Page 11 - Agricultural innovation

• In coastal areas, attention has been paid to applying sustainable aquaculture models such as
shrimp, crab, clams or sea duck farming.
• In the Northern Midlands and Mountains and the North Central and Central Coast with limited
land and climate conditions, there are also quite typical innovation models, strongly shifting
from poor food crop cultivation effectively to crops and livestock for higher income combined
with tourism agriculture, multi-value agriculture, etc.
• In the Central Highlands region, shift from mono-cropping of coffee to multi-cropping with
fruit trees, pepper or develop landscape coffee and organic coffee. The coffee bean processing
industry is given more due attention through the building of specialty coffee brands and certified
coffee from international trade organizations such as 4C, Utz, Fair Trade or Forest Alliance to
increase added value.

• In the Southeast and the Mekong Delta, Vietnam’s major agricultural commodity production
center, has focused on large production models for export. The production scale of farming
households in the region is much larger than in other regions, but it cannot overcome the
fragmentation in the production of agricultural commodities. Therefore, one of the popular
innovation models in the province is the large-field model in rice production. “Large sample
field” or “large field” is a rice field where farmers grow one type of rice and the enterprise provides
seeds and guidance on cultivation techniques; at the same time, businesses underwrite products,
etc. This is considered a four-way linkage (farmers–businesses–government–scientists) in rice
production and consumption. Many shrimp farming technologies have been formed in localities
in the Mekong Delta, such as the shrimp farming model of My Lan Group in Tra Vinh, applying
many advances and technologies in machinery (feeding machines, buoys to monitor water
temperature, salty, etc.). Responding to climate change and saltwater intrusion in the region,
farmers have strongly shifted from the intensive two-crop monoculture model to the rice-shrimp
or fish-shrimp model for more stable income and reduced risks.

In summary, innovation models in agriculture and rural development in countries in the Mekong
sub-region (Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam) are diverse and at different levels. This diversity and richness
has been gathered and analyzed by national research reports. Therefore, this report only summarizes
typical models so that countries can learn and apply in the specific conditions of each country. These
models are focused on main contents including i) application of science and technology; ii) improving
institutions to support the improvement of agricultural and rural development policies; and
iii) sustainable and climate change adaptive agriculture.

3. SOME INNOVATION MODELS IN AGRICULTURAL
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

3.1. Eli-Seeder of Brooklyn Bridge in Cambodia
3.1.1. General information

Eli-Seeder is a rice seeding tool developed by Brooklyn to Bridge Cambodia (BB2C) engineers which was
launched in 2015. Prior to making Eli Seeder, Paula Shirk, the founder of BB2C who is an experienced
entrepreneur, grew her connection to Cambodia after having adopted a Cambodian boy and had been
living in Cambodia for years and saw the challenges for Cambodian smallholder farmers, while back in
the United States, she was born into a farming family and understand clearly how important irrigation
system is to farmers. Therefore, BB2C developed Rudi Khmer Pump, a treadle pump that is designed

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