Implementation time: 11/2011 – 12/2012
Funding agency: Vietnam facility Program, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands
Project owner: Center for Agricultural Research and Ecological Studies (CARES)
The project aims at (i) transferring know-how on energy cropping systems on polluted soil to Vietnam, (ii) building up relevant education and research capacity, (iii) creating business opportunities at a local level and (iv) pursuing the effective socio-political and structural embedment of these activities.
2. Project activities & results
Project activity clusters and related project results (underlined) to achieve these project goals are:
- To construct an energy cropping demonstration site at a former coal mining location in Quang Ninh Province. To construct on-site simple crop processing units for the demonstrated energy cropping systems. The demonstration site is designed in such a way that it is suitable as well for future scientific research on energy crops.
- To demonstrate to local/regional stakeholders (through tailor-made courses, workshops for the different stakeholder groups) the technical viability and economic/environmental sustainability of energy cropping on polluted/degraded land.
- To assess and prepare a report on market potential and relevant infrastructure for policy makers in Quang Ninh province. To develop guidelines for growing and processing energy crops to be used by farmer’s associations & cooperatives and SMEs. To develop guidance documents to be used by (local & regional) policy makers/authorities.
- To build-up capacity in Vietnam (an “Energy Crop Research Unit” at CARES in Hanoi and an “Energy Crop Training Center” in Quang Ninh province joined to the Agricultural Extension Services) to facilitate knowledge exchange and promote collaborative research and to provide information for local stakeholders and policy makers, respectively.
It is the ambition of the project partners to create conditions (through relevant collaboration agreements) to continue knowledge transfer after project conclusion, especially concerning project activity clusters 1 & 4. The project consortium is constituted by two major partners in Vietnam and the Netherlands, respectively, as well as by two minor partners (one in the Netherlands and one in China).
3. Foreseen spin-off of the project
If the project is successfully concluded, including arrangements for post-project continuation of project activity clusters 1 & 4, the project will have the following impact:
- Continuous and formalized exchange of know-how on energy cropping issues between Vietnam on the one hand and the Netherlands and China on the other hand. Collaborative research projects after conclusion of this project.
- Creation of jobs (for farmer cooperatives and for crop processing SMEs) and local production of energy in an area in Vietnam, heavily affected by coal mining activities. Both contribute to reducing regional poverty rates and support MDG’s.
- Reduction of the negative impacts of polluted and degraded land (transport of pollutants to adjacent environmental compartments in combination with wind & water erosion) and therefore increase the agricultural potential of the region.
- A positive impact on environmental soil quality and soil biodiversity as well as a reduction of green house gas emissions as a side-effect of the re-vegetation of severely degraded land areas.
4. Report project
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