Development of Indigenous Technologies for Sustainable Agriculture in Northern
Upland Vietnam
Le Quoc Doanh
Ha Dinh Tuan
Vietnam Agricultural Science Institute, D7 Phuong Mai, Dong Da, Hanoi
Vietnam, Email: doanhlq@netnam.org.vn
ABSTRACT
More than 30 ethnic groups are now living in northern mountainous regions, Vietnam, mainly
relying on shifting cultivation with the fallow period being shortened from time to time.
Naturally, soil fertility reduces from cycle to cycle, entailing the reduction of productivity. Large
areas of moderately sloping lands suitable for upland agriculture have become bare after many
cultivation-fallow cycles. The soils there have been severely degraded with more toxicity, low
porosity, low water retention capacity and poor floral diversity. Normally, these lands cannot be
used for food crop cultivation. So farmers in uplands have to rely on slash-and-burn practices for
their livelihood. As there is no more forest with good soil in medium slopes, farmers go to cut
forests in watershed, high slope lands and old forests up to the mountains’ top. There are
ecologically and environmentally very sensitive areas, so their destruction will inevitably cause
hazardous consequences in the whole basin. Meanwhile, cultivation in these areas has low
economic efficiency and sustainability because the crop yield may decrease very fast due to
severe erosion as the higher the slope, the more serious erosion. Consequently living standards of
highland farmers remain low and unstable.
Sustainable farming on these lands in the perspective of a seriously deteriorated ecology and
environmental is not an easy task. There have been many projects trying to help mountainous
farmers get out of their vicious circle. However, duce to different reasons, the results gained are
low, and in some cases, things ceased to move after the projects phased out.
During past few years, based on the farmer experiences, the Vietnam Agricultural Science
Institute has cooperated with local and international partners to implement different projects in
order to solve the problems by developing simple, easy and cheap cultivation technologies, which
can be accepted and applied by local poor farmers for sustainable agricultural production. The
first results of our activities offered good opportunities for sustain food production, improve soil
health, recharge of aquifers, and enhanced household income for better rural lively hoods in the
upland eco-regions of northern Vietnam