From the 22 to 23 November and 26 to 27 November, two workshops were jointly held in the provinces of Hung Yen and Nghe An respectively by the Hanoi University of Agriculture (HUA), Hanoi School of Public Health (HSPH), and International Research Livestock Institute (ILRI). Funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), the common purpose of the two workshops was to collect information from related stakeholders and to perform Rapid Value Chain Assessment (RVCA) and Rapid Integrated Assessment (RIA) on the livestock industry of those provinces under the umbrella of the ‘Reducing disease risk and improving food safety in smallholder pig value chains in Vietnam’ project.

In both provinces of Hung Yen and Nghe An, about eighty participants comprised of the research groups from each university and IRLI as well as representatives from the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, members of the Department of Health, veterinary experts, and people working in pig industry within the two provinces such as producers, collectors, slaughters, wholesalers, and retailers attended the workshops.

Participants took part in various group discussions on five main questions: (i) What are your expectations for the pig industry in your province? (ii) How is the current situation of pig industry in your province? (iii) What are the current concerns of the pig industry in your province? (iv)What are the actions for the current problems of pig industry in your province? And (v) what are the proposed solutions for future problems of the pig industry in your province? These questions help in collecting information on the needs of each related party in value chain.

In both provinces, the concerns of the pig industry can be distilled to the following four points: pork-borne diseases, the fluctuation of pork market, the increasing of inputs (breeder, feeder and veterinary medicine) price, and the role of policy makers in the field. As the nature of the project is quantitative and qualitative research, the project promises to bring about concrete numbers and analysis of the situation so that these critical issues can be better investigated. 

Further information: http://safefoodfairfood.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/vietnam.pdf