Complementary to Vietnam’s national water resource strategies, the Australian Center for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR)’s priorities for South Central Costal Vietnam (SCC VN) include development and promotion of sustainable practices to protect water resources. Between 2007 and 2012, ACIAR funded two projects in SCC VN. These were SMCN 2003/035 “Improving the utilization of water and soil resources for tree crop production in coastal Vietnam and NSW” and SMCN 2007/109 “Sustainable and profitable crop and livestock systems for southern central coastal Vietnam”.

Recommendations emerging from the external review of these projects highlighted the need to assess the sustainability of groundwater dependent agriculture in SCC VN. Recommendations also highlighted a need to protect groundwater resources from overexploitation, nutrient contamination and salinisation. Following on from previous projects, ACIAR commissioned the small research activity (SRA) SMCN 2012/017 “Opportunities to improve the sustainable utilisation and management of water and soil resources for coastal agriculture in Vietnam and Australia”. The primary aim for this SRA is to scope out opportunities for a large ACIAR project focused on water and soil resource priorities for SCC VN. The following report presents outcomes from a scoping study conducted under this SRA.

Originally Published by: Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research.