Although the bulk of production comes from small-scale farmers, their advocacy and ability to communicate on their challenges are still limited. This difficulty raises many obstacles and challenges not only for farmers, but also for the stakeholders involved in the shrimp aquaculture sector (e.g. the Vietnam Fishery Society VINAFIS) as they are hampered in their effort to truly represent the farmers' views and challenges.
For this reason, as part of the project "Promoting certification and Better Management Practices among small-scale shrimp farmers in Vietnam", funded by WWF DK and supported by the Danish government, The International Collaborating Centre for Aquaculture and Fisheries Sustainability (ICAFIS) conducted a survey in Soc Trang and Ca Mau provinces in August 2011 with the objective of understanding the communication challenges of farmers and to identify potential solutions. As result, a strategy to improve communication with VINAFIS (the organization representing the farmers in Vietnam) was drafted and pilot tested in 2 cooperatives of Soc Trang province.
The results of the survey demonstrated that: television is the most common method through which the farmer gets information. In addition, other information gathering tools such as radio, telephone, magazine, SMS and email were also used. The survey also highlighted that there was at least 1 computer connected to the internet in each of the 2 farmer cooperatives in Soc Trang province.
Regarding to the frequency of reading the VINAFIS website or VINAFIS magazines: the greatest majority (92%) of farmers never visited the website of VINAFIS, 6% visited it seldom while 2% visited it regularly. Approximately ¾ (72%) of farmers never read Tap chi Thuy San; 23% read it seldom, 3% read it regularly and 2% read it only sometimes; a total of 80% farmers had never read Ban Tin Con Tom, 16% read it seldom while 4% have read it either sometimes or regularly. The results demonstrate that the frequency of accessing VINAFIS material is still limited.
Based on this result, the team piloted an improved communication system, which is focused on: (i) assist farmer to send and get information through Internet, which would open a vehicle for communication with every level since national, provincial and district stakeholders in the pilot communities all appeared to have access to internet; (ii) deliver magazine to farmers as a vehicle to provide them the access that at present do not appear to have; (iii) assist farmer to send and get information through representative of VINAFIS at the district level (which in fact is the lower level hosting VINAFIS staff) as to allow for face-to-face communication while conveying messages to the VINAFIS system.
(M.Sc. Nguyen Ngoc Duc, chief of secretariat of VINAFIS, guides shrimp farmers access to Internet)
The results generated through the piloting of an improved communication system showed that the new model is more effective than the current communication system. Farmers already started posting their views directly into a dedicated VINAFIS webpage, or through a VINAFIS staff at the district level, showing that internet could effectively be used to communicate with stakeholders at all levels. Shrimp farmers in the pilot cooperatives declare they are happy with the improved communication system and wanted to have more support to improve their ability to communicate.
Mr Nguyen Ngoc Duc, chief of secretariat of VINAFIS, said: "getting information from farmers through the improved communication system, will help VINAFIS to understand the needs of farmers and propose the policy to the State to support them. This activity also contributes to the programme "New Rural Development" of the Party and Government."
To communicate directly with VINAFIS, go to http://hoinghecavietnam.org.vn/ and click on "Lien He".
To see the postings from farmers and replies provided by VINAFIS go to http://hoinghecavietnam.org.vn/ , click on "Hoi Dap" on the left side and then to "Hoi dap Nghe Ca". Or go to: http://hoinghecavietnam.org.vn/index.php?language=vi&nv=faq&op=Hoi-Dap-N...
