Farmers compost rice straw for fertilizer and mushroom cultivation in An Giang Province’s Chau Thanh District

The project is improving farmers' lives in An Giang Province by developing models to utilize and process agricultural by-products from rice straws to make valuable products has gained positive results.

The design and implementation of this project have been accomplished through a collaborative effort with the Global Alliance on Health and Pollution (GAHP) and funded with UK aid from the UK government. The project is carried out by Ho Chi Minh City University for Natural Resources and Environment and the Long An Province Department of Natural Resources and Environment with the support of the Vietnam Association for the Conservation of Nature and Environment (VACNE).

Chau Thanh is a purely agricultural district of An Giang Province, where rice is the main crop with a total area of more than 79,457 hectares. Only 36.7% of the rice straw in the district’s rice growing area (29,167.65ha) is currently collected.

According to the project’s organizers, they decided to implement the project as they believed that farmers can only change their practice of burning straw in the field when there are models of utilizing straw to create their income.

Looking at rice by-product utilization models in place in the whole province the project organizers set up 3 pilot projects for rice straw utilization; growing mushrooms in rice straw, applying the model of composting straw with urea to feed cows, and composting straw as fertilizer.The project has also raised people's awareness about using rice by-products and limiting burning straws through media videos and articles with technical instructions to propagate and persuade people about the harmful effects of burning straws on the environment and the economic efficiency of straw utilization models. The project has also propagated on many social media channels and built 3 leaflets for 3 models of growing straw mushrooms, composting straw with urea and composting straw as fertilizer. They have also trained farmers in Vinh Thanh commune on the application of these models to increase their household income.

The project has replicated the application of models to make use of waste from rice in the province by coordinating with communes to select 12 households to participate in the models. Under the program, the households have been provided initial technical guidance and regular monitoring and support throughout the model implementation process. The program has aided fees for 4 households (VND2 million for a household).

Finally, the project has deployed 12 models in the district, including 4 indoor mushroom growing models in Vinh Nhuan and Can Dang communes; 4 composting models; and 4 models of composting straw with urea for animal feed in Vinh Thanh, Tan Phu, Binh Hoa, and Hoa Binh Thanh communes.

The models have been welcomed by farmers because, in addition to environmental benefits, they also bring specific economic efficiency to households. Results of interviews with 11 farmer households implementing composting from straw show that the model scale is from 8-20 m3 (using 25-80 rolls of straw). After deducting the costs of the initial investment and each crop, participants will have an additional income of VND3.1-5 million.

Interviews with 7 households growing mushrooms indoors showed that with a scale of 20-300m2 (using 40-500 rolls of straw), after deducting the initial investment costs and actual costs of each crop, they will have additional income of VND3-12 million. Meanwhile, composting with urea to make animal feed will save labor days compared to cutting grass to feed cattle as before. Besides, the straw rolling service by machine also brings a profit of about VND7 million for the straw rolling machine reaching 4ha per day with 200 rolls per ha. The field owner will be paid VNĐ500,000 per ha.

The project’s results show that using straw in beneficial models has contributed to reducing air pollution, limiting the greenhouse effect, returning nutrients to the soil, limiting soil loss, and minimizing rice-growing land contamination.

The models are suitable for local development conditions as they create more jobs for rural workers, take advantage of idle labor, and create conditions for gender balance. This is a favorable premise for the replication of the models throughout An Giang province, where up to 70% of the natural area is used for rice cultivation.