A Long Day’s Work for a Short Day’s Pay

By Kat Burnside

VINH, Vietnam — Tran Van Huong smiles and shrugs when asked how many hours a day he labors. His answer: 12 to15.

As a farmer, Huong, 54, rises every morning at 5 o'clock to work his fields of rice, corn and peanuts. His wife, Hoang Thi Quang, also helps, as does their 16-year-old daughter. Crops bring in the bulk of the family income, which in a typical year totals just less than 6.5 million Vietnamese dong, or about $400.

Huong and his family also tend a handful of cows and pigs, and sell bananas from their home garden for a small profit. In hard times, they'll sell some of their chickens if they have to.

Huong's story is not uncommon. Farming is the sole source of income for most families in Nam Loc, a small, rural community at the foot of the mountains near the northern coastal city of Vinh in Vietnam. Rice, peanuts, maize and lemons are staple crops; a handful of households also raise and sell fish.

It can be an unpredictable living. Droughts, floods, typhoons and the dreaded, hot "Laos winds" from the west can ruin a crop. Current flash flooding and heavy rains caused by Typhoon Lekima in early October are making the planting of winter crops nearly impossible for Huong and other farmers in Nghe An province. One bad harvest or natural disaster can devastate a family's income.

"If the crop is lost, we go to other places to offer our labor," says Huong.

Improving Quality of Life

Advancements in agricultural techniques, including irrigation, will help offset the effects of droughts and floods. But the key to improving quality of life in this community, where more than one-third of the 5,800 residents live in poverty, is an economic boost.

Since 2002, Catholic Relief Services has partnered with Cordaid, the Dutch arm of Caritas Internationalis, to help improve incomes of poor, rural families in northern-central Vietnam who rely on agriculture for survival. Farmers are trained in sustainable farming and business technologies that enhance both volume and quality. At the same time, they learn about market demands and access: which products will sell and how to deliver them.

"Our farmers don't know where to sell their products," says Nguyen Van Lanh, chairman of the People's Committee in Nam Loc.

It's a struggle Huong and his family face. "The trader comes here and buys our products in small volumes," he says. "We want to sell all of our products."

As a result, he says, Huong cannot afford the $270 he needs to purchase a third cow. "The income is not enough for us to cover our costs."

CRS collaborates closely with government officials who help determine the specific needs of village farmers and the demands of the market. This cooperation among partners also helps replicate success across the province. In nearby Nghi Lam commune, for example, CRS helped some farmers optimize their incomes by selling popular fish they learned to raise in the same fields where they grow rice.

Huong is hoping for similar success. He and other farmers in Nam Loc are just beginning trainings and education in agricultural techniques and market research, thanks to CRS.

"We hope that irrigation can improve this canal," Huong says, pointing to the dirt ditch in front of his home that funnels rainwater from the hillsides to the village farmlands below. "If it's made of concrete and not earth, the water cannot run away. I think this technical knowledge can improve our production."

Huong can't afford to pay for his children's education. His teenage daughter helps in the field, but his two sons, both in their 20s, left home a few years ago to find better work in Ho Chi Minh City.

"We're really sorry and very worried that we had to stop them from learning, but we are very poor."

Some seasons the boys come home to help work the fields, but Huong is hoping a new small-business opportunity would allow them to move back permanently so the family can live together.

It's a dream he pictures happening under a new roof, literally. "In my own home, we would like to see a new house, a brick house, and be able to buy a motorbike."

Kat Burnside was CRS' communications officer for Asia, the Middle East and Europe. She was based in Baltimore.