Overview of Sector

In 2006 agriculture, forestry, 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 2000-

2006. The forestry 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 reforestation programs.

Deforestation and forest degradation,

however, continue to have a significant

negative effect on the extent and quality of

the country’s forest 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 forest cover:

Total area

(1995 to 2002): +29% Natural forest:

(1995 to 2002): +20%

Plantation forest (1995 to 2002): +50%

Rich forest

(1999 to 2002) -10.2% Medium forest

(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%

V IETNAM G R E E N H O U S E G A S M I T I G A T I O N

AG R I C U L T U R E A N D FO R E S T R Y SE C T O R S

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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 2006. 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.

Forestry

As a result of strong progress in reforming

the forest sector, between 1995 and 2002

overall forest cover in Vietnam steadily

increased from 8.3 million to around 10

million hectares of natural forest and from

one million to two million hectares of

plantation forest. Forest degradation and

deforestation remain significant problems,

however: between 1999 and 2005, the area

of natural forest classified as rich forest

(density greater than 150 cubic meters per

hectare) decreased by 10.2 percent, while

medium forest (density between 100 and

150 cubic meters per hectare) decreased by

13.4 percent. Furthermore, a vast area of

primary forest was lost, becoming secondary

forest with few remaining species and low

timber volume. Overall the percentage of

commercial forest species has decreased

over time and now stands at less than 25

percent of total species. In general,

Vietnam’s forests have degraded into young,

species-poor forests with relatively low

economic value. The major drivers for forest

degradation are demand for timber exports,

which grew 22.3 percent in 2006–2007;

subsistence forest harvesting in poor areas;

conversion of forest to cash crops; and

infrastructure development.

Table 1. Forest Area and Forest

Categories (million ha)

Forest

categories

Classification

Special-use

forest

Watershed

forest

Production

forest Total

Natural forest

2.1 4.6 3.7 10.4

Production

forest

0.12 0.67 1.7 2.5

Total 2.2 5.3 5.4 12.8

Source: Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development,

Decision Number 2530/QD/BNN-KL-LN.

Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Estimates from the “Vietnam Initial

National Communication” indicated that, in

1994, greenhouse gas emissions from

forestry 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 N2O 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 2020.

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 N2O 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.

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 tCO2-e per

year.

Mangrove reforestation. Besides the

general reforestation programs, for which

Vietnam has documented potential,

mangrove reforestation 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.

Technical Assistance provided by Carbon Finance Assist World Bank 1818 H. Street, NW Washington, DC 20433

Note: Estimates based on annual reductions during 2010-2015.

References:

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 reforestation program, MARD.

Nguyen Cong Thanh and Baldeo Singh, 2006, “Trend in Rice

Production and Export in Vietnam,” OMONRICE Journal14 (Jan.6).

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) 3775-9384

Email: vnccoffice@fpt.vn