Project Detail

Developing a community model to prevent and control land degrdation and desertification caused by overgrazing in Ninh Phuoc District, Ninh Thuan Province

Desertification is the result of several natural processes accompanied by man-made activities. In agricultural production, overgrazing is the cause of vegetation depletion, increased of soil erosion, and deterioration of soil fertility and soil structure. The impact that overgrazing (in terms of number of cattle herds and of grazing times) is beyond the carrying and restoring capacity of pastures and natural vegetation in grazing areas.
Livestock production on large and small scale has become a traditional economic activity of the people in Ninh Thuan, especially for the Cham people. It accounts for a significant share in the whole economic structure. Livestock production is one among several priorities defined in the province's economic development strategy and action plan toward the year 2010.
However, livestock free grazing in arid climate of Ninh Thuan province is one of the major causes of land degradation and desertification. Initial research results have shown that land degradation and desertification are among several increasingly accelerated environmental issues in terms of their intensity and scope of impact in Ninh Thuan.
In order to prevent and stop the desertification process in Ninh Thuan, it is necessary to embark on a synchronous set of measures to appropriately and rationally exploit environmental resources (land, water, climate) in parallel with zoning and territorial development planning activities. There should also be simultaneous measures of irrigation, development and protection of forest and vegetation, and technical and management measures for social - economic activities that are likely to have influential impact on environment and natural resources.
The objective of the project ?Developing a community model to prevent land degradation and desertification induced by livestock overgrazing in Phuoc Hai Commune, Ninh Phuoc District, Ninh Thuan Province" is to build a demonstration model of technical and management solutions for livestock and rangeland management. The ultimate goal is toward a sustainable livestock production with increased economic efficiency, and effective prevention of land degradation and desertification. The main activities of the project are:
1. Conduct a research on land use for livestock and rangeland management in Ninh Phuoc district
2. Establish a rotational grazing zone. Adopt the rotational grazing regime accompanied with technical advances to recover pastures and increase its productivity, apply manuring measure and grow grass
3. Develop a model of extensive new grass species farming to produce supplementary food for livestock. Take full advantage of agricultural and industrial by-products available in the community to process supplementary and reserving food for dry season.
4. Transfer technological advance to farmers through training on breed improvement, disease prevention, and breeding facilities construction to increase livestock productivity.
5. Organize communication activities to increase farmers' knowledge and awareness of sustainable natural resource use (land, water, and climate) for a sustainable livestock production, and of environmental issues including land degradation and desertification

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Project Snapshot

Grantee:

Farmers? Association of Ninh Phuoc District

Country:

Viet nam

Area Of Work:

Land Degradation

Operational Phase:

Phase 2

Grant Amount:

US$ 50,000.00

Co-Financing Cash:

US$ 27,685.97

Co-Financing in-Kind:

US$ 15,186.61

Project Number:

VN/03/002

Start Date:

2/2004

End Date:

7/2007

Status:

Satisfactorily Completed

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Project Characteristics and Results

Significant Participation of Indigenous Peoples

- The Cham community makes up a large group in Ninh ThuËn?s population (12%) and lives mainly in desertified land - The Cham community owns an age-old culture and system of handwriting. - The Cham community receives much attention from the Party, the State, and the local authorities in the policies of ethnic groups. - The Cham community suffers from harsh conditions in many aspects: the climate, land, and water sources, which present them with an impoverished lifestyle difficult livelihood. - The assistance to the Cham community in stabilizing the living and developing the economy is of great significance and brings about mutual help and unity among the community.

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 ...) and asks GEF SGP financial managers and the participating communities to elect borrowing households on the basis of criteria formulated by the Project Management Board; - The Project applies the revolving loan programme to households developing the model 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 - 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.

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 products

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.

Emphasis on Sustainable Livelihoods

? Ninh Thuan province had 340,207 ha of natural area, including 38.910ha for agriculture land and 78.598ha of agricultural potential land and vacant land for livestock.

Policy Influence

? Provincial People Committee in Ninh Thuan province made huge efforts in supporting and adjusting co-financing fund for the project and had promptly decided to contribute co-financing fund for the project. ? People's Committee of Ninh Phuoc district actively supported the project and facilitated for implementing the project.

Policy Impact

Preliminary results of the project have some impacts on the local policies: - The Department of Science and Technology of Ninh ThuËn province have paid much more attention on desertification, created favorable conditions for corresponding capital, and granted material support to the community. - The Center for Agricultural Promotion has paid attention to planting new species of grass in accordance in the orientation of intensive farming in plant structure transformation to develop the herds of horned cattle, the spearhead economy of the province.

Capacity - Building Component

The project capacity building activities include the followings. - Training workshops in rangeland management and animal husbandary - Community meetings and workshops for assessment on project model building and experience sharing in rangeland management and animal husbandary - Study tours/exchange visits to learn from other localities in rangeland management and animal husbandary - Training items include the following items: - Techniques of planting neem, leucaena, elephant grass (Pennisetum purpureum), etc.; - Techniques of making compost to fertilize the soil (getting rid the habit of collecting manure to sell out); - Techniques of economical watering and keeping soil moisture; - Techniques of breeding cows, goat and sheep; - Techniques of preventing and curing cattle diseases; - Techniques of using screens to supply micro-minerals to the cattle (not available before); - Methods of assisting the community in planning the planting lots and arranging breeding enclosures in the model; - Techniques of storing and cultivating seedlings in nurseries. - 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 participating commune. Emphasis on sustainable livelihoods - Soil fertility (or restored fertility in degraded soil) is the key to making out products for the local community. - The recovery of the plant species and vegetation on desertified land helps improve soil moisture to better environment. - The recovery of grassland helps the herds of specific horned cattle in the area for better local economic development. - The introduction of some grass species for intensive farming (not available before in the locality) helps increase the source of feed, gradually changing the old style of farming and contributing to limiting impact on soil environment. - Breeding horned cattle helps preserve and develop the gene sources of well-known horned cattle of Ninh ThuËn province.

Project Results

1. Building the animal husbandry area
? Making the design of alternative animal husbandry area of 60 hectares with 59 households. The number of livestock was 600 cows, 600 sheep, 300 goats, 30 ha soil improving woody legume forage, with natural grasses in the distance between rows and 30ha land improving woody legume forage intercropped with natural grasses and herbal forage, Stylo grass, Guinea grass, ...
? Build and reinforce fences for each area of each household by the wedge (8300 trees) and cactus trees (3,000m)
? Development and application of balanced fertilizer, organic with chemical fertilizer and take advantage of food for animal.
? Design and construction of irrigation systems.
? Develop and apply management regulations of feed for alternative animal husbandry in the project area and spread to the community.
? Increase food supplement for livestock.

2. Improve the livestock productivity by improving breed and enhancing the disease prevention activities.
3. Improve capacity of applying technical innovations for livestock households

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