Northwest Vietnam is a mountainous area bordering China to the North and Lao PDR to the South. About 30 ethnic minorities with distinct languages and traditions, including cultivation practices live in the area, the most populous groups being Thai, H’mong and Nung. It is estimated that roughly 80 percent of the population’s livelihoods are based on agriculture. The area is also poor: poverty rates of Son La and Dien Bien are 29.4 percent and 38.6 percent, respectively, compared to the national average at 9.8 percent, according to statistics from Vietnam’s General Statistics Office. In … [Read more...]
Improving Dietary Diversity and Quality through Systems Innovation: a Pilot Study from Vietnam
As part of her research for Humidtropics, Jessica Raneri, Nutrition Programme Specialist, Bioversity International, explains some of the challenges in gathering baseline data in the Mai Son district in Son La Province, Vietnam, to assess local food biodiversity and identify opportunities for improving diet quality and diversity. The focus is on women of child-bearing age and children between 12-23 months – an age group part of the critical 1000 day window for child development and the stage where they are able to consume a more diverse diet. As such, it is from this age group that … [Read more...]
More trees and annual crops, less bare land in Northwest Vietnam
Research implemented by the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) in Vietnam as part of Humidtropics has found that the area under trees in three provinces in the Northwest of the country has increased by as much as 26% between 2000 and 2010. According to the report Land use change analysis in Dien Bien, Son La and Lai Chau provinces, Northwest Vietnam, for the period 2000- 2010, the increase in tree cover in Dien Bien, Son La, Lai Chau and Lao Cai provinces—which constitute the Northwest Vietnam Action Site of Humidtropics’ Central Mekong Flagship—was primarily caused by trees replacing … [Read more...]