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Contributing Editors: Ariel Halpern and Lam PhamCover Design: Renee Barrales - PROCASUR Corporation© 2013 Procasur

Learning, repLicating and scaLing up from best innovation

From Northern Highlands to Central Coast and Central Highlands in Vietnam, from the majority Kinh and other ethnic minority groups, over 40 local participants took part in a Learning Route organized by IFAD Vietnam and Procasur between July 21st and 27th, 2013.

The Learning Route is a field-training process, thematically organized around experien-ces, case studies and practices of rural and local development, in order to facilitate the adaptation and scaling-up of inventive experiences in poverty reduction.The first Learning Route in Vietnam was called “Strengthening Farmers’ Organization, Sustainable Business Models and Public Private Partnership in Agriculture”.

It was built around innovative models implemented by two IFAD financed projects in Vietnam’s central provinces of Quang Binh and Ha Tinh. The Learning Route was pro-jected as a knowledge management and capacity building tool to replicate and scale up best practices and innovations. It got strong interest from local media, resulting in extensive coverage by Vietnam News Agency, National Radio “Voice of Vietnam”, local TV stations and many other channels.

These are the voices of the Route participants on what they have learned and about the positive changes they plan on making after this exciting journey. They may be a farmer from Dak Nong who is interested in starting a common interest group on clean vege-tables, a chairwoman of a cooperative wishing to bamboo handicraft in her own area to create more jobs and income for women to a district agriculture officer planning to target better linkages for value chains in Ninh Thuan.

Enjoy reading!

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mr Ha van Hoa, project director of tam nong support project tuyen Quang (NORTHeRN UPLANDS, VIeTNAM).

It is my first time participating in a Learning Route. I think it is useful and interesting as it provides a good chance for participants to learn from good practices and good cases and subsequently bring the knowle-dge back to apply at home. In the exchange process, I find the SWOT analysis great. We particularly appre-ciate two-way information exchange and the recom-mendations for the host cases. It is different from my previous experiences in traditional study tour. I think after this I will organize similar LR in our project areas.

mr. pHạm Hữu trí, KnowLedge management officer, tam nong support project gia Lai (CENTRAL HIgHLANDS, VIeTNAM)

I think the Learning Route has been organized very professionally and systematically. Logistical arrange-ments are good to ensure a positive learning environ-ment for all. In the organization of Learning Route in my project area, it is crucial to connect communities in need of good practice with successful and sustainable models. Apart from workshops, websites and reports, I now have a very practical way of learning and sharing from best practices via the Learning Route.

mr. dieu gop, farmer, mnong etHnic group, daK nong (CeNTRAL HIgHLANDS, VIeTNAM)

What I like most about the Learning Route is that it provides me with several good examples of success-ful projects. Seeing these with my own eyes helps me make calculation and adapt those models to my home area.

I also understand about the importance of market needs. Now instead of producing what we want, we should produce what the market demands. I will think carefully in the future on what the best crops are to grow based on market demands. My dream is to make my family rich and happy.

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mr. pHam Xuan truong: monitoring and evaLuation officer of dprpr QuangbinH (CeNTRAL RegION, VIeTNAM)

It is a new and upgraded way of conventional study tours, in which the participants and analyze the cases, best practices to extract the lessons and give feedbacks to the host and other participants. The way of organizing the Learning Route is im-pressive since it provides participants with a deeper understan-ding of the project models than other type of study tours.

Following IFAD and PROCASUR organization of the Learning Route for the first time, we will apply this program for districts and communes at a smaller scale so that people can grasp and enhance awareness and ultimately they become more knowle-dgeable in their production activities.

One specific lesson I took away is the important role of leader-ship. We have to strengthen the communication and enga-gement from the top-ranked people to the bottom in order to successfully organize these activities at project levels.

mrs. pHan tHi tHuy – cHairwoman of Quang pHuong bamboo production cooperative, Quang binH (CeNTRAL RegION, VIeTNAM)

Frankly, I did not understand what a Lear-ning Route was at first. However, from exer-cises, I got to know and understand the tool by taking part in group discussion as well as from field visits. By fully participating in the process, I learned that we should build on our strengths, reduce or minimize our weak-nesses, seize our opportunities as they ari-se, and know about external threats, which are sometimes out of our control. I think it is an excellent knowledge-sharing tool for empowerment and development. Besides, I believe everybody had a great time working together.

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ms. nong tHi duyen, project officer of women’s union, bac Kan (NORTHeRN UPLANDS, VIeTNAM)

I liked the clean vegetable model in Ha Tinh the best. Here we have seen a high level of participation of local authorities as well as both women and men at grass-root levels.

As an officer working on credit saving, I also learn a great deal about group organization, management and mobilization of people to join credit schemes ba-sed on their common interest. As we will set up a credit saving groups for women in our project area, these ex-periences and lessons are very important for us when we come back to our province. Finally, the lessons from Ha Tinh encourage us to think differently on how to innovate and scale up models in the future.

trịnH Quốc việt, director of agricuLturaL eXtension center of gia Lai (centraL HigHLands, vietnam)

The function of agricultural extension is how to help farmers to do a better job by providing them with more technical, scientific knowledge in farming and agriculture.

I like the Learning Route because it is to bring those who need to learn from the best practices as well as for the host cases to learn back from participants. The-refore, it is a very open and good way so that both host cases and projects become better and more effective. I could learn from this approach to organize the same activities in my province.

The Learning Route has also proved that if farmers get together, they can be stronger and earn more profit from agricultural activities. The cooperatives that we are visiting today are far more advanced and diffe-rent than those that we had experienced during the old time. I think we still need to raise better awareness about the fact that farmers should strengthen them-selves and work together in a cooperative form.

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nguyen cHau canH, deputy Head of tHuan bac agricuLturaL district, ninH tHuan (CeNTRAL RegION, VIeTNAM)

The Learning Route as well as the model of Cat Ngoc Farm where the owner raises worm and becomes a “ty-coon” impress me. You know, before this trip our project has developed two value chains with cows and pigs. The situation is people just use cattle’s waste and dung to distribute the rice field, while they also need to spend money on purchasing food for the pig, which is getting increasingly expensive.

Learning from the Cat Ngoc model, I will introduce the worm model to solve the needs and address the environ-ment issues. In my commune, some people have heard about the worms but they don’t know how to raise them. I will show them the advantage and benefits that the worms could provide as inputs for raising pigs. It is also easy to do by feeding them with waste from the cows. By this concept, we could strengthen both value chains bringing greater value to the poor households.

ms. tran tHi minH nguyet, tecHnicaL officer of agricuLturaL eXtension Ha tinH (CeNTRAL RegION, VIeTNAM)

As a technical officer, I work on the provision of tech-nological advances and rural solutions for the farmers for implementation at the local level. I think the Lear-ning Route has equipped me with a tool to work more efficiently in my function.

As we are now planning for activities of 2014, I see that, for example, we will support Cam Thanh coope-rative in forming a new group on bamboo craft pro-duction. For the Hoang Ha Vegetable cooperatives, we shall have a training program at the provincial plan to replicate this model other.

In addition, in Hoang Ha coop, we know that there is an opportunity for farmers to expand their production scales, so apart from supports to the models in terms of fertilizers and seeds, we are considering to train the farmers in VietGap, which is which is a safety and envi-ronment standard recognized nation-wide.

We can learn from other experiences and the Learning Route is an exceptional tool for learning. I hope that Procasur and IFAD will continue organizing similar trainings in the future so that many more people can be trained on this method.

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mr. bui van bacH: farmer, muong etHnic group, daK nong (CENTRAL HIgHLANDS, VIeTNAM)

In such a difficult and sandy area like Cat Ngoc in Quang Binh, I could still see that farmers are motiva-ted to become rich by adapting themselves and con-verting the sandy soil to become more fertile for cul-tivation. This makes me think that if I am confident enough to do things different, I will be able to change my community and myself.

For example, in the model of planting potatoes in my area, people have to cope with increasing expenses for the inputs and they don’t have ways of preserving the potatoes after they are harvested. The middleman often comes to our local community and puts pressure on us to reduce the prices. When I return I will convince the others to form a cooperative to address the pro-blems.

mrs. nguyen tHi nHam, cHairwoman, cam tHanH agricuLture, service and trade, Ha tinH (CeNTRAL RegION, VIeTNAM)

I am 62 years old now and as the oldest participant in the Learning Route, I am happy that I could find some learning points in the program.

Based on the success of Quang Phuong where we could see and talk to the chairwoman as well as other women in the group, I am confident that I could repli-cate this model in my cooperative. Bamboo handicraft is a totally new business for us, but with the will of Mrs. Thuy from Quang Phuong to come over and train our women, we think we will be able to do it.

My wish is to generate more jobs and income for my members who are mostly women. If successfully ca-rried out, we will be able to provide hundreds of new jobs for local women, improve their household econo-mies and change their lives for the better.

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mrs. nguyen tHi Hue, KnowLedge management cum m&e eXpert, vie029 project in cao bang supported by government of LuXembourg

I am grateful for IFAD Vietnam and Procasur for ena-bling us to participate in the Learning Route in Quang Binh and Ha Tinh. This program is exciting and very rewarding as it provides us with new knowledge tools to share and replicate best experiences.

Our project area in Ha Quang District, Cao Bang has the potential to develop black pigs, especially in the uplands. The people are poor and lack technical knowledge as well as access to livestock markets. We will now design a project to improve livelihoods, opportunities, income of the poor and the ethnic mi-norities based on the environment and available re-sources of the community. Using the approach of far-mer-trains-farmer and “piglet bank”, we will be using the Learning Route in the transfer of skills and pig-rai-sing techniques from one household to another, as well as to share and replicate the best models. The cy-cle of knowledge transfer will continue and could be spread to other regions, so that hopefully Ha Quang will be able to meet market demand for black pig in both quantity and quality.

ms. truong tHi minH anH, Head of training, farmers’ union of cao bang (NORTHeRN UPLANDS, VIeTNAM).

I think the Learning Route is a great tool for training farmers and farmer groups. Based on the direct obser-vation of the models, I can get detailed information about what works and what doesn’t work in reality and learn from good practices.

In Cao bang, we have some successful models of pro-ducing mandarins and oranges. So the task for us now is to bring this knowledge back to share with the other farmers using the Learning Route so that we are able to enlarge the production zone.

The other lesson I will take home is that we have to be more proactive in engaging the local authorities in understanding and promoting the farmers’ new ini-tiatives.

Procasur Corporation is a global organization specialized in harvesting and scaling-up homegrown innovations. The organization’s mission is to foster lo-cal knowledge exchange to end rural poverty. By sharing innovations through customized local knowledge-management tools and methodologies, the orga-nization connects global institutions with local talents, providing the structu-red learning platforms necessary to spread innovation. Procasur has facilitated learning opportunities in over 20 countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean, affecting the lives and livelihoods of thousands of rural ta-lents across the globe. To learn more, visit www.procasur.org.

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