FIELD REPORT FOR STUDY ON NON-TIMBER FORESTPRODUCT (NTFP)

1. Objectives of the Study

The RENFODA Project examines the development of sustainable Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFP) as a measure for the promotion of forest conservation by local farmers in the target area, and has experimental plans for NTFP in the demonstration site and the on-farm trial. This Study is in this regard required to conduct following works.

1) Survey the present situation of NTFP in and around HoaBinhProvince

2) Examine the possibility to introduce NTFP, which is technically and economically viable for local people

3) Transfer for the above methodologies to the counterpart (C/P)

2. Classification of NTFP

We have classified NTFP into five categories:

1) Fiber products (Abbreviation; Fiber)

2) Plants derived food products (Food)

3) Medicinal plants (Medicine)

4) Wild Animal and Wild Animal Products (Animal)

5) Other plants (Others)

In the world some scientists have tried to make the classification of NTFP. According to An Overview of the NTFP Sub-Sector in Vietnam, the NTFP classification system adopted at the Bangkok Conference (FAO, 1991) consisted of six categories:

1) Fibrous products: bamboo, Rattan, Fibrous leaves and trunks and grasses

2) Food products:

a. Vegetable based products: trunks, buds, roots, tubers, leaves, flowers, fruits, nuts, spices, oil seeds and fungi

b. Animal products: bee honey, wild meat, fish, snails, clams, edible bird nests, eggs, and edible insects

3) Vegetable based drugs and cosmetics

4) Extractive products: gums, resin, oleoresin, latex, tannin, dyes, fat oils and essential oils

5) Animals and non-edible animal products: mulberry silk, live animals, birds, insects, hairs and feathers, skins, ivory, horns, bones, and shellac

6) Others

The report says that the first NTFP classification system to be formally recognized in Vietnamwas the “List of Special Forest Product Species Under Sectoral Unified Management”, 1984. The list classifies NTFP into two major categories, Forest Flora and Forest Fauna, and each of these categories is divided into sub-sections. The classification in the list seems scientifically correct but it is a little hard to imagine concrete NTFP.

The report adopts the next practical classification:

1) Fiber products (1.1 Bamboo, 1.2 Rattan)

2) Plants derived food products (2.1 Cinnamon, 2.2 Anise, 2.3 Amomum aromaticum)

3) Medicinal plants (3.1 Amomum spp., 3.2 Ginseng Ngoc Linh, 3.3 Morinda officinalis)

4) Extractive Products (4.1 Plant Oleoresins, 4.2 Essential Oils, 4.3 Fat oils)

5) Wild Animal and Wild Animal Products (5.1 Lac, 5.2 Wild animals)

Based on the above classification, our team classified NTFP which are important in HoaBinhProvincein order to make this Study easy to understand for local farmers, extension workers and the C/P.

3. Role of NTFP

We should consider that role of NTFP is development of a new field in the activities of farmers and to make a change for their livelihood, not to bring a temporally income like a lucky punch. It is necessary for farmers to make an enough plan and preparation in order to enjoy the development.

Activities in our life can be compared to soccer games because there are “defense” and “offense” in the both activities. That is to say, defending from points lost means preparation for the worst, and attack to score a goal means improvement of a living. For farmers in mountain area in HoaBinhProvince, preparation for the worst means survival and improvement of a living means change of a living.

And all kinds of produce have a role for a living as soccer players are divided into three groups, forward, midfielder and back. What is the role of NTFP, midfielder or back or forward? Midfielders are main players to make a formation of a team, so they correspondent with staple produce for the living of farmers, Maize, Cassava, Rice, Beans and so on. Of course NTFP also have possibility to become midfielders but they need to have a lot of experience in producing and selling, and enough market, hence NTFP which can become a midfielder is limited to Bamboo (Bambooshoot) and other local specialties.

How about a role of backs for NTFP? Some farmers talked us in our field survey that when they need money in an emergent situation, they will cut their trees which have high economic value. These treatments for accidents are one example for utilization of NTFP as a back player. Though NTFP is a method of getting cash, there is a more suitable item in rural area, livestock.

The advantages of livestock are 1) marketability, 2) eatable, and 3) reversible. Buffalo, Cow, Hog and Chicken have a general established market, which means they can be sold at fixed price whenever farmers want to sell. And when staple crops have damage and they face shortage of food, livestock can literally become a great dinner. When the situation goes back to normal, farmers try to reset their stocks in order to provide for the next emergency. They can buy same animal consumed in the last emergency by money but nobody can return 30 years old trees to their mountain in a few years.

It is a role of forward that NTFP should accomplish. In mountain area, there are many advantageous conditions, which a farmer in flat area cannot enjoy, e.g. forest, caves, mountain climate, wild plant/animal etc., though it is fact that productivity of ordinary crops in mountain area is lower than that in flat.

4. General remarks on NTFP

4-1. Preparation before the beginning of activities on NTFP

Activities on NTFP as forward players need enough trainings, funds and time in order to struggle for them, strategically. Thus farmers should review their main activities for staple produce, first, and improve the productivity and profitability. Second, they should reconsider their activities in livestock growing to establish appropriate stock for their living.

Are the number and combination of livestock suitable for their livelihood? Is utilization of animal traction, calves, pigs and eggs carried out effectively? If they have some issues for improvement in their backs, they should repair them before the beginning of activities on NTFP as well as their midfielders.

4-2. Classification of NTFP for practice

If we describe a crucial point for selection of NTFP in a phrase, it is easiness to introduce, namely, little preparation, less investment and easy to grow. From this concept, we can classify NTFP into three types as follows:

Preparation includes collection of information, training/planning for growing and marketing, and procurement of material, equipment and funds.

4-3. Phased approach to NTFP

The phases from A to C show not only the required skill level but also turn to be introduced. Phase A is for beginner of NTFP, and target products are familiar plants like grasses, which are easy to plant without special material. In this phase farmers can experiment with marketing and inventing for growing or processing. Farmers whose condition does not allow introducing NTFP in phase A can skip it and start from phase B but they should not forget to practice them in phase B.

In phase B, farmers try to introduce higher skill and cost than phase A. Two purposes are considered, 1) to continue the lesson of NTFP in more difficult phase, 2) to make money for phase C. Generally, planting of trees takes more than four years up to harvesting the produce and does not need a lot of time for tending. Hence, it is advisable that farmers should begin to plant NTFP in phase B as soon as possible.

Challenge to NTFP in phase C is required comparatively high skill, which needs experimental training more than one year, and high initial cost. Farmers who try to enter phase C should take enough time and money for the preparation. Nevertheless, they will fail sometimes before reaching success. But they can enjoy the trial with their forwards because they have enough midfielders and proper backs.

4-4. Recommendable NTFP in HoaBinhProvince

We made a list of recommendable NTFP in HoaBinhProvinceas follows, based on result of our field survey, which was carried out in three provinces for eight days, focusing on firsthand observation and field interview.

We selected these NTFP from candidates, which had passed the crucial criterion, “easiness to introduce”, through three economic criteria:

1) Demand of market or self-consumption (Demand)

2) Easy to sell

3) Economic value (Profitability)

4-5. Basic strategy of NTFP

Though farmers have to make a strategy for each NTFP in accordance with their situations and the condition of NTFP, there are some common points, to which farmers have to pay attention, such as follows:

1) Advantage in mountain area

2) Vertical expand (Farmer > Buyer >Dealer < Shop < Consumer)

3) Value-added (Special product, Organic produce, Niche market)

4) Cost reduction (Transportation, Cooperative work, Planned work)

1) is to consider the advantage of mountain area as mentioned above. It is not only with regard to product itself but its material, equipment, facility, processing and marketing. 2) is to consider downstream of distribution. Many farmers have no idea how the NTFP, which they sold to buyer, are dealt since they just follow a buyer’s order, but it is important for farmers. They may expand their roles to some functions of buyer. If they know the distribution, they may find new hints about the transportation. Information about the trend of consumer may make a farmer estimate the long-term demand.

Farmers have to try to heighten the value of their produce. Ordinal local produce can be made anywhere, but once brand was established, it becomes a special product, which can be made only in the village. They should also struggle for the reduction of cost, that economic effect is same as value-added. The first target is how to reduce the cost of transportation. The most efficient combination should be selected from available method, horse-drawn, motorbike, shipping and cooperative transportation.

5. Details on NTFP in HoaBinhProvince

5-1. Honey

Honey production has enough latent market, and beekeeping in northern part of Vietnamseem to continue expanding for the time being. In Son La Province, there is an association of beekeeping, and they have a plan to increase number of beekeepers and the quantity of produce. Before survey in Son La, we were afraid of the technical possibility for introduction of beekeeping in HoaBinhProvincebecause there is little information about experiment of beekeeping in Hoa Binh, but we could confirm that beekeeping is feasible in an area where can secure nectar only two seasons in Hoa Binh.

Part-time beekeeping can use two or three flower seasons for producing, though large-scale beekeepers in Son La are traveling in accordance with flower seasons to keep the best producing condition all the year round. Part-time beekeepers can get more than half quantity of the honey, produced by full-time keepers, because main seasons are March/April and September/October. Bees can survive by sugar water over three months without nectar, which means that part-time beekeepers do not need to buy new bees every year.

1) A pilot of beekeeping should be established by the extension workers in HoaBinhProvincein order to show a model for farmers who intend to begin beekeeping. An organization for beekeepers like the association in Son La Province will be required in the future.

2) Standard models for seasonal part-time beekeeping in Hoa Binh should be established in the pilot. Especially, skills for queen bee keeping and management of swarms are important topics. They have to keep their swarms without nectar during dry season.

3) Also, number of beehives and initial cost for beginning have to be studied in the pilot. According to advices from beekeepers in Son La, the break-even point of beekeeping seems to be around 40 hives, but beginners should start with minimum hives in order to progress step by step, confirming their plans. Hence the lending system of a trial kit for beginners will be effective way to introduce beekeeping.

1) Market research for finding outlets is the first priority. If considerable amount can be gathered, beekeepers will be able to sell by themselves even at roadside shops though utilization of dealers is quicker and general way. It is a good method to set up antenna shops in markets in HoaBinhTownor HanoiCityto grasp consumers’ tastes.

2) Promotion and development of new products are necessary for pollen, because it is not well known yet though the effect and taste of honey are familiar to ordinary people. Honey and pollen are major produce of beekeeping in northern Vietnam, and pollen also has high nutrition, which is good for health.

3) High economical value produce of beekeeping, such as royal jelly or propolis has potential to expand the market in the future, because a lot of natural produce is widely used as a medicine, traditionally, and those products are dealt at high price in some foreign countries. Now, produce of queen bees’ honey is a little since it is a time-consuming work and the current price of the honey is not high, but if they succeed in developing the market, it will increase the value of all products and may establish a brand of honey in Hoa Binh.

5-2. Mushroom

Only two kinds of mushroom can seen in a market in Hoa Binh Town, Namthong and Ngahn nhi, though there are many kinds of bamboo shoots. It seems that mushroom has high potential to expand their demand in internal market. In Don Xuan Market in HanoiCity, more kinds of dried mushroom are sold, some of them are imported and some are produced in other provinces.

Mushroom is one of the major objects to research and extend for Agricultural Genetic Institute in Hanoi. They have enough experience about the planting, processing and marketing of mushroom, and try to expand the producing more. The Center for Plant Biotechnology of the Institute has not only experimental facilities/fields but also fine training programs for farmers/extension workers.

5-3. Lac

Lac is material, which is used in electrical and electronic industry, made from sap by an insect. It is called Canh Kien do in Vietnamese, and means both the produce and the insect. Lac business in Vietnamhas long history and about half of households in Van Mai Commune, Mai Chau District produces still now.

The demand is decreasing in comparison with a decade ago, because former major client were electrical makers in Russia. And the skill of produce has some difficulties, 1) the trees are not strong to grow, 2) A heavy rain spoils the produce, 3) Quality is greatly influenced by weather and soil conditions. These factors are seemed to limit the production and also create the high economic value.

6. Necessity of detail study for each NTFP

◎: Crucial, ○: Necessary, △: Not so important, ×: No need

Latest news

• OFT RENFODA Report No. 6: Market Development Survey
• OFT RENFODA Report No.7: Participatory Activity Framework Development (PAFD) in 2004
• OFT RENFODA Report No.5: Participatory Rural Appraisal in Binh Thanh and Hien Luong communes
• OFT RENFODA Report No. 4: Agroforestry and Animal Husbandry Survey
• OFT RENFODA Report No. 3: Workshop on Target Village Selection

Oldest news

• Preliminary Experimental Results of Research Component
• Legal Provisions on Forest Protection and Development in the Watershed Area
• November 2007 RENFODA Newsleter Vol. 10
• October 2007 RENFODA Newsleter Vol. 9
• September 2007 RENFODA Newsleter Vol. 8