Vietnam is accelerating greening rice grains to match the world's new consumer trend of eco-labelled products. Not only developing 1 million hectares of high-quality rice, Vietnam also aims to sell carbon credits.

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Profits increase thanks to growing "green" rice

These days, Mr Pham Thanh Ca in Truong Hien hamlet (Thanh Tri commune, Thanh Tri district, Soc Trang province) is preparing to harvest 3 hectares of rice according to the model "Smart farming adapting to climate change in the Mekong Delta". Compared to traditional production, the smart rice farming model helps reduce the number of rice seeds by more than 40%, reduces NPK fertilizer by 250 kg/ha and saves labour costs of 3 fertilization times 120,000 VND/ha. Even though the amount of rice seeds and fertilizers is reduced, the rice plants are strong, pest-free and do not fall during the rainy season; productivity can reach from 8.3 to 9.4 tons/ha, and profit increases over 3,840,000 VND/ha.

Mr Vo Quoc Trung, technical officer of Soc Trang Agricultural Extension Center, said: The program "Smart farming to adapt to climate change in the Mekong Delta" has been implemented since 2016 in coordination with the Binh Dien Fertilizer Joint Stock Company and National Agricultural Extension Center. After receiving permission from the Department of Crop Production (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development), Binh Dien conducted many activities to replicate the model in the Mekong Delta. Conduct training from the summer-autumn and fall-winter crops 2023 with about 5,000 farmers.

Many modern rice production techniques have been researched and disseminated to farmers in recent years through various projects. Specifically, An Binh Agricultural Cooperative (An Binh commune, Thoai Son, An Giang) is a typical place for sustainable rice production and has received support from the Vietnam Sustainable Agricultural Transformation Project (VnSAT) sponsored by the World Bank (WB).

The foundation of sustainable rice production based on new techniques is to reduce sowing seeds, fertilizers, and pesticides while ensuring increased productivity, quality, and economic efficiency. Specifically, with old practices, farmers sowed 150 - 200 kg of seeds/ha, but since joining the project, this has been reduced to 100 - 120 kg/ha. Reducing the number of rice seeds sown has helped significantly reduce investment costs for seeds, fertilizers and plant protection chemicals by about 2 - 3 million VND/ha/crop, depending on the production area. In addition, increasing the rate of using certified and original rice varieties to over 75% has helped increase the productivity and quality of commodity rice. Production costs are significantly reduced, bringing higher profits to producers and increasing competitive advantage for the rice export industry. These techniques are summarized by experts into the mantra "3 down, 3 up" or "1 right, 5 down".
The VnSAT project was implemented to help rice farming reduce greenhouse gas emissions in 8 localities in the Mekong Delta, including Tien Giang, Dong Thap, Kien Giang, Long An, Soc Trang, Hau Giang, An Giang and Can Tho. The project also supports farmers in promoting the application of mechanization in the fields and introducing 4.0 technology in rice production, helping to reduce the cost of pesticides and ensuring the quality of rice for domestic use and export.

The only SRP100 field in the world for 4 consecutive years

Associate Professor - Dr. Duong Van Chin, former Deputy Director of the Mekong Delta Rice Institute, commented: Reducing greenhouse gas emissions is a vital requirement of the times and a global action program. Vietnam has also committed to greening the economy and bringing net emissions to zero by 2050. Therefore, this is the task of all sectors."We must work together not just because the government is dedicated to the global community but also for the environment in which we live today and our future descendants will live. Only then can Vietnam achieve its common goal. We must review any activities that can be reduced, and we must try to do them and try to do them well," - Mr Duong Van Chin emphasized.

According to Associate Professor - Dr Duong Van Chin, the nature of traditional rice production generates many greenhouse gases. He and many other experts at institutions, especially Can Tho University, have done a lot of research and improved techniques to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Everything is simple: using certified seeds, reducing seeds, reducing chemical fertilizers and pesticides, combining alternate wet and dry watering, and not burning straw. Currently, the world is using the international sustainable rice production standards SRP (Sustainable Rice Platform), including 41 standards; each standard has a scale of 1 - 3, with 90 points to meet rice sustainable production standards, but if you burn straw, you will receive a negative score (not meeting standards).

Read more: Vietnam to export 7 million tons of rice this year

"When officially certified, businesses can print on the product packaging to prove its superiority. With the current green consumption trend, if there is an SRP certification, the selling price will increase greatly," Dr Chin said.
Mr. Nguyen Duy Thuan, General Director of Loc Troi Group Joint Stock Company, said: The company is the only unit in the world to achieve an SRP score of 100 for 4 consecutive years, according to the World Rice Research Institute IRRI assessment. In 2020, Loc Troi Group signed a cooperation agreement with an international company, establishing a project to implement a sustainable rice farming model in 2016. This model has solutions for water management, fertilizer and straw after harvesting properly and helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions generated during a rice crop by an estimated 2,000 tons of CO2. Loc Troi's project to establish carbon credits has been submitted to The Gold Standard's evaluation and appraisal system. Once approved, it will be the step of document checking and field evaluation. Results are expected by the end of 2023.

"The group's main goal in establishing carbon credits is the 'Green Profile' for rice exports to the European and US markets. When the 'Carbon Tax' law takes effect in 2025 in countries, "Green production records are a big advantage in export competition," Mr Thuan said.

Strategy for greening Vietnamese rice

The project "Sustainable development of 1 million hectares specializing in high-quality, low-emission rice cultivation associated with green growth in the Mekong Delta" of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development also received enthusiastic support from the locality - the Mekong Delta's rice granary. Most recently, on September 22, Dong Thap Department of Agriculture and Rural Development coordinated with the Netherlands Development Organization in Vietnam to announce a project to transform the rice value chain to respond to climate change and sustainable development in the Mekong Delta (TRVC project) for businesses in the rice value chain of Dong Thap province. The TRVC project supported Dong Thap with about 22 billion VND to develop the local rice value chain.

Mr. Nguyen Van Vu Minh, Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, affirmed that developing the rice industry to adapt to climate change and reduce emissions is an inevitable trend associated with improving competition for Vietnamese rice. Dong Thap's agricultural industry calls for domestic and foreign businesses to participate in the project as the central subjects, determining the project's success.

Ms. Tran Thu Ha, Director of the TRVC Project, said that using the "pull mechanism", the TRVC project will create effective, pioneering catalysts to promote businesses to organize resource areas linked in a sustainable, multi-valued manner, bringing economic, social and environmental benefits to about 200,000 farming households. At the same time, it creates a premise for carbon credit certification, ready for transactions when the voluntary carbon credit market is piloted in 2025 and officially operates from 2028 according to Decree 6.2022 of the Government.

Mr Cao Thang Binh, senior agricultural expert of the World Bank in Vietnam, shared: When summarizing the VnSAT project, we see a new light shining, that is, about 1.5 million tons of CO2 have been cut. If converted into economic value, it will bring farmers 10 - 20 million USD annually or more. Even though the project has ended, those achievements will remain if farmers apply CO2-reducing production processes. For the 1 million-hectare project until 2024, the WB will mobilize about 40 million USD from the Climate Finance Fund and pay for CO2 in 2025 - 2026, with an additional 60 million USD.

"We anticipate continuing to sponsor another USD 300-400 million after this non-refundable USD 100 million to complete the remaining work to reach 1 million hectares. Selling carbon credits will help farmers have additional income, but what is more important is that whether or not we sell carbon credits, this industry needs to change and be more modernized" - Mr Binh said.
Dr. Duong Van Chin acknowledged: Up to this point, although Vietnam has many models proving feasibility and effectiveness sustainably. However, because the area is limited, the actual value is low. Therefore, models must be replicated on hundreds of thousands and millions of hectares to bring real environmental value. So there needs to be the cooperation of all sectors of society, from domestic and export consumers to businesses and, most importantly, policies to promote "greening rice" from the State. A long journey to a green planet takes many things and much effort.

"Due to the present green consumption trend, the green certification emblem on product packaging will soon be a vital passport to open numerous markets. It will also be a certification from a higher perspective than organic products because organic does not prohibit burning straws. When a business can do it, many people will join in, and Vietnamese farmers will be able to," Dr Chin is optimistic.