Ralph Imatong - blog week 10

Agriculture in Vietnam

It is clear in the research paper by Amarasinghe et. al that Vietnam is a place with so much potential in agriculture business by supplying and producing coffee. The authors’ suggestions for the sustainability of coffee production could serve as a model for other agriculture countries that produces crops. If these suggestions are enforced and are supported heavily by the government, countless Vietnamese people can benefit from it. Sustainable coffee production might become a symbol for Vietnam. If Vietnam has the capacity to grow and harvest high quality coffee, it means that its fertile environment could potentially grow other quality crops for the livelihood of many Vietnamese. This, then, suggests that the Vietnamese government should find solution in saving the soil that was damaged by Agent Orange. Vietnam should consider allocating addition budget for finding a solution or for the clean-up of soil that was contaminated by Agent Orange.

Considering the agreement that Vietnam signed for their involvement to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), I hope that Vietnam will not risk this opportunity of having a sustainable national product to Western companies. The TPP agreement has plenty of loopholes that Western companies can potentially exploit. In addition, I hope that the Vietnamese government imposes regulations for corporations such as Monsanto for producing chemicals that could possibly damage their land or crops.

In addition to the suggestions given by the authors of the research paper, I think that finding a natural coffee variant that is resistant to drought is also a good solution for excessive water consumption. Finding a coffee variant, without genetic manipulation is just like finding a needle in a mountain of haystack but if ever that this natural variant exists, it could definitely help more people and will eventually help the whole nation.

Questions:

Are there any efforts by Vietnamese government to find natural coffee variants that are resistant to drought? Has there been actions by the government to enforce the suggestions in the paper?

References:

Amarasinghe, Upali A., Chu Thai Hoanh, Dave D'haeze, and Tran Quoc Hung. "Toward Sustainable Coffee Production in Vietnam: More Coffee with Less Water." Agricultural Systems 136 (2015): 96-105. Elsevier. Web. 5 Mar. 2016.

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