Farming Vietnamese Way

In 1990, one in three Vietnamese people didn't have enough to eat. Today, that number is down by more than 80 percent. People are eating more, and have a diverse range of foods for better nutrition. How did Viet Nam find a food system that works? Some of the credit goes to V-A-C (vee-ay-see) farming, promoted by a government NGO called VACVINA. (vackveena). SOUNDBITE (Vietnamese) Nguyen Ngoc Triu, President, VACVINA: "V-A-C in Vietnamese is vuon/ao/chuong, which means garden/pond/livestock pen. Vietnamese families, especially in the delta areas, normally have a pond in front or in the back of their house. They also have gardens and pigpens. This is an integrated system." By the 1990s, after decades of central planning, many families began leasing land from the government. They could decide what to grow and sell the surplus at market. Family farms became family businesses. V-A-C links fish farming, raising livestock and growing fruit and vegetables all year round. Waste products from one part of the system are recycled and used by other parts of the system. Even the nutrient-rich silt from the bottom of the pond is recycled to fertilize the garden and create new land for planting. Usually pigs are the main livestock. They provide income, but they also power the gas cooker in the family's kitchen. SOUNDBITE (Vietnamese) Dung Nguyen Ngoc, Farmer: "For example, with a pigpen, we don't have to buy gas for cooking. The manure is used for fish production. The biogas system helps protect the environment. We also use manure for the garden. The waste water of biogas is very good for irrigating crops. This type of irrigation water is better than nitrate." Dung and his family make between 5 and 7 thousand dollars a year from all their farm activities. Everything they eat is produced here. Long gone are the days when rice was scarce.