Initiating Cooperation between Quy Nhon University and Ninh Thuan province to improve the local farmer’s livelihoods

As part of the IUC program, the Project 5 with the title “Establishing risk assessment and risk management models for the dragon fruit and jujube supply chains” focuses on the jujube supply chain in Ninh Thuan. Hence, right after the first-round selection of the Concept Note for the IUC program, a QNU delegation led by Assoc. Prof. Nguyen Tien Trung – The Head of the Research Affairs and International Relations Office paid a visit to Ninh Thuan province on March 11, 2020. They had a fruitful meeting with the representatives of Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD) and Farmers’s Union of Ninh Thuan province to discuss the possibilities of collaboration within the IUC program. During the meeting, the local team leader Dr. Truong Thi Thanh Phuong gave a short presentation on the motivation behind the project, its objectives and proposed research activities/strategies. Following the presentation, all project members exchanged openly with local authority representatives about issues related to the current jujube supply chain such as cultivation areas, cultivation techniques, consumption processes, and supply chain risks, the policies to support jujube production in the future.

The QNU delegation and representatives of Ninh Thuan authority

For example, the main consumption market is the domestic market, there has neither packaging process applying for this fruit nor brand name for it, the price is uncertain and the export direction has not been found. Besides, Mr. Nguyen Van Tinh – the Vice Chairman of Farmers’s Union of Ninh Thuan province admitted that the local farmers use a lot of pesticides in the cultivation, thus affecting the fruit quality and consumer trust. In the past, some smallholders had applied Vietgap standards in the jujube production to build the trust for customers, but the price of the certified products was not different from other jujube products on the market. Thus most of them returned to the traditional cultivation. The local authorities fervently hope that these difficulties will be taken into account by QNU during the project implementation.

Dr. Truong Thi Thanh Phuong presenting the objectives and proposed activities/strategies within the framework of Project 5

At the end of the meeting, local authorities of Ninh Thuan province committed that they will fully support and create favorable conditions for the project implementation. They expected that the cooperation between Ninh Thuan province and Quy Nhon University in the IUC program will bring opportunities to improve the farmer’s livelihoods.