An Evaluation of A Participatory Research Approach
in Rainfed Lowland Area of Vinh Trach Village, Bac Lieu

Nguyen Duy Can
1
, Le Thanh Duong
1
and Ryuichi Yamada
2

1: Mekong Delta Farming Systems Research & Development Institute,
University of Cantho, Cantho, Vietnam
2: Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Science
Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8686 Japan
Abstract

This paper attempts to reaffirm the importance of the Site Working Group (SWG) and farmers
participation in such group learning in Vinh Trach village, a rainfed lowland area of Bac Lieu. The SWG is
the multi-disciplinary team-work and also multiple perspectives, plays an important role in the processes of
participatory approaches. It serves as a liaison between the community and development agencies,
facilitates the development process and as social learning. The Farmer Field School (FFS) is a type of
group learning, building farmers’ skills, making decisions and taking action through experiment. Saving
and Credit Women Group (S&CWG) is the first major step of the project, also building farmers’ skills,
sharing experiences in farming among themselves, especially to manage and use their own finance
effectively. The S&CWG helps poorers women are awareness of their roles and more participation in social
activities.

Key words:


Building The Site Working Group

A Site Working Group (SWG) was formed at the field site on November 2000. The SWG consists of 8
members, representing of different local organizations: two members from Farmer Association; two
members from Women Union at village level; two technicians specialization from Agricultural Extension
Center and Agricultural & Rural Development Session of district level; one from Cantho University; and
the team leader from Village People Committee, who to take charge of agricultural sector. The core
function of the SWG is to manage the project activities, prepare research plans and implement field works.
In general, the SWG acts to bring a collaborative, multi-sector and multi-disciplinary approach, opening up
space for farmers participation, gender equity and decision making at the village level.

SWG Serves as A Liaison between The Community and Development agencies,
as well as An Initial Motivator of The Community

Most of members of SWG are leaders or they play an important role in their own organizations. When
development agencies arrive in the village, they often contact with these leaders. These leaders can

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organize or call together the community for meetings or classes, and help explain the purpose of new
prorams or government policies to the other villagers.
Some members of SWG are also often the first people to try out new technologies in small plots in
their fields. These try out plots are the factor responsible for stimulating the interest of other farmers.

SWG Facilitates The Development Process, as well as That of Sustainable
Farming systems

In general SWG has special advantages in facilitating the development process. SWG members as they are
most important people in the community, they often bring ideas, new technologies to share with their own
organizations and communities. SWG can serve as communicators of information from more technical,

processes of school activities (practising, observations and analysis processes). When farmers completed
their FFS, they are able to take decisions about actions which will improve their situation. The skills learnt
in FFS activities helped them become more confident about carrying out field experiment and solving
problems by themselves. Experinces learnt from FFS in the village are summarized in Box 2.
One of the follow-up activities of FFSs, and other trainings is the development of action plan, which
SWG members help participants to develop and implement on their own field, and of course participants
are able to take decisions about their actions. After two years of the project cycle, the team has evaluated
these activities. In general, farmers has applied knowledges what they learnt from FFSs and trainings to
improve their farming. For instance, farmers used IPM as the way to manage of pests and diseases on rice;
used of leaf color chart (LCC) technique to apply fertilizer on rice; growing cash crop after harvesting rice,
especially using plastic sheet technique; and application of VAC systems (Table 1). 4
eBox 1. Identification of problems and research options:
 Major problems identified during the Workshop on research priorities on July 2000 are:
1. For mono-rice systems: Rice producers are dependent on rainfall, shortage of capital, and are
facing with pests, diseases and weeds problems as well as low price of outputs.
2. For rice –upland crop systems: Farmers are facing with serious problem of pests and diseases o
n
crops, lack of technical knowledge in upland crops growing, lack of capital to build deep-well,
unstable and low price of products.
3. For farmers practiced with VAC systems: Lack of capital to invest for pig pen, piglet, high price
of feeds, diseases on animal, and unstable and low price of products are major problems.
4. For rice – shrimp systems: Rice is damaged by insects and diseases, water from river polluted b
y
chemicals, lack of technical knowledge in shrimp growing, low price of rice and shrimp.
 Research options and priority
1. Establishment of saving and credit together with technologies guidance.
2. Selection of new rice varieties with high yield, resistant to pests and diseases, and good quality

adopted
FFS on rice production, application of
IPM and LCC on rice
24 1 100
FFS on cucumber production,
application of IPM and use of plastic
sheet technique
24 1 40
Training on rice-shrimp system 50 4 30
Study visit 15 1 27
Training on small livestock production,
application of VAC systems
35 1 39
Source: Site Working Group of Baclieu, 2002.

Saving and Credit Women Group
The Saving and Credit Women Group (S&CWG) was formed by FARM/FAO project and it was
considered to be a method to improve the gender equity, and to allow women participation in the
development of sustainable agriculture (N.D. Can, 2000). In 2001 when JIRCAS project arrived at the
village, gender has identified to be an important factor that supports small-scale household farming for
sustainable use and management of agricultural resources. The SWG has seclected 20 women members
from 3 S&CWGs in the village. At the first year there were 10 members received loan with an amount of
2,000,000 VND per each. Other members will receive loan after then with the agreement of their own
groups. Before receiving loan, the SWG together with farmers identified their own problems, possible
solutions and helped them to prepare for their own action plan. Through these S&CWGs activities, regalar

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meetings were held monthly, farmers made saving and sharing skills and experiences in farming among
themselves, especially to manage and use their own finance effectively.
Besides learning more about women farming activities, an important impact of the S&CWG is

participatory approaches. 7
Literature Cited

Nguyen Duy Can, Le Thanh Duong and Ryuichi Yamada, 2002. A Participatory Research Approach
Supporting Small-Scale Household Farming Development in Rainfed Lowland in Bac Lieu. In:
Proceedings of the 2002 annual workshop of JIRCAS Mekong Delta Project. November 26-28,
2002. College of Agriculture, Cantho University, Cantho, Vietnam, p 382-387.
Nguyen Duy Can, 2000. The approaches for sustainable agricultural resources management: Lesson from
Bac Lieu field site. A report to JIRCAS project (un-publishing).
JIRCAS, 1997. A diagnosis of the rainfed farming systems in coastal area in Bac Lieu: A PRA study. (A
scientific report to JIRCAS project). Tóm lược

Đánh giá về cách tiếp cận nghiên cứu có sự tham gia ở vùng nước trời xã Vĩnh Trạch, Bạc Liêu

Nguyễn Duy Cần
1
, Lê Thành Đương
1
và Ryuichi Yamada
2
(
1
Viện Nghiên Cứu và Phát Tiển Hệ Thống
Canh tác,Đại Học Cần Thơ, Cần Thơ, Việt nam,