced awareness and understanding of the local authorities and communities on enviornmental issues in general and land degradation and desertification in particular
- The project models demonstrate the enviornemntal and economic benefit of grafted cashew cultivation in agro forestry model
- The local authorities of the province and district levels have plans to expand the grafted cashew in many areas. The application of the project models of grafted cashew cultivation ensure the project sustainability and replication, contributing to regreening the area and prevention of soil erosion causing land degradation and desertification in the semi arid area of the project area.
- The revolving programme was well managed with 100% repayment rate and will contibue to assist the local communities who want to grow grafted cashew.
- The local communities benefit from the project training activities and know how to cultivate grafted cashew. This together with the economic benefit of the grafted cashew will ensure that the communities will expand to griw grafted cashew in their areas.
Planning non gef grant
The relevant local agencies have developed plans to grow grafted cahsew in their 5 million ha forest programme and encouraged the local communities to grow grafted cashew
Project Results
Project results
1. Awareness and understanding of local authorities and communities in the project area enhanced
- The project has significantly enhanced awareness and understanding of local authorities and communities in the project area on environmental issues in general and land degradation and desertification in particular
- The project grantee organisation and local authorities have learned and gained experience in managing an international-funded project and have opportunities to test a model on grafted cashew cultivation for replication in the implementation of the government programme on 5 million ha fo
- The project community have had the opportunity to improve their knowledge on grafted cashew cultivation techniques and agro forestry development, sustainable land magement techniques, and better income generation from cashew production
- The project has sought attention from the local authorities.and communties in environemntal protection in general and land degradation and desertification in general.
2. The project has brought benefit for the communities
a. The communities were given training opportunities in grafted cashew cultivation.
- organsing 6 one-day trainings on grafted cashew cultivation for 300 participants (training participants are commune extension workers and key farmers, and participating farmers). Training participants gained a good understanding on:
+ Sustainable use of land resources
+ Grafted cashew cultivation techniques (fertilising, pest management, taking care of cashew trees, drought mitigation by cultivation techniques)
+ Agro forestry cultivation
- organize 5 dialogues in 5 participating communes. There were 150 participants coming from the district and commune authorities and mass organizations of the project area. Issues for dialogue included environmental issues of the project area, focusing on land degradation and desertification in the semi ?arid areas
- organize 5 study tours to learn from cashew growing areas of Binh Thuan and Binh Dinh Provinces in grafted cashew production
+ There were 250 participants coming from the district and commune authorities and mass organizations of the project area, and project participating farmers
+ These study tours have given the project stakeholders an opportunity to learn from other localities and have encouraged them to actively participate in the project.
+ The project team and representatives of the district and commune authorities and community visited the national cashew garden in Binh Dinh Province
+ The project team members and communities have had opportunities to join exchange visits and workshops organized by the GEF SGP. These were good learning opportunities and provided forum for sharing experience and lessons learned among GEF SGP projects and development of networking and working partnership among GEF SGP partners.
- organize 3 community and on the field workshops. There were 150 participants coming from the project farmers, key farmers of the commune. The workshop participants shared experience in grafted cashew production.
- The technical guidelines was developed based on the result of the project models. It include the techniques on grafted cashew cultivation and improving the yield of cashew growing from seeds.
- mainstreaming the project issue in farmers? associations activities and programmes
- development of a video on the project which presented on the project results and was shown on the provincial and district television
- The project participated in the agro biodiversity fair organised by GEF SGP
- The project team provided information to the national and local media and this has helped to spread the words about GEF SGP in general and the project in particular
The two project models on grafted cashew were successfully tested.
a.Model of grafted cashew intensive cultivation in an agro forestry model
- Model of planting grafted cashew, beans and peas, chili, acacia: 57 participating households, 43.3 ha (17.2 ha of alternate cultivation of cashew and beans and peas, 25.5 ha of cashew monoculture, and 10.4 ha of alternate cultivation of cashew and acacia)
- Good growth height with an average of 277 cm after 27 months; good growth of the stump diameter of 9.0 cm on the average; especially, the foliage grows well in diameter in a balanced manner, and forms good shape though low with trees of 27 months, with a foliage diameter of 368 cm. Good and balanced growth and development of cashew was found in the models of cashew + beans and peas, cashew + chili, and cashew + acacia
- After 27 months, fair outputs of cashew were found in the models of cashew + beans and peas, cashew + chili (850 kg/ha), and cashew + acacia. Meanwhile, pure cultivation of cashew yielded only 401 - 506 kg/ha and cashew trees planted from seedlings at the same age and at the same time yielded only early harvest or only scattered first fruit with a productivity of only about 60 kg/ha.
* Economic efficiency of the models after 27 months:
+ Pure cultivation of grafted cashew: total value of VND 4,411,000 /ha, i.e. a net profit of VND 2,111,000 /ha.
+ Alternate cultivation of cashew + acacia: total value of VND 6,030,000 /ha, i.e. a net profit of VND 3,518,000/ha.
+ Alternate cultivation of cashew + beans and peas: a total value of VND10,546,000 /ha, i.e. a net profit of VND 7,346,000/ha.
+ Alternate cultivation of cashew + chili: a total value of VND 19,361,000/ha, i.e. a net profit of VND 11,161,000 /ha,
* Environment efficiency of the models of cultivation of grafted cashew in an agro forestry model
The most direct and clear-cut impact on the ecological environment of the cultivation system reflects in its influence on the land; the model of cashew + beans and peas obtained the greatest coverage percentage (74.99%). Meanwhile, after 27 months, the model of pure cashew cultivation yielded a land coverage of only 7.25%. The coverage of grafted cashew after 27 months of cultivation also varied between 16.17 and 24.99%. In other words, if cashew is not cultivated alternately in an agro forestry model, the soil will be easily eroded and washed away ? which would mean a less unsustainable cultivation of cashew. The soil used in building the models was mostly poor and lacked in nutrients. The biggest losses of nutrients in the soil were found in the experimental models of cashew monoculture and grafted cashew monoculture at values between VND 1,013,020 and VND 1,120,811/ha/year. The smallest losses were found in the models of cashew + beans and peas, and cashew + chili, with values between VND 302,226 and VND 425,069/ha/year, and VND 841,545 /ha/year in the model of cashew + acacia.
In terms of the environment, the models of cashew + beans and peas, cashew + chili, and cashew + acacia were the most sustainable (soil data analyzed in 2001 and 2004 at RACCOS)
b. Model of reforming old cashew gardens:
- The area of reformed cashew gardens was 6.55 ha (cashew trees of 5 years of age and under); 8 households participating in the project.
- The project participating households have mastered the techniques of pruning the branches, turning over the soil at the root, applying fertilizer, and smoking out. At the same time, the project also supplied materials (fertilizer, pesticides and insecticides) for the community to look after the cashew with good practice. This is why despite the scorching weather of the 2001 ? 2002 crop, the average output of cashew still reached 370kg/ha, an increase of 150kg/ha compared to former outputs. Typically, Mr. Hoµng V¨n Cêng?s household reformed an area of 1.2 ha and obtained a total harvest of 450kg. Economic efficiency: total value: VND 10,648,000/ha, i.e. a net profit of VND 7,112,000/ha .
2. Building nurseries of grafted cashew trees:
- The project has built 0.2 ha of mother plant nursery to obtain graft nodes and graft branches and 0.5 ha of nursery for grafted cashew trees to be supplied to Cam Ranh Township (managed by the Economics Department of Cam Ranh Township).
- Each year, the nursery produced a sufficient supply of over 15,000 grafted cashew seedlings to the farmers for cultivation and replication of the model over the hills and low mountains of Cam Ranh Township.
3. Carrying out scientific research:
- Carrying out a number of scientific studies on the consumption markets and building a development plan of cashew in the orientation of goods production and stable cultivation on wild land in the hills and mountains of Cam Ranh Township. This objective includes the following main contents:
- Carrying out general studies on the natural and socio-economic conditions of Cam Ranh Township affecting the development of cashew trees;
- Carrying out analyses of domestic and world;
- Analyzing and evaluating cashew production and consumption in Cam Ranh;
- Building the plan of cashew development in the orientation of goods production and sustainable cultivation on barren land in the hills and mountains of Cam Ranh Township;
- Carrying out studies on the system policies to assist and encourage the development of cashew in the orientation of stable goods production and rural economic development.
- The Services of Science and Technology of Kh¸nh Hoµ province has granted a corresponding capital of VND 36,120,000 to formulate the research on Studying the status and potential of developing cashew trees in the orientation of goods production and stable cultivation on wild land in the hills and mountains of Kh¸nh Hoµ province. The study was evaluated as ?Fair? by the Scientific Council and received Certification No. 5254/ KQNC dated April 19, 2005 by the Ministry of Science and Technology on the Registration of the results of Scientific and Technological Studies, registration No. 2005 - 58T - 176/KQ.
- The Department of Science and Technology of Kh¸nh Hoµ province has proposed the People?s Committee of Kh¸nh Hoµ to issue a Decision on granting VND112,000,000 for the Farmers? Union of Cam Ranh Township to carry out the study on setting up a model of breeding and planting Amomum longiligulare in Kh¸nh Hßa province, contributing to presenting soil erosion and washing-away, and increasing the income of rural households.
3. Working partnership during project implementation
- The project has developed a good working relationship between the project grantee, the local authorites and relevant agencies at the procince level, including the Department of science and technology
- The working partnership among the 4 key stakeholders in grafted cashew production, including the farmers, scientisits, decision makers, and businessmen, was also strengthened through the implementation of project activities.
- Some cashew companies have developed some workshops to process cashew after harvesting in Cam Ranh Town and Cam An Bac, creating jobs for the women for additional income generation. Cam An Bac women union has signed a contract with the cashew company for processing cashew.
