Low-emission rice farming delivers multiple benefits for Vietnamese farmers

Lower costs, higher yields

In recent growing seasons, many households in Duc Thinh hamlet, Hung Khanh commune, Lao Cai province, have grown accustomed to low-emission rice cultivation techniques, largely abandoning the heavy use of chemical pesticides and fertilizers that once defined their work. What has kept farmers committed to the model is not simply reduced labor and lower production costs, it is the consistently stronger yields they have recorded with each successive harvest.

For years, the prevailing practice involved dense planting, heavy applications of chemical fertilizer, and repeated pesticide spraying whenever pests and disease appeared. Production costs climbed steadily, yet yields remained unpredictable. In bad seasons, households walked away with little or no profit.

That began to change when farmers joined the project "Improving the Application of Sustainable Rice Production Techniques to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Specialized Rice-Growing Areas of Yen Bai Province," funded by Stichting Oxfam Novib and implemented by the Lao Cai Department of Agriculture and Environment. Launched in May 2025, the initiative aimed to guide farming communities toward an environmentally friendly production model that reduces costs without sacrificing yields. Although the project has since concluded, many households in Duc Thinh hamlet have continued the practices on their own, persuaded by results that measurably outperform traditional methods.

Within the hamlet, the project supported 30 households across four hectares of paddies. Participants received improved seed varieties, fertilizer, biological preparations, technical guidance, and hands-on training conducted directly in the fields, an approach farmers credited for making the techniques straightforward to adopt.

Under the prescribed methodology, fields are treated with organic compost, microbial agents, and lime powder before transplanting to enrich the soil, improve its structure, and suppress early-season pests and diseases. Seedlings are transplanted at measured intervals, neither too dense nor too sparse, giving each plant adequate room to develop. About a week after transplanting, farmers apply a calibrated dose of NPK fertilizer, far smaller than what they previously used. Subsequent care follows a more scientific rhythm: water levels are adjusted to match each stage of crop growth, weeding and soil aeration are carried out on schedule, and potassium is added at the right moment to promote firm, full grain.

Many farmers admitted they were anxious at first, fearing that wider spacing would reduce output. After a single season, the results exceeded expectations. Plants were visibly healthier, pest pressure dropped sharply, and panicles were longer with denser, heavier grain.

Pham Thi Tuyen Mai, a resident of Duc Thinh hamlet, recalled spraying pesticides seven or eight times each season under the old system, often working through intense heat until she felt exhausted and nauseated. After three seasons under the new approach, her paddies have required virtually no chemical spraying at all. In the current winter-spring crop, her rice is nearly ready for harvest without a single pesticide application, and productivity has risen dramatically. Where a traditional sao plot of 360 square meters once yielded just over 100 kilograms of paddy, it now produces close to 300 kilograms.

Her experience is widely shared across the hamlet. Farmers report that proper spacing, measured fertilization, and disciplined water management have produced healthier, more resilient crops that demand far less labor and expense to maintain.

Tangible Environmental Gains

Beyond the farm-level economics, the model targets a broader challenge: greenhouse gas emissions from rice agriculture. Specialists note that conventional paddy cultivation is a significant source of emissions, driven by prolonged field flooding, the burning of straw residue, and excessive use of chemical fertilizers. Under those conditions, gases including methane, carbon dioxide, and nitrous oxide are released from flooded soils, decomposing organic matter, and fertilizer runoff, all of which contribute to accelerating climate change.

The low-emission model addresses these problems by redesigning the entire cultivation process. Regulated water management substantially curbs methane generation in the paddies. Replacing synthetic nitrogen fertilizers with biological preparations improves long-term soil health and reduces pollution of local waterways.

Measured results underscore the scale of the change. Seed use has fallen by roughly 50 to 60 percent compared with traditional practice. Irrigation water consumption has dropped by 60 to 70 percent, achieved by applying water only at critical growth stages rather than maintaining continuous flooding. Pesticide applications have declined sharply, with many plots requiring little or none at all.

Yields have climbed to between nine and ten metric tons per hectare, an increase of one to two tons per hectare over conventional methods. For many farmers, that figure challenged a long-held assumption: that higher output required heavier chemical inputs.

Luong Ngoc Dung, head of Duc Thinh hamlet, said residents are eager to expand the model. Farmers have seen firsthand that science-based cultivation saves money, raises income, and protects their own health.

The model has also shifted attitudes toward agriculture more broadly. As soil quality improves, water sources face less contamination, and the volume of agrochemicals in the environment declines, the quality of rural life in the surrounding area improves accordingly.

In a period of mounting climate pressure on agricultural production, the results emerging from Duc Thinh hamlet point toward a replicable path for communities across the region. Emissions reduction is no longer an abstract policy goal, it is now directly tied to the practical wellbeing of farming families. On the strength of these early outcomes, low-emission rice cultivation is expected to expand further, contributing to a greener, more resilient, and climate-adaptive agricultural sector.