District People’s Committee
          Na Ri district
            -------------

No ......./BC-UB                                                                      Na Ri, 15^th Octorber 1999

Report on the results of DT 84 soybean cultivation project for hunger eradication and poverty reduction funded by HEDO in Na Ri district

I.                     General characteristics of Na Ri district

Na Ri is a upland district which adjacent to

-         the North with Ngan Son district

-         the South with Thai Nguyen province

-         the East with Lang Son province

-         the West with Bach Thong and Cho Moi districts

It has total areas of 86,450 ha of which 5,319 ha for food plant (2,113 ha for rice) , 55,214 ha for forest; there are total 21 communes and one town in which 22 communes include in 1,715 poor communes in the whole country. The population is 36,158 with 7,423 households and average density of 41 people/km². There are 4 major ethnic groups: Tay ethnic 48%, Nung ethnic 30,8%, Kinh 8,8% and other ethnic groups living co-existence. The intellect level is still low especially in remote and isolated areas; travelling meets a lot of difficulties, in rainy reason car can not enter communes. The income per capita is still low, the number of hunger and poor household is the biggest comparing with the rest of remote and isolation areas (due to lack of capital, land, food and backward cultivation techniques...)

The socio-economic development of district depends mainly on Agriculture - Forestry - Industry and Service in which Agriculture and Forestry are majority; Total Food Production of 1998 is 13,159,7 tons, total number of buffaloes is 17,682; bulls of 1,975; pigs of 14,680. Industry and handicraft develop slowly with main production of brick, lime, stone, and sand ... to meet the local need. Service focuses on commerce and small-scale service

Health - Culture - Education development has made considerable progress comparing with the previous years. The district has 2 regional general health centers, one provincial hospital. Each commune has one primary school, secondary school. The district has one Ethnic Boarding School and one high school. At present, there are 3 television stations in Con Minh, Lang San communes and Yen Lac town.

II.                   Results of project:

1.      Implementation progress:

Thanks to the interest and support from HEDO with the aim of poverty reduction, making full use of land potential and creating job for people, DT 84 soybean was grown in pilot program in 2 communes: Cuong Loi and Kim Lu on the total area of 16.2 ha. It is a credit program in kinds: DT 84 seeds, specialized fertilizer, insecticide and training workshops for farmers. After the harvest, farmers will repay the loan to HEDO without interest.

 To promote the results of spring crop 1998 and creat favorable condition to increase income for poverty abolition, HEDO continue to fund for Nari farmers to cultivate DT 84 with larger scale in the whole district.

On 26^th May 1999, Nari District People’s Committee has signed the contract with HEDO to cultivate DT 84 soybean on the area of 61.45 ha in the whole district. During the project process, the training courses were held for farmers of seven communes such as Yen Lac, Kim Lu, Lam Son, Cu Le, Van Minh, Huu Thac, Hao Nghia. HEDO provided 3,227.6 kg of DT 84 soybean, 58,920 kg of fertilizers and 40 bottles of insecticide, 120 bottles of Ofatox, 1,800 packets of leave fertilizer which cost totally 101,625,000 VND.

The Project Management Board of district delivered seeds, fertilizer to the farmer in time. During delivering, the district requested HEDO to rechange 147 kg of bad-qualified soybean seeds but ensure the seasonal period.

2.      Results of implementation:

The total of communes in the project is 13 out of 22 communes with 80 villages, 600 households and total area of 61.8 ha (attached table)

Table of output in communes

-         Cultivation progress: households took the initiative in season, land reservation because of preparation. However, the soybean season coincident with summer rice crop and some household have to wait for picking maize before making beds for soybean cultivation. Therefore, the seed spreading are from 1^st June to 30^th July.

-         Development situation:

+ The cultivation area which were cultivated from 1^st June to 20^th June, in general, it rained a lot in this period so some soybean areas were spoiled, re-grown therefore soybean plants developed unevenly.

+ The cultivation area where were cultivated from 21^st June to 30^th July, the soybean develop well in this period.

      Besides, some household plant soybean after harvesting until 15^th August, these areas are developing but the output will be not very high.

-         Regarding cultivation technique: Most of farmers cultivated soybean according to trained techniques. However some households did not follow these techniques, plant soybean with big spacing, did not use fertilizers, insecticide so the output was not high.

-         Output:

At present, the farmers had not finished harvesting but we could estimate through 31.15 ha having checked:

      + Soybean area with output of under 1,000 kg per ha is 17,37 (equivalent to 50.8% of checked area)

      + Soybean area with output of from 1,000 to 1,400 kg per ha is 7.95 (equivalent to 23.2% of checked area).

      + Soybean area with output of from 1,500 to 1,900 kg per ha is 4.56 ha (equivalent to 13.3% of checked area.)

      + Soybean area with out put of from 20,000 to 24,000 kg per ha is 0.21 ha (equivalent to 0.61% of checked area.)

      + Soybean area which were spoiled and will be exempted is 10.76 ha (equivalent to 17.4% of total area).

      + Estimated total output: 14,000 kg/ha x 51.04 ha = 71.456 kg.

      + Turnover:                 7,140,000 kg x 5,000 VND per kg = 357,000,000 VND

      + Expenditure:           51.04 ha x 1,700,000 VND per ha =  86,768,000 VND

      + Income = Turnover - Expenditure

                              357,000,000 VND - 86,768,000 VND = 270,232,000 VND

So in the summer crop, 600 households of 13 communes have produced over 71 tons of soybean which is worth of 357 millions dong, get the profit of over 270 millions dong (including labor fee, tool fees and other expenses). Although the products is not big but the farmers can access the new technology such as new breed, fertilizers, cultivation techniques, increase number of crops, make full use of idle labor, increase land nutrition. In addition, DT 84 soybean has advantages comparing with local soybean such as short growth period (90 days) comparing with 120 days of local breed, five or six time higher output than local breed, strong tree.

3.      A number of experience drawn from project implementation:

-         Crop time: it is necessary to grow soybean from beginning of June to the middle of July.

-         It is necessary to make land planning in order to manage and supervise the implementation easily.

-         We should manage and supervise closely land making, cultivation techniques, development and growth of tree in order to have suitable actions such as spraying insecticide, using fertilizer.

-         We should supervise change of weather in order to avoid cultivation when it rains.

-         It is not suitable to cultivate soybean on the high hilly and barren land.

-         The soybean must be in good qualify, and we have to check sprouting level before cultivation.

4.      Conclusion:

DT 84 soybean cultivation project has succeeded, initially is momentum serving for the aim of hunger eradication and poverty reduction, provide chances for farmers to access new science and technology, increase land circulation and nutrition. The project gained these good results thanks to the support of HEDO, agricultural scientists. We hope that HEDO and scientists will continue giving supports for the developments of local economy.

III.                  A number of proposals:

The success of DT 84 soybean cultivation project has built the creditability and happiness in the cause of hunger eradication and poverty reduction to improve living standard. Ethnic minority people in Nari district hope that HEDO will continue to support them to grow soybean with larger scale in the year 2000 and subsequent years. On the other hand, we also hope that HEDO will pay attention and support us on other aspects such as Public Health, Education, planting fruit trees, agricultural and forest product processing in order to promote socio-economic development, enhance living standard of people in the district.

Thank you for the participation of HEDO representatives, leaders of Provincial People’s Committee, representative of agencies and representatives at district and communal levels at this review meeting. Wish all of you good health, success and happiness.

Thank you for your attention.

        On behalf of  People’s Committee of Nari district

For Chairman of People’s Committee

Vice Chairman of People’s Committee

    Nong Minh Xuan