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STORY: VIET NAM / GENDER CLIMATE CHANGE
TRT: 03:35
SOURCE: FAO
RESTRICTION: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / VIETNAMESE / NATS
DATELINE: JULY 2017, BẾN TRE PROVINCE, VIET NAM / BANGKOK, THAILAND
JULY 2017, BẾN TRE PROVINCE, VIET NAM
1. Various shots, Nguyen Thi Nuong’s home in raining days
2. SOUNDBITE (Vietnamese) Nguyen Thi Nuong, Farmer:
“I always worry when it’s raining. I daren’t go anywhere then. I just stay at home and pray to God and Buddha for safety.”
3. Various shots, Nguyen Thi Nuong’s farm
4. SOUNDBITE (Vietnamese) Nguyen Thi Nuong, Farmer:
“When I was a farmer, I used to feed my cows with rice straw. That was when my field was not affected by saline intrusion. But now I can do nothing with the land. I lack money and have to borrow from my neighbors.”
5. Various shots, Nguyen Thi Tham feeding her goats
6. SOUNDBITE (Vietnamese) Nguyen Thi Tham, Farmer:
“The ways climate change shows itself here is by extreme heat from the sun, rain, typhoons, and saline intrusion. For example in 2016, Tan Xuan commune lost all of the rice crop in its whole area because of saline intrusion.”
7. Various shots, Nguyen Thi Tham watering her plants
JULY 2017, HA NOI, VIET NAM
8. Various shots, rice fields in the suburbs of Ha Noi
JULY 2017, FAO HEADQUARTERS, BANGKOK, THAILAND
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Beau Damen, Natural Resources Officer, Climate Change & Bioenergy, FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific:
“What FAO is seeing, is that the role of non-farm income is becoming increasingly important. So how do you look at that adaptation problem, how do you look at the climate change problem in the context of rural migration, income generating opportunities off-farm? If we’re going to be serious about addressing climate change problems, we need to look at those income generating activities as well and how they mix with the agriculture activities that we have traditionally been most interested in.”
FILE - FAO – 2017, VIET NAM
10. Various shots, aftermath of a typhoon, which hit Vietnam on July 25th 2017
According to the global climate risk index, Viet Nam is one of the ten countries most vulnerable to climate change impacts. Typhoons and other extreme weather events are increasing.
SOUNDBITE (Vietnamese) Nguyen Thi Nuong, Farmer:
“I always worry when it’s raining. I daren’t go anywhere then. I just stay at home and pray to God and Buddha for safety.”
Another impact is sea level rise, which is leading to saline intrusion, destroying rice fields and other crops. Tested water in Ben Tre has 20 times more salt content than that at which rice can survive.
Women farmers now form the majority of agricultural workers in the province because men are migrating to cities to work.
SOUNDBITE (Vietnamese) Nguyen Thi Nuong, Farmer:
“When I was a farmer, I used to feed my cows with rice straw. That was when my field was not affected by saline intrusion. But now I can do nothing with the land. I lack money and have to borrow from my neighbors.”
To plan for adaptation in the agriculture sectors, the Vietnamese government is working with the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) within a global program known as integrating agriculture in national adaptation plans or NAP-Ag.
Nguyen Thi Tham has been supplied with goats which provide her with an income and a tank to store harvested water.
SOUNDBITE (Vietnamese) Nguyen Thi Tham, Farmer:
“The ways climate change shows itself here is by extreme heat from the sun, rain, typhoons, and saline intrusion. For example in 2016, Tan Xuan commune lost all of the rice crop in its whole area because of saline intrusion.”
Such direct assistance helps to meet women’s everyday needs. But receiving a goat is not enough. Long-term adaptation must be built on successful interventions and ensure that women have their say in the decision-making process.
SOUNDBITE (English) Beau Damen, Natural Resources Officer, Climate Change & Bioenergy, FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific:
“What FAO is seeing, is that the role of non-farm income is becoming increasingly important. So how do you look at that adaptation problem, how do you look at the climate change problem in the context of rural migration, income generating opportunities off-farm? If we’re going to be serious about addressing climate change problems, we need to look at those income generating activities as well and how they mix with the agriculture activities that we have traditionally been most interested in.”
Adaptation can mean changing the crops being farmed, livestock being raised or changing farming practices to suit the changing conditions. For example, cultivating plants like coconut or banana, which are better able to cope with high salinity, and drought or flood. But adaptation to climate change is not just a matter of agricultural change. The example of Viet Nam shows the complexity of the challenge that climate change adaptation brings. However, by recognising the importance of gender and encouraging different sectors to work together, that challenge is being met here.
