Project purpose: Implementation of a financially sustainable information service that supports 100.000 coffee farmers to increase their production, income, food security and reduces the inputs of water, fertilizer and pesticides. The service will eventually be owned and hosted by the company ERIPT with support from the public-private Dutch and Vietnamese partners. The services can easily be extended for other types of crops and/or implemented to other regions in Vietnam.

Number and type of food producers (target user group) to be reached in 3rd project year: At least 100.000 coffee farmers in the Central Highlands of Vietnam.

Main information need of the target user group coffee farmers:

- Coffee farmers in the Central Highlands rely on the national media, mainly television, for very general information which they found insufficient for good crop planning.
- Around 30% of the coffee farmers do receive some form of extension assistance on more efficient irrigation practices and fertilizer/ pesticide use. The survey in Dak Lak province, showed that coffee smallholders applied 1,050 litres per tree per irrigation, and irrigated 3.8 times during the dry season, on average. These irrigation inputs are substantially higher than the recommended irrigation input of 400 and 650 litres per tree in two to four dry season irrigations.
- There is a need for more specific information on weather, rain and humidity forecasts, daily coffee prices and price forecast, farming techniques, extreme weather conditions, pests and diseases.
- Farmers also expressed their willingness and constraints to use SMS services for the
above information.

My contribution to the project:

▫ Daily weather information service provider
▫ Drought warning
▫ Coffee area monitoring with remotely sensed data
▫ GIS database management.

The project website can be access via: http://thongtincaphe.vn
Mobile App for Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=vn.monkey.icco

In June 2013, the Prime Minister of Vietnam approved the Agricultural Restructuring Plan (ARP) prepared by the Ministry of Agriculture and Development (MARD). The Plan calls for a shift in sectoral goals beyond physical targets to include a broader set of indicators of sustainable development. Particular reference was given to addressing adverse environmental impacts of certain agricultural expansion processes and the need to mainstream effective environmental management practices into agricultural sector. The Plan also called for the broad application of collaborative arrangements among government agencies, the private sector, farmer/ community organizations, and the scientific community – the so-called ‘4 houses’.

The strategic orientation of the Vietnam Sustainable Agricultural Transformation Project (vnSAT) is to support the implementation of the Government's ARP. It will do so with a combination of assistance to policy and institutional reform that supports the reorientation of the central line ministry, MARD, and associated public agencies as well as key private sector stakeholders, and targeted support to two critical sectors where conditions are most suited to the rapid implementation of the new approach embodied in the ARP. A combination of policy and institutional reform and results in two key sectors will deliver real results for beneficiary farmers, and will demonstrate the merits of this new orientation thereby building support for the continued implementation of the strategy. VnSAT comprises of four components:

▫ Component A: Institutional Strengthening to Support Agricultural Transformation.
▫ Component B: Supporting Sustainable Rice-Based Systems.
▫ Component C: Supporting Sustainable Coffee Production and Rejuvenation
▫ Component D: Project Management, Monitoring and Evaluation

The Project will be implemented in five provinces in the Central Highland and the eight provinces in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam.

In this project, I've been in charge of technical works for Workpackage B and C, including:
▫ Rice and coffee database design for WP-B and WP-C.
▫ Design and implement WebGIS database for project monitoring, WP-C.
▫ GIS Data analysis, WP-C.
▫ Update project progress, outputs for project monitoring, WP-C.
▫ Training course design for capacity building, WP-C.

The project's WP-C website can be access here: http://vnsat.rsc-niapp.com