21 August, Hanoi – Two years after the completion of the project Establishment of a Rice Production Hub in Hoa Tien, officials from the Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of Da Nang, experts from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and a representative of the India, Brazil and South Africa (IBSA) Fund visited Hoa Tien commune to review the sustainable impact of this intervention.
“The South-South cooperation methods of the IBSA Fund, which places a lot of emphasis on local ownership and leadership in the design and management of the project was a critical factor in this project – it enabled us to make it highly relevant and adapted to our needs and a priority we all feel very invested in” – affirmed Ms. Tra Thi My Dung, Director at the Da Nang Foreign Affairs Department.
“This IBSA project provided a combination of infrastructure, machinery and technical support, and that was a key element of its success raising the standards in the commune’s rice production. Today we witnessed the warehouse and equipment skillfully being put to use by managers that have a very sophisticated understand on how to market their quality rice product” – commented Dr. Bui Ba Bong and Ho Huy Cuong, FAO technical advisors.
At a time when the United Nations system is increasingly called to monitor and measure the sustainable results of its activities, and when South-South cooperation is developing its specific approaches to documenting its results, this post-project completion assessment exercise is deemed exemplar.
Key results of this IBSA project include: an increase in rice production of 0.78 tons per hectare, a decrease in production inputs costs of about $100 per hectare, and an expansion of the Hoa Tien commercial activities through sales of seeds — all factors that have not only been sustained past the project’s end but have also been accentuated through increased rice sales in the last two years.
“I thank this project for improving our household’s livelihood. I hope this progress and support will continue through the next generation” — concluded the head of the Hoa Tien farmers commune.
