Coastal communities in Vietnam turn trash into cooking fuel | FAO

Working women in coastal communities
In coastal communities in Quang Nam, Quang Tri and Thua Thien Hue provinces of Vietnam, offshore capture fisheries using motorized boats with small engines (12-20 hp) are the most important source of livelihood and income. In addition to marine capture fisheries, coastal households also raise pigs and chickens, dry and process fish, and engage in other related activities such as making and repairing fishing nets.

Small-scale pig farming sometimes results in low net profit margins due to the lack of proper feeding techniques. In addition, the large amount of waste generated by pig farming can cause environmental pollution, groundwater contamination and foul odor.

FAO is working with the three provinces’ Ministries of Agriculture and Rural Development to provide technical and financial support to improve pig farming and build biogas digesters, which provide methane gas for cooking, while the treated waste is odourless and can be used as organic fertilizer.

The selected beneficiary households include women – members of the communal fishery association – whose husbands are engaged in offshore capture fishing. Most of these women are housewives with monthly incomes ranging from US$20 to US$100.

In the three provinces, most men engage in capture fisheries throughout the year, except when extreme weather conditions prohibit fishing, but their income is not enough to sustain their family expenses.

Through the project, each beneficiary received five piglets or two adult sows. In addition, each family received a total of US$308 to build a biogas digester, which included the purchase of equipment and other materials.

In addition to financial assistance, visits were organized for interested community members to learn from successful models in other communes. The visitors viewed similarly designed digesters and compensation tanks that had not experienced leaks or seepage in more than two years of operation. After the visit, a one-day training course on pig farming and digester operation was held. The participants learned the technology for building digesters and the minimum requirements to ensure the production of enough biogas for domestic use.

Save money while protecting the environment
Combining pig farming with biogas projects not only solves the problem of environmental pollution caused by waste, but also provides biogas needed for household cooking.

Well-constructed and efficiently operated biogas digesters have helped households save on fuel costs and time spent on collecting and cutting wood. Since its implementation, the model has generated enough profits and benefits for the beneficiaries to significantly improve their living standards. The successful biogas digester model has also served as a demonstration point for other fishermen in neighboring communities.

The bigger picture
The Regional Fisheries Livelihoods Programme (RFLP) for South and Southeast Asia aims to strengthen the capacity of participating small-scale fishing communities and their supporting institutions in Cambodia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Timor-Leste and Viet Nam. In doing so, RFLP seeks to improve the livelihoods of fishers and their families while promoting more sustainable fishery resource management practices.

During the RFLP period, approximately 35,500 fishers (including 13,357 women, or 38 percent), members of fishing communities and government staff participated in more than 1,150 capacity-building activities at national and regional levels, ranging from fishery resource management planning to handicraft production, from chicken farming to the use of fish finders.