R4D Vietnam

Technical Note 23. Surveying Siblings: The case for tracking brothers and sisters of Young Lives Index Children in Round 4 and Beyond

Fri, 25 May 2012 04:18 GMT

Document Type: Report

Production Year: 2012

Citation: Porter, C.; Sanchez, A.; Nair, M. Technical Note 23. Surveying Siblings: The case for tracking brothers and sisters of Young Lives Index Children in Round 4 and Beyond. Young Lives, Department of International Development at the University of Oxford, Oxford, UK (2012) 18 pp.

Summary: This note sets out the arguments for extending the sibling cross-section collected in Young Lives Round 3 (2009) to a panel in Rounds 4 and 5. It is a non-technical synthesis of two background notes from an economic and health perspective1, with some additional information and arguments. We point out three main gains in terms of content from collecting the panel of sibling data, as well as noting that extending the amount of information collected would considerably add value. Finally, without making calculations we assert that collecting sibling data would be a relatively low-cost addition to the existing survey.

First Report of “CandidatusPhytoplasma Asteris”-Related Strains Infecting Chinaberry Trees with Leaf Yellowing Symptoms in Vietnam

Thu, 24 May 2012 03:20 GMT

Document Type: Journal Article

Production Year: 2006

Citation: Harrison, N.A.; Boa, E. First Report of “CandidatusPhytoplasma Asteris”-Related Strains Infecting Chinaberry Trees with Leaf Yellowing Symptoms in Vietnam. Plant Disease (2006) 90 (4) 527-527. [DOI: 10.1094/PD-90-0527A]

Summary: During September 2003, leaves of two mature Chinaberry (Melia azedarach) trees in Vietnam displayed distinctive interveinal yellowing. Eight collected samples of yellowed leaves were extracted and assayed for phytoplasma DNA using PCR. After P1/P7-primed products were reamplified by PCR with nested phytoplasma universal 16S rRNA primer pair R16mF2/R16mR1, a 1.4-kb product of predicted size was obtained from eight samples and eastern Aster yellows positive control, while no product was obtained from DNA of seed-grown healthy periwinkle included as a negative control. Chinaberry phytoplasmas were definitively identified as group 16SrI strains after reevaluation of samples by a PCR incorporating ribosomal protein (rp) gene primer pair rpF1/rpR1 and reamplification of resulting products with nested 16SrI group-specific primer pair rp(I)F1A/rp(I)R1A. Sequence comparison and phylogenetic analysis of Chinaberry yellows phytoplasma (CbY-V) 16S rDNA (GenBank Accession No. AY863003) determined this strain to be most closely related (99.65%) to Epilobium phyllody phytoplasma, a 16SrI-B subgroup strain. However, based on analysis of rp gene sequences (GenBank Accession No. DQ321823), strain CbY-V was judged most similar (99.59%) to cabbage proliferation, a well-characterized 16SrI-B subgroup, rpI-B subgroup phytoplasma. This is thought to be the first record of phytoplasma infection of Chinaberry in Vietnam.

Cohort Profile: The Young Lives Study

Tue, 22 May 2012 06:27 GMT

Document Type: Journal Article

Production Year: 2012

Citation: Barnett, I.; Ariana, P.; Petrou, S.; Penny, M.E.; Le Thuc Duc; Galab, S.; Woldehanna, T.; Escobal, J.A.; Plugge, E.; Boyden, J. Cohort Profile: The Young Lives Study. International Journal of Epidemiology (2012) : [DOI: 10.1093/ije/dys082] Published online 21 May, 2012

Summary: Young Lives is an international longitudinal study investigating the changing nature of childhood poverty in four low-income countries [Ethiopia, India (Andhra Pradesh), Peru and Vietnam] over a 15-year period. In each country, the cohort is comprised of ∼2000 children aged between 6 and 18 months and up to 1000 children aged between 7 and 8 years, recruited in 2002 and sampled from 20 sentinel sites. The first survey data collection from primary caregivers and older children took place in 2002, the second in 2006–07 and the third in 2009–10. Data on the community contexts were collected to complement the household surveys. To elaborate and extend the quantitative data, longitudinal qualitative research with a subgroup of the children was carried out in 2007, 2008 and 2010–11. Topic areas covered included nutrition, health and well-being, cognitive and physical development, health behaviours and education, as well as the social, demographic and economic status of the household. Survey data from the study are archived in the International Section of the UK Public Data Archive.

Conditions for collective action: understanding factors supporting and constraining community-based fish culture in Bangladesh, Cambodia and Vietnam

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 08:54 GMT

Document Type: Report
Creator: Joffre, O.; Sheriff, N.

Production Year: 2011

Citation: Joffre, O.; Sheriff, N. Conditions for collective action: understanding factors supporting and constraining community-based fish culture in Bangladesh, Cambodia and Vietnam. WorldFish Center, Penang, Malaysia (2011) 58 pp. ISBN 978-983-2346-76-0 (WorldFish Center Studies and Reviews 2011-21)

Summary: The purpose of the study, and this report, is to enrich our understanding of the conditions supporting or constraining an activity such as fish culture, carried out on a collective basis in a floodplain environment. To succeed, CBFC has to integrate good governance and technical suitability with favorable socioeconomic and agroecological conditions. CBFC is not approprate for all floodplains. Results from Cambodia and Vietnam confirm that a major focus in implementing CBFC is governance, while technical issues are also crucial. Difficult and complex as CBFC is, experience in Bangladesh shows that, where suitable, it can provide substantial benefits.

Landscape level characterization of seasonal floodplains under community based aquaculture: illustrating a case of the Ganges and the Mekong Delta

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 08:13 GMT

Document Type: Draft
Creator: Nagabhatla, N.; Brakel, M. van

Production Year: 2010

Citation: Nagabhatla, N.; Brakel, M. van. Landscape level characterization of seasonal floodplains under community based aquaculture: illustrating a case of the Ganges and the Mekong Delta. WorldFish Center, Penang, Malaysia (2010) 84 pp. (CBFC Working Paper No. 4)

Summary: The CPWF community-based fish culture project seeks to develop technologies and institutional arrangements to support collective fish culture in the flood season. The development of collective approaches to fish culture with local stakeholders has met with varying degrees of success. This has led to a deeper consideration of context and its contribution to the success or failure of collective action under differing socio-ecological conditions. The current report provides a landscape level characterization of seasonal floodplains in two of these areas. We compare the Ganges seasonal floodplain agro-ecology in Bangladesh to that in the Mekong Delta of Cambodia and Vietnam.

Benefits and Challenges of Applying Outcome Mapping in an R4D project

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 07:53 GMT

Document Type: Draft
Creator: Sheriff, N.; Schuetz, T.

Production Year: 2010

Citation: Sheriff, N.; Schuetz, T. Benefits and Challenges of Applying Outcome Mapping in an R4D project. WorldFish Center, (2010) 9 pp. (CBFC Working Paper No. 6)

Summary: There is an increasing demand for researchers to demonstrate the impact of the work within project time frames, yet development is a complex, non-linear process emerging from changes that traditional, managerial approaches to development fail to capture or to understand. Methods to address unanticipated change and increasingly important ‘soft’ outcomes, such as improved governance have not yet been widely tested or adopted. In response to this gap, this paper describes lessons learned during the pilot testing of Outcome Mapping as part of an action research process in Vietnam, and presents an abridged OM methodology for application at the community level. The experiences presented in this paper grew out of a practical need to introduce alternative methods for monitoring and impact assessment in a large-scale, multi-country project. The project aimed to test technical and institutional options for community-based fish culture in seasonal floodplains.

Implementing Integrated River Basin Management: Lessons from the Red River Basin, Vietnam

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 05:10 GMT

Document Type: Report
Creator: Molle, F.; Chu Thai Hoanh

Production Year: 2009

Citation: Molle, F.; Chu Thai Hoanh. Implementing Integrated River Basin Management: Lessons from the Red River Basin, Vietnam. International Water Management Institute, Colombo, Sri Lanka (2009) 35 pp. ISBN 978-92-9090-708-4 (IWMI Research Report 131)

Summary: This paper presents findings from project number 50 titled “Multi-scale Mekong Water Governance: Inter-disciplinary Research to Enhance Participatory Water Governance from Local Watershed to Regional Scales” of the CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food (CPWF) which is implemented under the M-Power network.

The report focuses on the establishment of the Red River Basin Organization (RRBO), but expands its analysis to the wider transformations of the water sector that impinge on the formation and effectiveness of this organization. The report shows that the promotion of IWRM icons such as RBOs by donors has been quite disconnected from the existing institutional framework. In contradiction with IWRM principles, RBOs were established under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), with little means and power, while the ONWRC remained dormant. The RRBO was set up on the premise that a RBO was needed, but it was soon found that basin-wide participation was both difficult and unnecessary, with the focus being shifted to lower sub-basin levels.

Livelihood impacts of water policy changes: evidence from a coastal area of the Mekong River Delta

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 07:39 GMT

Document Type: Journal Article
Creator: Hoanh, C.T.; Tuong, T.P.; Gallop, K.M.; Gowing, J.W.; Kam, S.P.; Khiem, N.T.; Phong, N.D.

Production Year: 2003

Citation: Hoanh, C.T.; Tuong, T.P.; Gallop, K.M.; Gowing, J.W.; Kam, S.P.; Khiem, N.T.; Phong, N.D. Livelihood impacts of water policy changes: evidence from a coastal area of the Mekong river delta. Water Policy (2003) 5 (5) 475-488.

Summary: The coastal zone of the Mekong river delta has experienced rapid economic and environmental changes during the last decade. Given the nature of the environment and the level of dependence on the natural resources base, policies for land and water were very influential in this process. The emphasis on rice created an imperative to control saline intrusion, which was realized through the construction of major engineering works over an extended period (1994-2000). The inertia built up by this process led to a divergence between policy and practice, and adversely affected the livelihoods of fishers and of those farmers who live on aquaculture. This prompted the government to rethink the rice-focus policy, in favor of a land and water policy for balanced rice and aquaculture production. This paper describes an analytical process, which was adopted to explore the feasibility of adopting the new policy for the balanced development of both rice and shrimp production and discusses the impact of the new policy on farmers’ livelihoods.

Impact of seawater intrusion control on the environment, land use and household incomes in a coastal area

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 07:32 GMT

Document Type: Journal Article
Creator: Tuong, T.P.; Kam, S.P.; Hoanh, C.T.; Dung, L.C.; Khiem, N.T.; Barr, J.; Ben, D.C.

Production Year: 2003

Citation: Tuong, T.P.; Kam, S.P.; Hoanh, C.T.; Dung, L.C.; Khiem, N.T.; Barr, J.; Ben, D.C. Impact of seawater intrusion control on the environment, land use and household incomes in a coastal area. Paddy and Water Environment (2003) 1 (2) 65-73. [DOI: 10.1007/s10333-003-0015-2]

Summary: Agricultural production in the coastal wetlands of Asia is often hindered by salinity intrusion caused by tidal fluctuation. This paper reports changes in environmental and socio-economic conditions that followed the phased construction and operation of sluices for controlling seawater intrusion from 1994 –2000 in a coastal area of the Mekong River Delta, Vietnam. Canal water salinity decreased rapidly upstream of sluices, allowing rice cropping intensification and increased rice production in the eastern part of the study area. However, the livelihoods of farmers in the western part were adversely affected due to cessation of supply of brackish water that was needed for brackish-water shrimp farming, while the acid sulphate soils present there posed problems for rice cultivation. The poor farmers and landless people suffered more because the fishery resource that they depended on declined sharply due to reduced salinity and increased acidity in the canal water. The findings confirmed that the environment and resource use in the coastal lands are very sensitive to external intervention. A clear understanding of the socio-economic and environmental impacts of salinity control measures in coastal areas can help planning to enhance farmers' incomes while minimizing negative environmental impacts. Land-use policy formulation, planning and management should adopt a more holistic approach, taking into account the interests of all resource users, especially the poor, instead of focusing on any particular sector.

Beliefs and management practices of weedy rices: A comparison among male and female rice farmers in the Mekong Delta, South Vietnam

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 05:26 GMT

Document Type: Journal Article
Creator: Truong Thi Ngoc Chi; Tran Thi Ngoc Mai; Tran Quang Tuyen; Paris, T.R.; Heong, K.L.

Production Year: 2002

Citation: Truong Thi Ngoc Chi; Tran Thi Ngoc Mai; Tran Quang Tuyen; Paris, T.R.; Heong, K.L. Beliefs and management practices of weedy rices: A comparison among male and female rice farmers in the Mekong Delta, South Vietnam. Omonrice (2002) 10: 101-106.

Summary: A survey of 200 male and female rice farmers in irrigated low land rice areas of Can Tho province revealed that more than half of the male and female farmers interviewed could identify weedy rice which is locally called "lua lon" and one fourth of them called them as "lua ma". A higher proportion of the male farmers (51%) than female farmers (44%) could identify two types of weedy rice. They were able to differentiate different types of weedy rice based on the presence of awn and awn length, shattering characteristics, leaf color and time of flowering. Both male and female farmers observed a higher occurrence of weedy rice during the Spring- Summer season when farmers do not till their lands. Female farmers estimated that weedy rice could reduce rice yields by 40%. There is no gender difference in the beliefs of weedy rice biology and management, except that more male farmers than female strongly believe that weedy rice is always shattering and that early flooding does not affect weedy rice infestation. Because of the long-term experience of female farmers in rice farming, particularly in weed management, their beliefs and management practices do not differ with men. Thus, training and extension programs should include both male and female farmers in activities related to integrated methods for weed and weedy rice management.