70 Year-old Vietnamese Farmers Embrace Modern Farming Techniques

Mr. Nguyen Van Con and his wife – both over 70 years old – own a two-hectare pepper garden in Cu Knia commune, Cu Jut district, Dak Nong province, one of the main pepper growing areas in Vietnam. Despite their age, the couple actively maintains their pepper garden, riding a bicycle 2km to their pepper garden each day to weed, harvest, and care for their plants. For more intensive jobs such as digging new planting holes, composting, and pruning, they hire external labor to help.

Mrs. Cat and Mr. Con, both in their 70s, stood in front of the two-hectare pepper farm. Image by the Rainforest Alliance, 2023

Prior to participating in the IPM project, Mr. Con’s family struggled to make enough income from their pepper garden, due to poor quality and productivity of their crop. Low soil quality, compaction, and lack of drainage made it difficult to grow the pepper plant, and in 2021-2022, standing water caused an outbreak of Phytophthora foot rot disease that attacked the base of plants, killing over 300 pepper trees and devastating production.

In 2023, Mr. Con’s farm was selected by Binh Minh Production, Trade, and Service Cooperative to implement Integrated Pest Management (IPM) as part of the IPM project. A goal of the IPM project is to reach more marginalized groups – including women, youth, and the elderly – to show that anyone can successfully implement IPM if they have the right knowledge and skills.

The project trained Mr. Con and his wife on IPM implementation and supported them with technical inputs and materials such as lime, microbial organic fertilizer, and NPK fertilizer to help improve their soil quality and control disease. They were taught how to treat their garden as an ecosystem, including managing pests and diseases with limited pesticides, maintaining intercropping and ground cover, and boosting soil nutrition and fertility. Mr. Con also started to replant his pepper garden with seedlings provided by the IPM project, replacing dead and infected trees with healthy young ones.

Figure 1. IPM model (figure A, April 2023; figure B, July 2023; Figure C, July 2024)

Figure 2. Weeds covering the soil surface (figure A, April 2023; figure B, July 2024; Figure C, September 2024)

While implementing these IPM measures, there were times when Mr. Con was criticized by neighbours for refusing to spray chemical pesticides. Still, he had learned that limiting pesticides was better for the environment and his own health, and he was starting to see the positive impacts of IPM: his garden ecosystem was flourishing.

After just one and half years of IPM implementation, insect biodiversity had increased in his garden, with bees, spiders, dragonflies, and other natural pest enemies keeping pest species at bay. The health of his soil had greatly improved – it was more porous and drained better and full of earthworms. Native grasses cover the area between rows of pepper plants, the leaves of the pepper trees are greener, and the plants are bearing more fruit. Even the newly planted seedlings are beginning to produce cherries.

Because the productivity and quality of his pepper garden have improved, Mr. Con received higher prices for his crop during the 2023-2024 season. Further, implementing IPM has helped them save on labour costs. As a result, his income has increased, and Mr. Con’s family is no longer living below the poverty line.

Mrs. Cat, Con’s wife (right), with Mrs. Lan Hoa, IMP Expert, attended the IPM workshop in Hanoi in October 2023. Image by the Rainforest Alliance, 2024.

Mr. Con’s family attended the preliminary workshop of the IPM project in Hanoi in October 2023 and shared their experience with other farmers, project donors, and policymakers. They emphasized that their garden is thriving, and their health is improved from reduced pesticide use. Although the initial IPM project ends in March 2025, Mr. Con’s family will continue to practice IPM, and will share their pepper garden as a destination for other farmers wanting to learn more about IPM.

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 International Development from the UK government.