An assessment of irrigated rice cultivation with different crop establishment practices in Vietnam

Overuse of seed and chemical inputs is a major constraint for sustainable rice production in Vietnam. In this study, two seasons of field trials were conducted to compare different crop establishment practices for rice production in the Mekong River Delta using environmental and economic sustainability performance indicators. The indicators including energy efficiency, agronomic use efficiency, net income, and greenhouse gas emissions (GHGEs) were quantified based on four treatments including manual broadcast-seeding, blower seeding, drum seeding, and mechanized transplanting. Across the four treatments, yields ranged from 7.3–7.5 Mg ha−1 and 6.2–6.8 Mg ha−1 in the Winter-Spring (WS) and Summer-Autumn (SA) seasons, respectively. In comparison with direct seeding methods, mechanized transplanting decreased the seed rate by 40%. It also led to a 30–40% reduction in pesticide use during the main crop season (WS). Mechanized transplanting required higher inputs, including machine depreciation and fuel consumption, but its net energy balance, net income and GHGE were at a similar level as the other non-mechanized planting practices. Mechanized transplanting is a technology package that should be promoted to improve the economic and environmental sustainability of lowland rice cultivation in the Mekong River Delta of Vietnam.

Back to Nature-Based Agriculture: Green Livelihoods Are Taking Root in the Mekong River Delta

Background and objective: Vietnam is prioritizing agricultural production for food export capacity in all national policies. As a result, for three decades, its agriculture has been making quite many remarkable achievements.Methods: The most successful one is that the nation has become one of the world’s leading rice exporters and ensures its national food security. Through these endeavors, the Mekong River Delta (MRD), in particular, has emerged as a key region in ensuring national food security and rice export.Results: The new era can now see Vietnamese agriculture turning to place special emphasis on commodity quality and the improvement of the living environment. This is evidenced, for example, by the phenomenon that the MRD, as a rice basket of the whole country, is making moves back to nature-based agriculture with attempts to restore the natural ecology, including preserving and restoring local traditional rice seeds, adopting natural farming practices and minimizing the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides.Conclusion: The case studies of nature-based farming practices in the MRD indicate that, while the national agriculture is generally developing large-scale production, the small-scale farming in the region, integrated with tourist and educational activities on-site, is meeting the demands of a highly potential domestic niche market. Moreover, this model appears to be a sustainable farming approach that defines itself as a working green livelihood for the region.

The Role of Opportunity Exploration, Exploitation and Corporate Social Responsibilities on Sustainable Manufacturing Business Performance in Mekong River Delta

A given business or market environment and corporate responsibilities always offers opportunities that have a direct impact on the sustainable business performance. Several scholars have researched on how to take advantage of these opportunities in creating sustainable business performance. This study analyzes determinants of the exploration, business opportunity exploitation, corporate social responsibilities (CSR) and sustainable business performance of manufacturing industry based in the Mekong River Delta, Vietnam. The data was collected by questionnaires. This study applying the Structural Equation Model (SEM) results, the author finds strong evidence of opportunity exploration, opportunity exploitation and CSR have positive impact with sustainable business performance. This study provides the guidelines to the regulators while developing the policies related to the opportunity exploration, and CSR that enhance the sustainable business performance.

An Assessment of Irrigated Rice Cultivation With Different Crop Establishment Practices in Vietnam

Overuse of seed and chemical inputs is a major constraint for sustainable rice production in Vietnam. In this study, two seasons of field trials were conducted to compare different crop establishment practices for rice production in the Mekong River Delta using environmental and economic sustainability performance indicators. The indicators including energy efficiency, agronomic use efficiency, net income, and greenhouse gas emissions (GHGEs) were quantified based on four treatments including manual broadcast-seeding, blower seeding, drum seeding, and mechanized transplanting. Across the four treatments, yields ranged from 7.3–7.5 Mg ha−1 and 6.2–6.8 Mg ha−1 in the Winter-Spring (WS) and Summer-Autumn (SA) seasons, respectively. In comparison with direct seeding methods, mechanized transplanting decreased the seed rate by 40%. It also led to a 30–40% reduction in pesticide use during the main crop season (WS). Mechanized transplanting required higher inputs, including machine depreciation and fuel consumption, but its net energy balance, net income and GHGE were at a similar level as the other non-mechanized planting practices. Mechanized transplanting is a technology package that should be promoted to improve the economic and environmental sustainability of lowland rice cultivation in the Mekong River Delta of Vietnam.

Relationship between flood severity and risk of hospitalisation in the Mekong River Delta of Vietnam

ObjectiveTo examine the relationship between flood severity and risk of hospitalisation in the Vietnam Mekong River Delta (MRD).MethodsWe obtained data on hospitalisations and hydro-meteorological factors during 2011–2014 for seven MRD provinces. We classified each day into a flood-season exposure period: the 2011 extreme annual flood (EAF); 2012–2014 routine annual floods (RAF); dry season and non-flood wet season (reference period). We used province-specific Poisson regression models to calculate hospitalisation incidence rate ratios (IRRs). We pooled IRRs across provinces using random-effects meta-analysis.ResultsDuring the EAF, non-external cause hospitalisations increased 7.2% (95% CI 3.2% to 11.4%); infectious disease hospitalisations increased 16.4% (4.3% to 29.8%) and respiratory disease hospitalisations increased 25.5% (15.5% to 36.4%). During the RAF, respiratory disease hospitalisations increased 8.2% (3.2% to 13.5%). During the dry season, hospitalisations decreased for non-external causes and for each specific cause except injuries.ConclusionsWe observed a gradient of decreasing risk of hospitalisation from EAF to RAF/non-flood wet season to dry season. Adaptation measures should be strengthened to prepare for the increased probability of more frequent extreme floods in the future, driven by climate change.

Development of Rice Husk Power Plants Based on Clean Development Mechanism: A Case Study in Mekong River Delta, Vietnam

In this research, we planned and conducted estimations for developing a pilot-scale Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) project for group plant activities in the Vietnam electricity/energy sector. The overall aim of this paper is to assess the power generation potential of rice husk power plants in the Mekong Delta. We intend to set up a rice husk energy balance flowchart for the whole Mekong River Delta in the year 2021 and suggest policies that can be used for the power generation of unused rice husk, to avoid having them pollute rivers and canals. We put forward a safe and environmentally friendly solution to thoroughly minimize the current serious pollution of rivers and canals in the Mekong River Delta caused by the increasing quantity of unused rice husk. The results of this paper are based on the estimation of electricity potential of a group of rice husk power development plants in the Mekong River Delta with a capacity of 11 MW per plant, including carbon dioxide emission reductions (CERs) and CER credits, along with estimations of their economic criteria (NPV, B/C, IRR), both W/CDM and W/O CDM.

Assessing the Performance of Climate Smart Rice Production Systems in the Upper Part of the Vietnamese Mekong River Delta

Climate smart agriculture (CSA) has gained considerable attention in Vietnam due to its potential to increase food security and farming system resilience while decreasing greenhouse gas emissions. In recent years, several CSA practices have been introduced in rice production, the most important sub-sector of Vietnam’s agriculture. However, few studies have been done in Vietnam to produce comprehensive assessments of CSA performance in the rice sector. This research proposes a comprehensive approach to assess CSA practices through a new set of evaluation indicators. A case study in An Giang province of the Vietnamese Mekong River Delta was implemented to evaluate the performance of five CSA models versus that of the triple rice crop system (i.e., benchmarking model). Results show that rice-shrimp and rice-lotus rotations are most profitable, low-risk, and applicable at a larger scale. Given that the current study analyzed and calculated only a small number of indicators and types of CSA practices, further research is necessary to test all indicators and diversified types of CSA models.