Nguyen Duy Thuan, CEO, LocTroi Group

Loc Troi as well as farmers in the Mekong Delta have a role to take action because we know that we contribute greatly to Vietnam’s greenhouse emissions, and we have an obligation to limit this.

Our operations cover nearly two million hectares and one million farmer households. Our ecosystem covers a large scale of farming operations and scientific research. We produce input for farmers, invest in farmers, and buy back harvested rice from farmers. We also aim to innovate in more bioproducts, circulate more products, and reduce greenhouse gases (GHGs) from rice cultivation.

We create bio fertiliser, which leads to reducing the nitrogen oxide in the air. Loc Troi also creates biomass through husk pellets, straw collection, and bioplastics, which leads to no carbon dioxide in the air after harvest time.

Our circular activities bring more income for farmers as well as reduce the cost of waste treatment, reduce natural resources like water, reduce GHGs like methane and nitric oxide by applying new cultivation protocols, and reduce the amount of straw being burned on rice fields.

These activities lead to creating 10 carbon credits per hectare per crop. In general, the Mekong Delta can contribute nearly 50 million carbon credits annually. Loc Troi commits to sharing all profits with farmers, who are the main contributors of these achievements.

The question is how to scale up these achievements. We think that the best way to do this is to make sure that we are doing everything right the first time, then calling for support from all stakeholders such as farmers, authorities, and financial institutions to scale it up.

It is important to have a sharing scheme to satisfy all stakeholders involved. In our case, farmers are the first to be involved in order to increase their incomes, then the social benefit to strengthen the rural living environment.

Our solutions are incentivising farmers and include whole communities into our action programmes. Firstly, we supply all input by credit at the beginning of the crop and buy back harvested rice at the end. By receiving input without cash payments, farmers do not have to borrow money with a high interest rate and do not have to use excessive amounts as recommended by suppliers.

The second solution is incentive. We launched several bonus programmes for farmers to encourage them to collect all pesticide bottles from rice fields, and all rice straw not to be burned, and reduce prices for drone services as a bonus for farmers who use them for spaying instead of manual spray. This helps avoid direct exposure to chemicals. We also have a toxic release programme for drone operators to reduce chemical residue on their bodies.