Hands-On in Tanzania

For Bui Ngoc Vinh it is all about water. And that doesn’t make his work as irrigation engineer for HRNS in Vietnam always easy: “As you know, water resources are becoming increasingly scarce, so Dak Lak has suffered from droughts for years“, he explains. Vinh is in charge of groundwater monitoring and artificial water collection activities.

Changing mindsets of farmers towards new approaches is one of his challenges. „Farmers often do not understand what we are doing, they do not support it, and if that’s the case, I try to explain to people what we are trying to achieve“, he describes the dilemma. But without farmers the project doesn’t work. Having them of board and creating solutions together with them is the only way to have sustainable outcomes. “We need to convince them to join us. Our 12 wells for artificial water collection are all voluntarily lent to us by farmers to run our pilot MAR project.“

Being patient paid out: „During the first year I worked for the project, I saw the productivity of the farmers increasing and their awareness of saving water for irrigation rising while keeping high yields.“ Fertilizing and pruning techniques also play an important role in improving the yields, just as new post-harvesting techniques allow not to damage the harvested beans. But without water there is no harvest: „I believe in artificial rainwater resources for irrigation. Although our MAR project is only a trial we already see the results. It is efficient, although the impact is not big though due to the project’s small scale. But if it works then it will multiply among farmers and finally all residents of Dak Lak will benefit by the increased water supply, both for irrigation and households“, Vinh is describing his hopes for the future.

Working with water means mostly being outside. “Sometimes during the rainy season it is necessary to make it quick in the morning because it usually rains in the afternoon, but it’s unpredictable so I often get dirty and wet with muddy boots“, Vinh tells about his daily work.

But he likes working with farmers on site, using his hands to explain and maintain the wells. „When I come from the field with my latest data it enlightens to share those with in reports to the international water experts we are working with.“

In our series “Hands-on” we are introducing you to our field staff from all over the world. Every day they are working close to the coffee farmers and support them to develop sustainabile practices.