Impact story Notifications On: Timely climate alerts boost farmers’ resilience across Vietnam’s Mekong River Delta

With hundreds of thousands of smallholder farmers reached towards climate service-informed decision making, Vietnam’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) honored the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT with its Certificate of Merit for developing and disseminating Agro-Climatic Bulletins (ACBs) across the 13 provinces in the Mekong River Delta. 

“ACBs contribute to the success of production at all levels from central to local levels, helping farmers change their farming practices, reducing input cost as well as crop losses,” Ms. Tran Thi My Hanh, technical staff of MARD’s Department of Crop Production (DCP) said. “The recognition emphasizes the contribution of ACBs to agricultural development, encouraging and motivating individuals and government agencies to maintain and further scaling out ACBs in the country.” 

The Alliance, at the time of the award in April this year, was the sole international organization recognized with the certificate—alongside two government agencies (the sub-departments of Crop Production of Tien Giang and An Giang provinces) and 10 government staff—for its pivotal role advancing rural and agricultural development in the country’s delta region. The timely release of the bulletins remains instrumental in empowering more than 270,000 farmers to make informed crop decisions, enabling them to better manage risks and prepare against unpredictable climate conditions. 

The bulletins provide localized recommendations based on seasonal, monthly, and 10-day climate and weather forecasts. These advisories are developed at the district level through consultations with various district and provincial agricultural experts who form the provincial-level Technical Working Group (TWG).

Currently, ACBs are disseminated in 70 districts and 547 communes throughout the Mekong River Delta helping smallholder farmers significantly reduce the risk of production losses, particularly in the face of challenging climatic conditions such as saltwater intrusion and drought, a local media reported.

While farmers are reached through multiple communication channels—such as digital media, loudspeakers, printed posters, and capacity training sessions by government agencies and civil society groups—the bulletins are primarily disseminated through Zalo, the most popular mobile messaging application used in Vietnam.

On Zalo, farmers are notified of tailored district-level advisories every 10 days for more efficient crop farming, highlighting potential risks for key crops and outlining some of the effective management strategies such as when to sow seeds, apply inputs, and harvest crops, among others. The messaging application alone has efficiently reached more than 50,000 users within 979 chat groups, with many others benefiting from the information through peer-to-peer networks. 

The recent recognition has fueled the Alliance and its partners to increase the reach of the bulletins, serving more smallholder farmers beyond the delta region, Climate Action Lead in Asia Cornelis Swaans said.

Applying Human-Centered Design principles, the ACB approach is being improved to ensure that users and partners are placed in the center of the development process. This approach guarantees that products and services are being adapted and improved based on evolving needs. Supplementary training materials are also being developed and will be integrated as QR codes in the bulletins’ 10-day advisory shared through Zalo, which will then be tested with users in the coming months. 

Other team members: Lam Luong, Dung Pham, and Viet Quoc Hoang