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Projects
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Sustainable technologies for pest, disease and soil fertility management in smallholder vegetable production in China and Vietnam
Objectives
To contribute to the development of economically viable vegetable production systems by smallholder farmers in Sichuan Province, China and Northern Vietnam without compromising the natural resource base. To achieve this goal, improved technologies for vegetable cash crop production will be developed using a combination of on-farm testing and participatory experimentation.
Specific objectives
To identify and analyse the key biophysical and economic constraints to productivity, profitability and sustainability of smallholder vegetable farming systems.
To develop and test in a participatory manner improved pest and disease and soil fertility management techniques in vegetable farming systems with increased efficiency of use, effectiveness and reduced impact on the environment.
To identify marketing strategies that increase the profitability of vegetable production.
To make information on developed technologies widely available to farmers and to formulate complimentary policy and programme options at the local or regional level to promote adoption of the improved production techniques.
Project website
Visit the VEGSYS project site for more information.
Methodology
Identification of key constraints to productivity, profitability and sustainability
Participatory tools and techniques will be used to characterise the vegetable production systems in the study regions, including key constraints to pest and disease management, soil fertility and marketing. This appraisal will allow the selection of two benchmark village sites in each country. A detailed quantitative survey of the production systems covering an entire production year will be carried out using the NUTMON toolbox.
Participatory technology development
Based on the qualitative and quantitative diagnosis farmers and researchers will screen and test a wide range of promising environmentally friendly plant protection techniques and soil fertility practives in farmers’ fields.
In addition, biological monitoring of pest populations and disease epidemics will be recorded through the whole production cycle.
After this first round of screening, the most promising techniques will be selected to combine testing with soil fertility management practices.
The project will also address the off-site environmental issue of synthetic pesticide use by using a simulation model for pesticide leaching and accumulation. This will result in recommendations on dose rates and methods
for specific crops, soil types and local topographical conditions.
Marketing strategies
The third key element is the marketing system for vegetables in the study areas. A standard marketing analysis framework will be applied to examine market structure and performance. Profitability of the systems depends on both input use and product marketing. Post-harvest issues can, and often do, reduce the hard work of farmers at the cultivation stage with considerable economic losses or shortfalls.
Dissemination and recommendations
The results of the project will be disseminated in various forms. A set of simple technical notes in Chinese and Vietnamese will be prepared for distribution to farmers and extensionists. A workshop will be held with local policy makers and other stakeholders to review the results and develop an action plan for future work.
Duration
March 2002 - February 2006
Research areas
The Red River Delta in Northern Vietnam
Sichuan Province, China
Partners
LEI, Alterra, PPO, Soil and Fertilizer Institute, Hanoi Agricultural University, Sichuan Agricultural University, Hannover University, Spanish Agricultural Research Institute, and the Institute of Plant Protection.
Donors
This project is funded by the European Union under the INCO-DEV program and co-sponored by the DLO Research Programme 'International Cooperation' (DLO-IC) of the Netherlands Ministry of Agriculture, Nature Management and Fisheries.
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