Over 140 experts join advisory network for one million hectares of low-carbon rice

On November 21, the National Agricultural Extension Center (NAEC), in coordination with the Department of Agriculture and Environment of Can Tho City and partners in the rice value chain, held a seminar titled "Solutions for Replicating High-Quality, Low-Emission Rice Farming Models in the Mekong Delta." The seminar aims to evaluate model results and discuss solutions for expansion in the next phase.

One of the outstanding outcomes of the One Million Hectares of High-Quality, Low-Emission Rice Project (referred to as the Project) is the establishment of the Mekong Delta Agricultural Experts Club—a voluntary advisory network that gathers leading experts and researchers from institutes, universities, enterprises, and international organizations.

According to Mr. Le Quoc Thanh, Director of NAEC, more than two months after its establishment, the club has attracted 143 leading experts to participate in providing technical and professional consultancy and contributing initiatives to support the Project.

Mr. Thanh affirmed that the club is a key force in training, communication, and experience sharing with the agricultural extension system. The club also participates in the compilation of materials, conducting farmer training, and attending national and international workshops and conferences.

In addition, the club has collaborated with NAEC to compile and publish 6,100 handbooks titled "Guidelines for Restoring Flooded Crops" and directly organized many professional workshops and training sessions for extension officers, cooperatives, and farmers. The club also coordinated with enterprises to successfully develop automatic water-level, moisture, and temperature-measuring devices.

From now until the end of the year, NAEC will finalize and officially issue the operational regulations of the club. At the same time, the Center will launch the club’s identity, establish a fund, and compile scientific résumés of participating experts for public release on the Center’s website.

"In the coming period, the agriculture and environment sector will strengthen public-private partnership and consider it an important driving force to mobilize resources in intellect, economics, finance, and international experience to be integrated into the Project," Mr. Thanh emphasized.

Contributing recommendations for scaling up high-quality, low-emission rice farming models, Dr. Tran Minh Hai, Vice Rector of the Institute for Public Policy and Rural Development, suggested that NAEC should develop a shared, open, and transparent data system for localities participating in the Project to exchange and cross-check information. As each locality and enterprise currently maintains its own separate datasets, causing difficulty in connecting and synchronizing data.

In addition, Dr. Hai recommended that NAEC collaborate with experts and provincial agricultural extension centers to design communication and training programs, aiming to help commune-level governments fully understand the process of high-quality, low-emission rice production and implement it in a synchronized, accurate manner.

For the People’s Committees of Mekong Delta provinces and cities, Dr. Hai noted that replicating these models requires attracting enterprises to participate. This means local governments must issue decisions clearly defining the areas included in the Project, providing a basis for enterprises to register their raw material zones.

Regarding product consumption, Dr. Hai emphasized that cooperatives play a crucial role; however, local investments have so far focused primarily on infrastructure, while "soft" investments remain very limited. Training activities are still general.

"To help cooperatives grow and attract more members, it is necessary to increase investment in their operational capacity. Only when cooperatives expand in scale can measurement systems and production procedures be standardized, thereby ensuring stable product quality," stated Dr. Hai.

From a management perspective, Ms. Nguyen Thi Giang, Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Environment of Can Tho City, said that following the administrative boundary adjustments at the commune level, the city is reviewing and reallocating specialized areas for high-quality, low-emission rice production in accordance with reality. At the same time, the city is ensuring that the models are implemented on contiguous land areas to expand efficiently.

Currently, the city's Department of Agriculture and Environment has collected feedback from relevant departments and 64 communes and wards participating in the Project, with an area of about 170,000 hectares. The dossier will be completed in 2025, and by 2026, once the implementation plan through 2030 is approved by the Can Tho City People’s Committee, the sector will officially announce the specific production areas under the Project.

After nearly two years, the One Million Hectares of High-Quality, Low-Emission Rice Project has achieved very positive initial results. The area applying technical procedures has reached nearly 355,000 hectares, 197% higher than the target for the first stage. More than 200,000 farmer households have applied at least one sustainable cultivation criterion.

All high-quality, low-emission rice production models have met their targets, with many exceeding expectations. On average, measured emission reductions range from 3.7 to 4.6 tons of CO₂ per hectare. Notably, some models have achieved reductions of up to 10–12 tons of CO₂ per hectare.