Sustainable livestock production on local feed resources  

Luu Trong Hieu

University of Agriculture and Forestry
Thu Duc, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

 

Firstly, on behalf of the Coordinating Committee and all staff members participating in the SAREC project “Farming Systems/ Livestock Production Research, Vietnam”, I would like to extend our warmest welcome to all delegates attending the national seminar workshop on “Sustainable Livestock Production on Local Feed Resources “ held in Hue City.

 

It is now 15 years since the first visit of Dr Preston to Vietnam to assess the problems and set up a research proposal on increasing livestock and fuel production by making better use of local resources in activities embracing the National Institute of Animal Husbandry, the University of Agriculture and Forestry of Ho Chi Minh City and Can Tho University.

 

The project was identified in October 1988, and submitted to SAREC for funding in April 1989. The project was approved in July 1989 and became operational in June 1990.

 

The first phase of the project was successfully terminated by the organization of an international workshop on Local Feed Resources held in Ho Chi Minh City and in Hanoi from 25 to 29 November 1991. Despite the limitations of laboratory equipment and the short time that the project had been in operation for the first phase, the success of the project is illustrated by the publication of 16 papers in the international computerized journal “Livestock Research for Rural Development” and on the impact of the first seminar in 1991 (22 scientific papers were presented by junior scientists of the National Research Institute of Animal Husbandry, the University of Agriculture and Forestry of Hue, the University of Agriculture and Forestry of Ho Chi Minh City and Can Tho University).

 

Based on the research progress accomplished in the first two years 1990 – 1991, SAREC agreed to extend the project for the two more years 1992 – 1993, then three more year 1993 – 1996, again for three more years 1997 – 1999 and finally for three more years 2000 – 2002. We are now at the end of this fifth phase of the project, funded by SIDA–SAREC.

 

The long-term objectivities of the project were to develop the research capacity at the four participating institutions through improvement of facilities, research collaboration and researcher training (from 1996 onwards at PhD level), and to develop models to increase the productivity and efficiency of smallholder livestock production within a context where locally available resources are utilized in integrated, sustainable farming systems. More specifically, research capacity would be improved by:

• Collaboration and assistance in the design and execution of on-station and on-farm experiments and trials, and in the dissemination of the results to other scientists in the country, students, extension workers and farmers.
• Improvement of laboratory and research facilities through the purchase of laboratory equipment and chemicals, construction and restoration of experimental animal housing etc.
• Purchase of computers, software and ancillary equipment and training in their use.
• Improvement of library facilities, access to international literature and communications through the establishment on an e-mail system.
• Training of Vietnamese scientists and technicians, both informally in connection with research cooperation with scientists from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) and the project consultant (Dr T. R. Preston) and more specifically through short in-service courses (and later PhD training).

 

In the second phase of the project, the main objective was to develop livestock production and integrated farming systems for small-scale farmers in Vietnam using locally available resources. This involved the use of sugarcane, cassava, legume trees, aquatic plants and agro-industrial by-products as sources of feed for livestock within the integrated farming systems, including tree-crop-livestock and fish and the development of on-farm fuel production from manure using low cost plastic biodigesters.

 

The aim of the third and fourth phase of the project was to carry out research on integrated livestock production systems, with a focus on alternative, ecologically sound, feeding and production systems.

 

During the fifth phase of the project on station and on farm research carried out focused on the identification and evaluation of new feed resources, improvement of the nutritive value of crop residues and agro-industrial by-products and the development and testing of more appropriate feed evaluation methodologies. Also there were a number of studies of improving the role of low cost plastic tube biodigesters by modifying the Danish biogas model using the cheapest local resources for sustainable agriculture systems in Vietnam, integrated model rice-fish-duck to improve the use of natural resources and develop a sustainable agriculture and aquaculture, using ducks to control insects in paddy fields and eliminate use of insecticides, assessment of feed availability and adoption of recommended feed practices on smaller farms in the Northern provinces of Vietnam.

 

In the early stage of the project, three countries have been involved:

 

• Vietnam, with the participation of the National Research Institute of Animal Husbandry, the Hue University of Agriculture and Forestry, the University of Agriculture and Forestry of Ho Chi Minh City and Can Tho University, of which the University of Agriculture and Forestry of Ho Chi Minh City (UAF) is the national coordinating center.
• Colombia with the participation of CIPAV in Cali, a non-governmental organization, NGO.
• Sweden with the participation of the Department of Animal Nutrition and Management of the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) in Uppsala.

 

The project has been administered from Sweden through Dr. Brian Ogle at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala and involves other staff members including Professor Hans Wiktorsson, Dr Inger Ledin, Dr Peter Uden, Professor Jan-Erick Lindberg of the Department of Animal Nutrition and Management.

 

With the resource available, the project has been well administered within Vietnam and sensible application of funds has been made to improve animal facilities, laboratory equipment and chemicals, books, computers and vehicles. There is a good working relationship with the Swedish scientists. A large number of scientists and extension officers from the National Institute of Animal Husbandry, from Hue University of Agriculture and Forestry, from the University of Agriculture and Forestry of Ho Chi Minh City and from Can Tho University have become involved and it has generated enthusiasm and activities throughout the country.

 

The support received from SIDA – SAREC with close collaboration from other international agencies, FAO and IFS in particular, has resulted in, the following outputs and achievements:

 

One important output is the development of farming systems.

The system of using sugarcane juice to replace cereal grain by-products in pig production was successfully introduced to three mountainous provinces in North Vietnam in association with the Women’s Union. On-farm projects on the use of sugarcane for swine production were established in Tuyen Quang, Bac Thai, and Cao Bang province. More than 1000 families are benefiting from this technology.

 

Processing cassava roots and leaves by ensiling is simpler than sun drying, especially during the wet season. This system has been adopted by farmers in Binh Dien and Xuan Loc villages in Thua Thien Hue province.

 

Shrimp heads are a by-product of processing for export market. Traditionally they are dumped into watercourses causing pollution. Ensiling the shrimp heads with molasses is a simple way of preserving this product for feeding to pigs and ducks. Farmers in the coastal provinces where the shrimp factories are located are adopting this technology.

 

The multipurpose tree Trichanthera gigantea, from the coffee-growing Andean foothills of Colombia, was introduced to Vietnam in 1992. The leaves of this tree are readily consumed by pigs, ducks and chicken, and it has proved to be an alternative to sweet potato vines, the traditional source of green feed for pigs in Vietnam. The tree has adapted to a wide range of ecosystems from North to South Vietnam and can be grown on the sulfate acid soil of the Mekong Delta.

 

The traditional management of sugarcane in Vietnam is to replant the crop after one or two ratoons (harvests) due to declining yield from successive harvests. Research done at the University of Agriculture and Forestry of Ho Chi Minh City and the Goat and Rabbit Research Center in HaTay province has shown that mulching the crop by returning the dead leaves to the soil results in a major increase of yield of sugarcane (of the order of 10 tonnes/ha/year) and improvement in soil fertility, thus faciliating the extension of the crop to 3 and 4 ratoons. The practice has been adopted by farmers in Son Tay district of Ha Tay province.

 

Supplementing buffaloes with multi-nutrition blocks containing urea minerals and molasses improved their health and working performance in on farm research done by Can Tho University researchers.

 

Low cost plastic biodigesters were first introduced into Ho Chi Minh City peri-urban region in 1992. More than 20.000 units have now been installed with a success rate of over 80%. This technology continues to have major impact with farmers themselves doing the installations.

 

One of the most important achievement and long lasting impact of the project is the human resource development:

 

A total of 8 Vietnamese scientists from the four participating institutions were registered for PhD at the Department of Animal Nutrition and Management of the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in late 1996 and early 1997. All eight successfully defended their thesis in 2000 and 2001. In all cases the research was carried out in Vietnam and the students spent on average around 18 months at SLU to take postgraduate courses and write up their dissertations. At the moment five young Vietnamese scientists were registered for PhDs at the Department of Animal Nutrition and Management in 2001 and 2002.

 

The project consultant, Dr T. R. Preston has regularly held short training courses for Vietnamese scientists on a wide variety of topics, including the use of micro computers.

 

Researchers from SLU and various internationally known scientists have regularly held seminars and short courses. For example, Dr Janet Riley, a senior biometrician from the Rothamsted Institute, UK, held a two week course for 15 Vietnamese scientists in 1996 at the University of Agriculture and Forestry of Ho Chi Minh City on “Statistics for on farm research”. In 1993 nine Vietnamese scientists took part in short training courses on “Livestock Based Farming systems” held at Khon Kean University in Thailand.

 

In 1992, Dr. Trinh Cong Thanh, Head of the library at the University of Agriculture and Forestry spent two months at the SLU library for training in computerized catalogueing and retrieval techniques, and six cubic meters of surplus books and journals were sent to the UAF library in Vietnam.

 

The head of SLU’s Kunsängen laboratories, Börje Ericson, has visited UAF and Can Tho University on several occasions to train laboratory staff in the use and maintenance equipment.

 

The success of the project to date is illustrated by the list of publications and reports presented at International and National workshops on Feed Resources held in Hanoi, Hue, Ho Chi Minh City and Can Tho, in China, in Indonesia, in Cambodia, in Laos, in the Philippines, in Sri Lanka and in Europe.

 

In addition to the five national seminar/ workshops proceedings Feed Resources which include more than 100 articles published by Vietnamese scientists wholly or partly supported by SAREC, to total of more than 30 articles has been published in the Asian-Australian Journal of Animal Science, the Journal of Livestock Production Science, the Journal of Sustainable Agriculture, the Journal of Animal Feed Science and Technology and approximately 80 papers in the international electronic journal “Livestock Research for Rural Development”.

 

Vietnamese scientists supported by the SAREC project have presented papers at a number of international conference in South East Asia, in South Asia and in Europe. In 1995 six Vietnamese scientists presented papers at an FAO supported conference on “Increasing Animal Production with Local resources” held in Zhangiang City, China.

 

With financial support from SAREC, Dr Le Viet Ly and Dr Luu Trong Hieu published a Vietnamese translation of the book “Matching Ruminant Production Systems to Available Resources in the Tropics and Subtropic” (T. R. Preston and R. A. Leng), five hundred copies of which were distributed to scientists and students at the four participating institutions.

 

Video films were made on project activities in Tuyen Quang (Women Union  Village Poultry Project) and Ho Chi Minh City (Biogas Project) as an extension tool to facilitate the introduction of appropriate technologies to farmers throughout the country. Numerous training manuals have been written/ translated and widely distributed throughout the country.

 

So far up today, five international and regional workshops have been organized in Vietnam: 

• The Regional Workshop “Increasing Livestock Production by Making Better Use of Local Feed Resources” held in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, November 1991 and jointly organized and sponsored by SAREC and FAO. There were 50 Vietnamese and 31 international participants from 21 countries, and in total 22 papers were presented by Vietnamese scientists supported by SAREC project and included in the proceedings.

• The National Seminar Workshop “Sustainable Livestock Production on Local Feed Resources” held in Hanoi/Ho Chi Minh City in November 1993, organized and sponsored by SAREC, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and Ministry of Education and Training. There were over 60 local and international participants, and 19 papers were presented by scientists supported by the project and included in the proceedings.

• The National Seminar Workshop “Sustainable Livestock Production and Local Feed Resources” held in Ho Chi Minh City in September 1996, organized and sponsored by SAREC, IFS, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, and Ministry of Education and Training. There were over 50 local and international participants and 11 papers were presented by scientists supported wholly and partly by the project and included in the proceedings.

• The National Seminar Workshop “Sustainable Livestock production on Local Feed Resources” held in Ho Chi Minh City in January 2000. There were over 70 local and international participants and in total 24 studies were published in the workshop proceedings. The proceedings of this workshop are on the MEKARN Web site (http://www.mekarn.org/sarpro/cover.htm).

• This National Seminar Workshop “Sustainable Livestock Production on Local Feed Resources” held in Hue City in March 2003. There were over 80 local and international participants and in total over 60 papers were presented by scientists supported wholly and partly by the project and included in the proceedings (http://www.mekarn.org/sarec03/cover03.htm)

 

The laboratory and research facilities of the four participating institutions in the project have been improved through the purchase of laboratory equipment glassware and chemicals.

 

The university farm dairy barn of the University of Agriculture and Forestry of Ho Chi Minh City was renovated and a herd of 50 crossbred dairy cows and beef cattle purchased; a goat house was constructed and 15 improved dairy goats purchased.

 

Two particularly interesting features of this project is the involvement of the women in the project and the disbursement of the research fund between 1989 and 1996 research funds were transferred directly to the four applying institution and then distributed to scientists by the respective department heads. From 1997 onwards a more democratic system on competitive basis was initiated in which scientist submit research proposals to a common research fund amounting to around 60,000 USD annually. Multidisciplinary proposals involving scientists from non animal science departments are encouraged. A research grant committee consisting of Dr Brian Ogle, Dr. T. R Preston, Dr. R. Orskov, Dr Luu Trong Hieu, Dr Le Viet Ly and Dr Vo Tong Xuan meet annually to evaluate the application.

 

On average around 18–20 applications are approved of 30 or so submitted with an average grant of about 3,500 USD. The two project consultants (Dr. T.R. Preston, Dr. Orskov) senior local scientists and researchers from SLU assist local researchers in designing, planning and writing proposals.

 

There is a good participation of women, and forty percent of researchers participating in the project are women. Three of the eight Vietnamese PhD graduated from the Swedish University of Agricultural Science (SLU) are women and 9 of the 21 junior researchers who hold the Master’s degree from SLU are women. At the moment, one woman is enrolled at the Department of Animal Nutrition and Management of SLU for PhD degree and four women enrolled for MSc. degree. Not only the female research scientists from the National Institute of Animal Husbandry, the University of Agriculture and Forestry of Hue, the University of Agriculture and Forestry of Ho Chi Minh City and Can Tho University participate in the project, the project also gets strong support from the Women’s Union from Tuyen Quang, Bac Thai, Ba Vi, Thua Thien Hue, Ho Chi Minh City and Can Tho.

 

The project has a very good cooperation with researches from many countries including Australia, Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Colombia, Denmark, Ethiopia, India, Japan, Laos, Philippines, Sweden, Tanzania, United Kingdom, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The FAO project VIE/TCP/8954, the CGP/RAS/143/JPN project for four countries in South East Asia and China and IFAD agricultural credit program at Tuyen Quang province are directly related to feed resources and there has been close collaboration with the project.

 

The objectives of the project are appropriate and contribution of SIDA – SAREC are directly in line with both needs and the government policy of Vietnam. Furthermore, it will be shown that the project has been extremely successful in achieving results during the 13 years of operation, and has received favorable comment from Sida evaluation, from national and international sources.

 

The success of the project is a positive reflection of the interest of the Vietnamese government and its institutions, researchers and farmers in developing livestock technologies using local resources in production systems, with integrate crops and animals.

 

An outstanding achievement of the project is the degree of cooperation between the project with many other programs, other universities and international organizations. The cooperation North-South is one special feature of this project as witnessed by the successful implementation of the regional SE Asia project on “Better use of locally available feed resources in Sustainable Livestock based agriculture” executed by FAO on behalf of Japan in Cambodia, China, Laos, Philippines and Vietnam.

 

The minor Field studies (MFS) of the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences has a good link with the project. At least 20 students from SLU have carried out Minor Field Studies at the participating institution in VietNam between 1992 and 2002. These involve two months of field research in cooperation with junior Vietnamese scientists.

 

The project also has a good collaboration with the Sida/ SAREC International “Tropical Livestock Systems” MSc program:

 

A total 49 students from 9 different countries in SE Asia (Cambodia, Laos), Africa (Ethiopia, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe) and Latin America (Colombia and Nicaragua) including 21 students from Vietnam have been graduated with MSc degree from SLU. From 1994 onwards all courses have been held at the four participating Vietnamese institutions, with inputs from local scientists, and the 12 month student research projects have had local supervisors. Twelve of thirteen PhD students registered at SLU are graduates of the SAREC MSc program.

 

The Sida funded program on Regional Research Cooperation for Livestock Based Sustainable Farming systems in the Lower Mekong Basin (MEKARN) learned a lot of experiences from the project.

 

On this occasion, we sincerely thank SIDA, SAREC who have supported this project. Especially, many thank to Dr Thomas Reg Preston and Dr Brian Ogle, Project Consultant and Project Coordinator, respectively, for their valuable contribution in the human resource research institutes in Vietnam. Their unselfish sharing of knowledge and experience in the field of Animal Science is highly recognized and appreciated.

 

We also thank Dr Bo Gohl, Dr Goran Bruhn, Dr Rene Sansoucy, Prof. Hans Wikltorsson, Dr Inger Ledin, Dr Peter Uden, Prof Jan-Erick Lindberg, Dr Ulf Magnusson, Dr Barbro Carlsson, Dr Jan Olof Lunberg, Dr Andrew Speedy, Dr Kenji Sato, Dr Frank Dolberg, Dr Bjorn Lindgren, Dr Christina Arosenius, Dr Bob Orskov, Dr Ron Leng, Dr Kim Fross, who have given their full support to this project in both spirit and material.

 

We have highly appreciated the participation of many international friends from Cambodia, Laos, and Thailand in this workshop.

 

We sincerely thank to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Ministry of Education and Training, the Ministry of Science and Technology for their precious assistance.

 

Especially many thanks to Dr. Bui Cach Tuyen, to Dr Le Viet Ly, to Dr Nguyen Dang Vang, to Dr. Tran Van Minh, to Dr Vo Van Son and all the senior and junior scientists of the National Institute of Animal Husbandry, the University of Agriculture and Forestry of Hue, the University of Agriculture and Forestry of Ho Chi Minh City and Can Tho University who are participating in this project for their great effort to overcome all the difficulties and for their inplementation of this project.

 

We would like to express our sincere thank to Rector Tran Van Minh, to Dr. Le Duc Ngoan, to Mr. Le Van An and staff members of the Hue University of Agriculture and Forestry for hosting and organizing successfully this seminar workshop.