Sustaining Nitrogen-Efficient Rice Production

To establish an integrated production-supply-extension chain to ensure a reliable biofertilizer product that reduces chemical contamination and increases yields.

Objectives:

To improve farmers’ income and environmental health in the Mekong Delta and the South Central Coast of Vietnam by providing biofertilizer technology that reduces chemical contamination whilst maintaining or increasing rice yields. The project aims to establish an integrated production supply extension chain to ensure a reliable and affordable biofertilizer product.

Rationale:

The inefficient use of chemical fertilizers in rice cultivation in Vietnam represents a huge economic and environmental challenge. The price of nitrogen fertilizer is linked to oil prices, and has tripled over the last two years. This directly impacts profits and food prices for the rural poor of whom over 30 percent live in the Mekong Delta and South Central Coast regions. Moreover, nitrogen unused by crops enters the environment, polluting water resources and contributing to greenhouse gas emissions. Attempts to improve nutrient use efficiency by reducing fertilizer – following the ‘three reductions, three gains’ program promoted by several international agencies have had little success. However, a recent pilot extension project in the Mekong Delta with a biofertilizer product called BioGro suggests that a solution with commercial growth potential is at hand. Providing biofertilizer production in the Mekong Delta and the South Central Coast of Vietnam will create jobs, increase ownership, enable feedback between producers and farmers and reduce dependency on imported chemical fertilizers. The project’s integrated production-supply-extension chain to ensure a reliable and affordable biofertilizer product can be used as a model for promoting future technologies that improve agroecosystem sustainability.

Innovation / Expected Results:

This project combines a quality assured biofertilizer (BioGro) with a franchised production system to overcome supply-demand variability.

http://wbi.worldbank.org/developmentmarketplace/idea/sustaining-nitrogen-efficient-rice-production