Speaking out about Climate Change in Vietnam
Two women farmers Phan Thi Anh (right), and Nguyen Thi Huong (left) from Ha-tinh province in the middle of Vietnam have come to Copenhagen to let people know what impact climate change is having on their communities (Anh and Huong are their first names). Here they talk to Sarah Gillam.
Anh, 41, is married with three children, a daughter aged 20 and two sons aged 17 and 14. She is from Xuan Nam village, Ho Ha commune, Loc Hu district, Ha-Tinh province.
Huong, 45, is married with two daughters, aged 15 and nine. She is from Huong Pho village, Duc Huong commune, Vu Quang district, Ha-tinh Province
How does the weather differ from when you were young?
Anh: During my childhood the weather used to be very good for agriculture but now it is very hard. It rains a lot – there are extended periods of floods and droughts. I live by the sea and produce salt – we’ve been doing this in our family for a long time – it’s a traditional activity and the only way of earning our living. We don’t farm because the land is too salty. And because of this, we have no choice but to go for day labouring in the construction industry in order to get enough money to keep the family.
Huong: I grow rice and groundnuts. My family live in a hilly area inland and we have about 2000 sq metres of land. In the past there were four distinct seasons, spring, summer, autumn, winter. But now it rains much earlier than it used to and the rain often destroys the crops before they are ready for harvest.
How has this affected your community and your farming?
Anh: The heavy rain affects salt production as it dilutes the salty water and it means we have to begin the process again. There are more tropical typhoons and floods now than ever before – it’s destroying the land, the sea defences and our livelihoods.
Huong: ActionAid has been working in my area for about ten years and living conditions have improved. There have been income generation projects, micro finance, gender equality programmes, public administration reform. But every time there’s a typhoon people fall back into poverty again. The crops get washed away.
We used to have two different crops a year but now there’s just one. The cropping patterns have changed. The rain often washes away the crops before they are ready for harvest then when we are ready to plant in the second monsoon season, there’s often insufficient water for the second harvest. This has affected our food security. We’ve also had to alter the variety of crops we grow. We’ve started growing varieties that mature in 70 days rather than 90 to try to avoid the problem of rain and cold. It used to get cold in December and January but now it’s getting cold in November and that’s badly affecting the harvest.
We’ve also had big livestock losses of pigs, cattle and chickens after the floods – a lot died of disease.
In what ways do you and other farmers in your community manage these changes?
Anh: Both me and my husband have moved away to work in construction. My children have to look after themselves….they’re older now so it’s ok and my parents used to look after them when they were younger. Usually it’s seasonal work so people go away for about six months.
Huong: To earn a living people raise livestock: buffalo, pigs and chickens but the rains often affect the animals badly. The chickens particularly suffer from disease despite inoculation.
People migrate to urban areas to work. My husband goes away to work in construction.
What can be done by other people, the Vietnamese government and ActionAid to help you with these changes?
Huong: There needs to be more investment in agriculture – especially irrigation and building reservoirs so that people can release water on a regular basis. We need new varieties of crops – that are able to withstand the new weather problems we face.
We’re use organic compost because it’s cheaper.
What do you hope happens at the Copenhagen Conference and as a result of it?
Anh: Never before in my life have I had the chance to do this. Usually I only talk to farmers from my village but now I want to say what is happening to us. We need to have more income so that we can send our children to school. The harvest from agriculture is very uncertain. I hope the negotiators understand the position of smallholder farmers. We need more support to withstand the harsh climatic conditions and the technology so we can work out a coping strategy for the future. Support must come from the rich countries who are key to any change in the climate.
I hope in future the weather becomes more moderate as it’s very unsettled at the moment and the rain is washing away the salt. The weather’s affecting our income – we’re producing half the salt that we used to produce before and life is now very hard.
Huong: Before coming to the COP – a community member in my village asked me to hold the top negotiators to account. Smallholder farmers need support as a result of changing conditions. They are doing the best they can but they need support.
