Crop Diversification in the Asia-Pacific region - United Nations in ...

the contour with mulching using rice straw can reduce soil loss by 60 percent or 80 percent,respectively, as compared to traditional cassava monoculture.4. EFFECT OF CROP DIVERSIFICATION4.1 Food and Nutrition SecurityProducts from crop diversification can be used for food and nutrition security.According to surveyed data in recent years milled rice use per capita decreased by about 1-2kg/month; whereas there is an increased consumption of other products from agriculture(vegetable, fruits, sesame, peanut, mungbean, chicken, egg, pork, etc.) and from fisheries(fish, shrimp, crab) as a result of diversification of agricultural systems.Data from surveys in Ho Chi Minh City in 1993 and 1996 showed that percapita/month consumption of milled rice decreased from 10.3 kg to 7.8 kg; whereas meat,fish, and egg consumption increased from 1.44 kg to 1.7 kg, 1.8 kg to 2.2 kg and 7 to 8.7,respectively. There is evidence of an increased consumption of fruits and vegetables. It isalso evident that the volume of milled rice exported from Viet Nam is increasing from yearto year. This is not only because of rice production increases, but also the improved eatingpattern has contributed to this, since rice per capita consumption has decreased.4.2 Judicious Use of Land, Water and Other Resources for Income Growth, PovertyAlleviation and EmploymentFarming systems (popularly known as 'VAC') have become a popular movementthroughout the country, led by the National and Provincial Horticulturist Associations, andsupported strongly by the government. VAC can be considered as an economical andecologically stable system within the framework of small farming households amounting to13 million. Farmers are able to diversify not only crops, but also fisheries and forestry aswell. From the original idea of 'VAC', there are several variations to the concept accordingto different situations and conditions, such as biogas production, field crops husbandry,agriculture, cropping hilly areas, agro-forestry, etc. There are many farmers growingtraditional pesticide-free vegetables such as Moringa oleifera lamk., Basella rubra L.,Telosma cordata Merr. and traditional medicinal plants for the “green medicine box”, suchas barleria lupulina for healing toothache, and Paederia lanuginose Wall for healingabdominal pains, as well as organically grown vegetables. Hence, these are clean vegetablesand clean herbal medicines, devoid of any fertilizer or pesticides in their culture.Farmers in the Mekong Delta exploit the favourable conditions for practicing cropdiversification. Because of the experience of flooding in the rainy season every year anddrought condition in the dry season, farmers dig small canals around their fields, and makedikes to prevent submergence of farms. Ditches and dikes also help to keep water whenflood waters recede. There are drainage pipes through these dikes to take water with silt andaquatic fauna and to wash away acid from decomposing organic matter when necessary.Framers call such a system ‘Vuong’. On the dike they plant many crops, feed fish and/orshrimp in canals, and grow rice crops in the fields. Before the arrival of floods, they harvestthe rice and fish, and when floods recede, fish colonize the canals once again as the next ricecrop is planted. Farmers can, and have to minimize chemical usage to protect thefish/shrimp in canals and the poultry and pigs living on the dikes.151