The MoU was signed by Shirley Tarawali, Assistant Director General at ILRI, and Vu Van Tam, the Vice Minister of MARD (photo credit: ILRI/Thinh Nguyen).

A new agreement between the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) in Vietnam will boost efforts towards improving the competitiveness and livelihoods of smallholder livestock farmers in the country.

The revised memorandum of understanding (MoU), which was signed on 17 August 2015 in Hanoi, will increase cooperation between MARD and ILRI in livestock sector research and development in Vietnam.

Signed by Shirley Tarawali, Assistant Director General at ILRI, and Vu Van Tam, the Vice Minister of MARD, the new MoU updates a previous agreement signed in 2007 and will focus on priority smallholder livestock development areas described in the country’s livestock restructuring plan including

1. Smallholder livestock production in remote and poor rural areas

2. Conservation and utilization of animal genetic diversity including indigenous pigs and chickens

3. Enhancement of market competitiveness of smallholders by addressing constraints to feeds, food safety, institutions and policy, to meet domestic demand and tap export markets

4. Development of value chains

5. Mitigation of risks inherent in changing agricultural systems including zoonotic emerging infectious diseases, and

6. Mitigation of risks inherent in livestock environmental management, and risks to system integrity and environmental services.

Since the earlier agreement, ILRI has worked with Vietnamese partners on several projects on livestock research and development that have contributed to livestock policy development in the country and strengthened the capacity of Vietnamese partners and farmers.

ILRI Assistant Director General Shirley Tarawali being interviewed during the signing ceremony, which was covered by local Vietnamese media, including the Voice of Vietnam (photo credit: ILRI/Thinh Nguyen).

Under the new accord, ILRI hopes to establish a long-term partnership with MARD, which will, among other goals, seek to align livestock research for development with national policy and the country’s livestock sector restructuring plan.

Steve Staal, Regional Representative for East and Southeast Asia, and Hung Nguyen, ILRI Vietnam Country Representative, attended the event.

Chu Van Chuong, Deputy Director General of MARD International Cooperation Department (ICD), and officials from the Department of Livestock Production, the National Institute of Animal Sciences, the Institute of Policy and Strategy for Agriculture and Rural Development, the Department of Animal Health, the National Institute of Veterinary Research, the Vietnam Academy of Agricultural Sciences, the Vietnam National University of Agriculture, the Ministry of Health and other CGIAR centres in Vietnam were also in attendance.

ILRI and key Vietnamese partners then discussed the long-term partnership plans after the signing ceremony.

Steve Staal, East and Southeast Asia Regional Representative, and Hung Nguyen, Vietnam Country Representative, were among the ILRI senior staff present at the signing ceremony (photo credit: ILRI/Thinh Nguyen).

At present, CGIAR is developing a new set of research programs that will work through a number of ‘CGIAR collaboration countries’, including Vietnam, where CGIAR centres and programs will work more closely with the relevant national authorities to bring together research results from CGIAR and national partners to address national development challenges.

Learn more about the high-level meeting held in June 2015 that preceded this signing ceremony.