Circular agriculture reduces emissions and increases income

Turning waste into resources

The Mekong Delta is one of Vietnam’s primary agricultural production areas, generating tens of millions of tons of by-products from crop cultivation and livestock each year. In the past, rice straw, rice husk, livestock manure, sugarcane bagasse, and discarded vegetables were mostly burned and left to waste or decompose, causing pollution and methane emissions.

In recent years, thanks to greater awareness among farmers and support from relevant agencies, many localities have learned to turn waste into resources. Reusing agricultural by-products has become essential as a solution that delivers dual benefits - helping farmers improve crop value and lessen environmental pressures.

A typical example can be found in some of Vinh Long’s communes, such as Tan Xuan, Ba Tri, and My Chanh Hoa (formerly part of Ba Tri district, Ben Tre province). Instead of drying, burning, or letting cow dung decompose naturally, farmers now use it as feed for earthworms. This is an efficient waste treatment method which allows farmers to create a nutrient-rich vermicompost source to serve cultivation. Rice straw and excess grass are fermented into bio-fertilizer, helping reduce input costs and improve local environmental conditions.

In Tay Ninh, which has over 700,000 hectares of agricultural land, around 4 million tons of crop by-products are generated each year from rice, sugarcane, cassava, vegetables, lemons, dragon fruit, and more. Yet only 20 - 25% of this volume is collected, processed, or reused. The remainder is burned, sun-dried, or left to decompose in the fields. Apart from signs of an increase in greenhouse gas emissions, this common practice also contributes to soil, water, and air pollution.

To address this wastefulness, many cooperatives and farming households have started composting organic fertilizer from discarded vegetables, using by-products as livestock feed, or burning biomass for energy. Statistics show that one ton of vegetable waste can produce 300 - 500 kg of organic fertilizer after composting, allowing farmers to reduce chemical fertilizer costs by 30 - 40% while significantly improving soil health and crop productivity.

Promoting sustainable agricultural development

Beyond optimizing available resources, circular agriculture offers a sustainable development pathway for the entire Mekong Delta as it is being severely affected by climate change, sea-level rise, and saltwater intrusion.

In Tay Ninh, the Department of Agriculture and Environment is incorporating agricultural by-product management into the criteria for evaluating advanced new rural development in the coming period. At the same time, this province has mechanisms to encourage and provide equipment support, such as straw-rolling machines and microbial composting units, for cooperative groups and cooperatives. Local authorities also actively push for awareness campaigns and piloting demonstration models for wider replication.

The appraisal council in Vinh Long recently approved a handbook guiding circular-economy practices for key agricultural and aquaculture value chains such as mango, coconut, chicken, cattle, shrimp, and rice-shrimp.

Pilot models implemented in the communes of Thanh Phong, Thoi Thanh, An Dien, and Tan Phong have proven highly feasible, designed around two key principles: “Turn 100% of organic waste into agricultural black gold” and “Shift from pollution reduction to proactive ecosystem regeneration.”

As for Dong Thap, Le Chi Thien, Deputy Director of the Dong Thap Department of Agriculture and Environment, said, “The province has implemented 21 high-quality, low-emission rice production models. These models have reduced irrigation water use by 20 - 30%, lowered production costs by approximately 15%, and significantly cut methane emissions.”

Advancing toward efficient, circular, and eco-friendly agriculture, local farmers and cooperatives utiiliize rice husk to generate biogas and process by-products into organic fertilizer. This province is also expanding ecological rice farming and encouraging the conversion of low-yield agricultural land to low-emission production models.

Dong Thap has identified key priorities, including farming innovation, by-product recycling, digital-technology adoption for emission measurement, circular-economy development, and converting inefficient land to low-emission rice systems. Each commune and ward will establish at least one green or circular agriculture model in the near future.

These efforts mark an important step toward standardizing and replicating models that adapt to circular agriculture, supporting green, efficient, and climate-resilient agricultural development in the Mekong Delta in general.