G R E E N H O U S E G A S M I T I G A T I O N A G R I C U L T U R E A N D F O R E S T R Y S E C T O R S

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1 VIETNAM G R E E N H O U S E G A S M I T I G A T I O N A G R I C U L T U R E A N D F O R E S T R Y S E C T O R S Overview of Sector In 2006 agriculture, ry, and fisheries accounted for 20 percent of the Vietnam s GDP, 54 percent of its employment, and 30 percent of its exports. While the rapid growth of manufacturing has reduced agriculture s relative contribution to GDP, since 2000 the sector has grown steadily at 3.4 percent per year. Vietnam has 9.4 million hectares under cultivation; 70 percent of its agricultural products are crops, of which rice is the most important.. Livestock is also an important agricultural product, with a total population of 252 million and with growth in value of 8.9 percent per year between The ry sector accounts for 1.2 percent of the GDP. Forests in 2004 cover 37% of the land area which has increased from a coverage of 28% since 1995 due to government reation programs. Deation and degradation, however, continue to have a significant negative effect on the extent and quality of the country s cover. Agriculture Rice Cultivation: Rice cultivation is the most important crop economically and contributes a large quantity of greenhouse gas emissions due to the methane released in the fields. Since 1999, more than 30 million tons of ri ce was produced annually which transformed Vietnam from a rice importer into the world s second largest rice exporter. The Red River Delta and the Mekong Delta are considered the country s two major granaries, accounting for 14 percent and 53 percent, respectively, of the total rice cultivation area. With its high level of productivity, the Mekong Delta contributes half of Vietnam s total rice production and about 90 percent of its total rice exports. The Red River Delta has the largest irrigation rate (90 percent), while the corresponding rate for the Mekong Delta is around 70 percent. Fertilizer use: Fertilizer releases the greenhouse gas N20 when applied to crops. Vietnam uses approximately 7.7 million tons of inorganic fertilizers each year, of which 2 million tons is urea and 600,000 tons is diammonium phosphate (DAP). Vietnam Agriculture and Forestry Sector At-a-Glance Gross Domestic Product (2006): Agriculture: 15% of GDP Growth rate: 3.4% per year Forestry: 1.2% of GDP Growth rate: 10.8% per year Agricultural Land: Total under cultivation: 9.4 m ha Rice: 4.1 million ha Maize: 1.1 million ha Sugarcane: 0.3 million ha Other: 3.9 million ha Livestock population: Poultry: 214 million Pigs: 27 million Cattle: 6.5 million Buffalo: 2.9 million Goats/sheep: 1.5 million Horses: 87,0000 Forest cover (2006): Total: 12.8 million ha Natural: 10.4 million ha Production: 2.5 million ha Change in cover: Total area (1995 to 2002): +29% Natural : (1995 to 2002): +20% Plantation (1995 to 2002): +50% Rich (1999 to 2002) -10.2% Medium (1999 to 2005): -13.4% Fertilizer use (2008): Urea: 1.6 million tons NPK: 1.7 million tons Overall use rate: 301 kg per ha Types of rice paddy (2006): Intermittently irrigated: 4.3 m ha Constantly irrigated: 1.2 m ha Rain-fed: 6.6 m ha Agriculture waste management: Livestock waste treated with biogas digesters <5% Agricultural residues utilized: 26%

2 Livestock and agricultural waste. In 2006, the livestock population in Vietnam included about 26.9 million pigs, 6.5 million cattle, and 2.9 million buffalo. Livestock holdings in Vietnam are commonly found in small, individual household farms (5 to 20 animal heads), which account for close to 99 percent of the total livestock population. The number of large-scale livestock farms, accounting for just over 1 percent of the livestock population, was estimated at more than 16,700 in Common practice in Vietnam s livestock sector is to allow livestock waste to degrade in rivers, streams, or open lagoons, where it emits significant amounts of the greenhouse gas methane. Agricultural residues can be converted into sources of renewable energy, but 74 percent of Vietnam s go unused. The overall energy potential for rice husk and sugar bagasse, for example, is 419 MW; if transferred to the electricity grid, this would amount to a reduction of 0.9 million tco2-e per year in GHG emissions. however: between 1999 and 2005, the area of natural classified as rich (density greater than 150 cubic meters per hectare) decreased by 10.2 percent, while medium (density between 100 and 150 cubic meters per hectare) decreased by 13.4 percent. Furthermore, a vast area of primary was lost, becoming secondary with few remaining species and low timber volume. Overall the percentage of commercial species has decreased over time and now stands at less than 25 percent of total species. In general, Vietnam s s have degraded into young, species-poor s with relatively low economic value. The major drivers for degradation are demand for timber exports, which grew 22.3 percent in ; subsistence harvesting in poor areas; conversion of to cash crops; and infrastructure development. Forest categories Natural Production Table 1. Forest Area and Forest Categories (million ha) Special-use Classification Watershed Production Total Total Source: Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Decision Number 2530/QD/BNN-KL-LN. Forestry As a result of strong progress in reforming the sector, between 1995 and 2002 overall cover in Vietnam steadily increased from 8.3 million to around 10 million hectares of natural and from one million to two million hectares of plantation. Forest degradation and deation remain significant problems,

3 Greenhouse Gas Emissions Estimates from the Vietnam Initial National Communication indicated that, in 1994, greenhouse gas emissions from ry and land-use change were 19 million tons of CO2-e per year, including sinks of 50 million tco2-e from biomass growth and natural regeneration and emissions of 71 million tco2-e largely from land-use change. Projections indicate that overall net emissions will be positive in 2020 with 28 million tco2-e. Sinks will grow and emissions from land-use change will shrink, but continue to contribute significantly to the emissions balance. Agricultural emissions amount to 53 million tco2-e per year or 51 percent of the greenhouse gas emissions in the country. Emissions are dominated by methane from rice cultivation, which accounts for 33 million tco2-e per year. Livestock emissions account for 19 million tco2-e per year, and emissions from agricultural soil, including N 2 O emissions from fertilizer, account for 8 million tco2-e per year. Agriculture emissions are projected to increase overall but relative to other sectors will be smaller, accounting for only 27% of national emissions by Potential Mitigation Measures for 2010 to 2015 Effective use of nitrogen fertilizer. Nitrogen fertilizers (urea, NPK, and others) are a significant direct source of greenhouse gases through N 2 O emissions in the field; the presence of excess quantities of nitrogen fertilizers increases these emissions. Urea is the most popular nitrogen fertilizer used in Vietnam, with more than two million tonnes consumed every year. In rice cultivation in Vietnam, the efficiency of using urea is only around 35 to 40 percent. Site-specific nutrient management (SSNM) can increase efficiency to 50 percent or even higher, reducing the amount of fertilizer used and hence the associated methane emissions. As an illustration, if fertilizer efficiency is increased from 40 to 52 percent, urea fertilizer use would be reduced by 421,317 tonnes annually, for an emission reduction of 1.3 million tco2-e per year. Agricultural residues. Although they could be sources of renewable energy, 74 percent of Vietnam s agricultural residues currently go unused. The overall potential for energy from rice husk and sugar bagasse is 419 MW, which if use for electricity would reduce emissions by 0.9 million tco2-e per year. Livestock waste. Biogas wastewater treatment systems for animal wastes can recover and combust the methane from animal manure. Introduction of these systems has only captured a small fraction of the sector (less than 5 percent) and scaling up adoption of the technology at the household level could make a large impact in modernizing waste management and reducing methane emissions. The recovered methane could be flared or gainfully used as fuel for cooking and lighting (in households and on small livestock farms) and for thermal or electrical energy generation (on large livestock farms). Given the country s huge livestock population, the potential reduction in greenhouse gases is 7.3 million tco2-e per year, a significant portion of which could be captured using a sector-wide intervention.

4 Methane reduction from wetland rice cultivation. Wetland rice agriculture is responsible for one-third of Vietnam s greenhouse gas emissions: during the extended flooding periods quantities of methane from anaerobic decay are released into the atmosphere. Field research has shown that these methane emissions could be reduced by using modified water management techniques, such as midseason drainage or alternate wetting and drying. Vietnam s traditional rice cultivation practice has been to submerge fields in water for 70 to 80 percent of the rice growth duration. With a crop growth duration of 118 days on average for both the Red River Delta and the Mekong Delta, total GHG emission reductions for converting the 2.5 million hectares of land now constantly flooded would be 6.4 million tco 2 -e per year. Mangrove reation. Besides the general reation programs, for which Vietnam has documented potential, mangrove reation represents an important but only recently explored option for carbon sinks, an approach that would be particularly advantageous in light of the climate change adaptation benefits it would represent. Implementation of such a program faces many barriers, including the large investment and long gestation period; poor accessibility to sites (leading to high costs); and limited technological and methodological know-how at the local level. It is estimated that with a potential plantation area of 22,681 hectares in the Red River Delta and 111,873 hectares in the Mekong River Delta the total potential for emissions reduction would be 12.1 million tco2-e per year.

5 Note: Estimates based on annual reductions during References: Contact Information Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MoNRE) Department of Meteorology, Hydrology and Climate Change 8 Phao Dai Lang St, Dong Da District, Hanoi. Tel: (84-4) vnccoffice@fpt.vn FAO s World Census of Agriculture. GSO, 2008: Statistical Yearbook of Vietnam 2007 (brief). Statistical Publishing House, Hanoi. IPCC, 2006: Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories. Institute for Global Environmental Strategies, Japan. IRRI, 2006: Climate Change and Rice Cropping Systems: Potential adaptation and mitigation strategies. IRRI, 2002: Developments in Rice Production in Southeast Asia. MONRE, 2003: Vietnam Initial National Communication to UNFCCC, Hanoi. Program 661 reation program, MARD. Nguyen Cong Thanh and Baldeo Singh, 2006, Trend in Rice Production and Export in Vietnam, OMONRICE Journal14 (Jan.6). Technical Assistance provided by Carbon Finance Assist World Bank 1818 H. Street, NW Washington, DC 20433