Climate project partners map inroad to adoption of water-saving technology

Stakeholders of the Paddy Rice Component discuss and visualize paths of influence and support towards AWD outscaling.

HANOI, Vietnam – IRRI’s climate change and policy research is now an insight closer to adoption in Vietnam of a technology that helps cut down water use and methane emissions from rice production.

Farmers and representatives of women’s and farmers’ unions, irrigation service providers, and the Vietnamese government’s research, agriculture, and irrigation arms in Hai Duong Province gathered in Hanoi last week to discuss how the alternate wetting and drying (AWD) technology may be more widely used by farmers in the province and, eventually, elsewhere in Vietnam, a top producer and exporter of rice globally.

Using a tool called NetMap, the 15 participants identified relevant stakeholders, visualized the various types of relationships among them, and rated the magnitude of influence each stakeholder had on the use of AWD in Vietnam, in two paths: farmer adoption, and government policy to this effect. The exercise enabled the participants to identify the most important stakeholders to engage as well as what they will need to increase their support for outscaling of AWD.

Participants were selected from among partners in Hai Duong Province, as AWD is already well in use in An Lam, a village in the province’s Nam Sach District. Actual experiences of farmers who have used AWD, as well as of agricultural research and extension officers and irrigation managers that support these farmers, fed very well into the discussion that took place.

The NetMap workshop was facilitated by Tony Lambino, head of communication at IRRI, and held on 25 June 2015 at the Institute of Policy and Strategy for Agriculture and Rural Development (IPSARD). It was organized by Tran Dai Nghia and Lien Huong Do, both of IPSARD, and Vu Duong Quynh of the Institute for Agricultural Environment.

The workshop was a joint activity of the Paddy Rice Component of the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC), represented by Bjoern Ole Sander, IRRI climate scientist; and the Policy Information and Response Platform on Climate Change and Rice in the ASEAN and its member countries (PIRCCA), both led by IRRI.