Even while there has been relatively little attention, T-learning has been practiced in the Mekong Delta already since around 2000. It started with the engagement of a few agricultural and environmental academics and experts from Can Tho University, starting with a limited sample of six smallholder peasants in Phong Dien District.

Owning relatively small lands of less than one hectare up to 2 hectares and using mostly family labor engaging in monoculture, notably growing one crop of rice annually, much of this was for private consumption. As rice production grew ever more problematic given climate change with yields declining year by year, they believed they were smart to shift to planting orchards with oranges and mangos. Things went well for a time. Yet they were in for a bad surprise when – in the early 1990s – extreme weather conditions and a drop in fruit prices following much more production led numerous farmers to experience financial hardship – and to bankruptcy in some cases.

The evolution of these processes of joint “learning by doing” engaging peasants and experts will be depicted in this section, targeting innovative methods under what has come to be known as the VACB model. The VACB is a poly-culture model combining 4 elements: Vườn (literally meaning orchard), “Ao” (fish farming/fishpond), “Chuồng” (livestock farm), and Biogas. The objective of this model is to increase and stabilize farmer revenues and reduce the environmental burden caused by traditional intensive monoculture. This farming system is also family-managed, with practically all labor coming from the household.

The selected farmers are those who have years-long experience in farming and recognized prestige in their villages and who committed to sharing their experiences and progress reports with their neighbors. They were supported to set up a few “sample fields” where this low-carbon and climate-resilient agricultural VACB model was employed.

In the VACB model, orchards (V) usually vary from a few hundred to five thousand square meters and are comprised of fruit- or nut-producing trees that are generally grown for commercial production. Commonly grown fruit crops include orange, pomelo, mengteng (a sour, lychee-like fruit), durian, rambutan, and mangosteen. Vegetables grown include green onion, sweet potato, cress, tomato, cabbage and water spinach. Both perennial and annual crops are planted to provide year-round food to the house and products for the market. Fishponds (A) are usually constructed close to the house and surrounded by orchards. There can be a few small fishponds in a 1-ha orchard, with different shapes and an average depth of 1.2–2 m. The livestock pens (C) for pigs are constructed at the corner of the orchard close to the pond. Pig dung no longer gets washed into the river or becomes concentrated around the farm because it is drained by an installed bio-digester that transforms livestock manure through anaerobic digestion into fertilizer for algae (a commonly used food source for fish) and methane gas – an environmentally benign bio-gas (Bosold 2012). The biogas system (B) digests pig dung and vegetation and generates the methane gas byproduct, which is used for cooking, generating electricity, and pumping water for irrigation in the orchards. Digested and clean organic material then are released to the surrounding fishponds where it acts as fertilizer (Bosold 2012).

After two years of implementation, the VACB sample fields have resulted in fruitful outcomes with higher incomes but minimized polluting emissions. Many research findings confirmed that the VACB model is especially beneficial for women as it reduces the time that women spend in collecting fuel, cooking, and cleaning cookware dirtied by wood-smoke. It also saves them money by eliminating the cost of commercial gas or firewood and improves their health by managing animal waste and reducing indoor air pollution from woodstoves (Bosold 2012; Chiem 2012; Clare 2017).

Since 2000, the number of participants (family representatives) has rapidly increased year by year, from 110 in 2000 to 625 in 2012 (Chiem 2012), mainly due to technical and financial supports from Can Tho University and NGOs. From 2013 to 2017, the nationwide decrease in pig prices, along with other economic shocks associated with reduced support from Can Tho University, impeded the expansion of the VACB model to other communes (see Table 1).

Obviously, in relatively remote rural areas amongst male and female farmers who have not benefited from much education – with little teaching or training in terms of creativity or independent reflection – awareness of massive, cross border and global climate change developments and impacts, is limited. Government-led climate response policies have been tentative, with examples where initial solutions became problems themselves (Mongabay 2016; The Diplomat 2017a, b). Most farmers were, and are, expected to fend for themselves and there was little evidence of community-based approaches of sharing ideas, plans and actual novel practices. But in 2018, the Mekong Environment Forum (MEF) started to implement a project to engage with, and support, local communities. MEF brought together academics, agricultural experts, male and female farmers as well as village youths who are assumed to want to learn and hopefully initiate change in their local areas. The project was implemented with financial support from the U.S. Consulate in Ho Chi Minh City, under the name “Flying Cranes Project”. It has a concrete problem-solving agenda in addressing key environmental threats: extreme weather and environmental conditions, and local non-sustainable economic activities, which, in turn, often contribute to water pollution.

The project objective was to build and develop community capacity in response to environmental changes through “learning by doing” and “adult learning process” (T-learning) approaches taught through a series of citizen science training workshops. To meet those objectives and promote grassroots sustainable transition, MEF has implemented the following activities (Mekong Environment Forum 2018):

• Five experts and eight volunteer students from Can Tho University worked together to teach local farmers and youth new technologies and mobilize them to use these techniques in their day-to-day work. The goal was to gradually shift participants’ livelihoods from traditional farming practices to a modern, eco-friendly agricultural model that could meet people’s economic needs without degrading local ecosystems or increasing social disorder. Twenty small-scale shrimp farmers in Phong Dien commune (a coastal commune in Ca Mau Province) were selected to engage in T-learning under the supervision of experts and volunteers.

• A 2-hectare sample field was set up in the commune by the project to employ a climate-resilient poly-culture model. This model enables farmers to diversify their crops, shifting from intensive shrimp production to poly-crop in the same pond. Thus, it helps increase household incomes and economic self-reliance since farmers can harvest different profitable crops (seagrass, fish, crab) day-to-day while waiting for the main crop (shrimp). The poly-culture model encourages farmers to restore mangrove cover in the shrimp ponds to reduce impacts from weather extremes (such as high temperatures and cyclones), increase the local ecosystem’s ability to absorb waste, and to offer natural food and shelter for naturally-occurring harvestable species (oysters, shrimps, fish and crabs).

In the demonstration site, land-owners were supervised by experts to do farming in a sustainable manner while other smallholders were invited to visit and observe how new techniques work, how water quality is naturally purified by the restored seagrass and mangroves, and how the poly-culture improves revenues through add-on crops. Three field-based meetings have been organized at the sample field – a kind of informal school where participants met regularly to share information, make regular field observations, and learn new techniques through practice.

Farmers were asked to compare what they learnt from the field-based school with their own past experiences in order to better understand how eco-friendly farming practices enable them to reach a long-term balance between nature and economic return. Most participating farmers agreed that the mangroves and seagrass help reduce their spending on food for shrimp and fertilizers for water treatment. They also learnt that the poly-culture may bring less shrimp productivity than they expect, but it demonstrates the potential to offer much more stable and sustainable income sources than traditional shrimp farming. The poly-culture model is a solution for the ecological conflict between mangrove conservation and shrimp farming in Mekong Delta coastal provinces. Their responses provided feedback to the team of experts and contributed to revisions of the model that will help this approach be more effective if it is applied elsewhere. The process also provided useful field experience for experts and students and will contribute to their professional development and future research.

In the Flying Cranes Project, the project team organized two training workshops in Phong Dien commune (March and May 2019, respectively) to raise awareness about environmental changes, water insecurity, and sustainable development concepts among local community members. Before each workshop, the team carried out surveys to collect information and understand the urgent local needs. After completing the workshop, participants were asked to fill out a questionnaire with closed and open questions. Our comparison of the survey results from before and after the workshop indicates that locals’ awareness of the role mangroves play in environmental protection and local water security was significantly improved. Below are some measureable outcomes excerpted from the project report (Mekong Environment Forum 2018).

• 35% increase in productivity and economic efficiency;
• Comparatively higher levels of income and economic diversity: after four months participating farmers have harvested 3 different crops from the same pond: fresh crab, shrimp and fish. The average income per monoculture crop (4 months) of each household before participating in the project was VND 12,600,000 (approximately US$560). The average income after the first poly-culture crop harvested in early September 2018 was VND 17,000,000 (approximately US$ 756). With the polycrop, farmers can harvest some kinds of fish inhabiting the mangrove and seagrass in the shrimp pond on a daily basis. The fish species are natural inhabitants from the river and grow up by themselves thanks to the food and habitat provided by the mangrove and seagrass;
• Cost savings and additional revenues:
  1. – In a traditional 4-month monoculture crop, a 1-ha shrimp pond needs VND 4,500,000–6,000,000 (approximately US$ 200–300) for fertilizers and pesticides.
  2. – Mangrove, seagrass and new techniques improve the water quality, reducing the costs for fertilizers, waste water treatment, and preventing common diseases. Participating farmers have invested VND 1,300,000 – 2,000,000 (less than US$ 100) per poly-culture crop for fertilizers to stabilize pH and water quality in response to weather uncertainties.
  3. – Shrimp is the main crop, but harvesting crab, seagrass (bulrush), and fish from nature provides additional daily income for shrimp pond owners while they await shrimp growth.

Let us now consider the evidence that was collected regarding the impacts for farmers who employ the VACB system. In 2017–18, surveys followed by in-depth interviews covering 120 farmers were conducted in four communes of Phong Dien District: Truong Long, Nhon Nghia, Giai Xuan, and My Khanh (see Figure 2). Information was gathered on household-level impacts of VACB project in terms of economic, energy, environmental, and sustainability areas. The outcome of comparing the revenues generated from VACB and from traditional crops is shown in Tables 2 and 3 respectively below. Most VCAB farmers managed to double their incomes, and in addition, to spread their risks through other subsidiary crops. Importantly, such households have reduced their debts and fewer incidences where they feel forced to migrate to cities and/or work as the number of wage laborers fell.

Figure 2.

Distribution of VACB system by communes in Phong Dien District (by T-learning research group in Can Tho University).

This is confirmed in a household survey indicating a reduced dependency on remittances from family members working elsewhere (Table 2). Many VACB farmers are now in a position to enroll children in higher education or specific professional training. On the whole they appear to have gained a stronger economic condition as they are more resilient, making new choices possible that used to be elusive. Farmers adopting the VCAB system may now diversify to work with crops or animals – smartly adjusting to changes, for example an unexpected drought/flood or a price fall. Hence they may be able to reduce working time in their fields as the system is entirely closed. This leads Eyler (2019) to say that VACB farmers “bring in nothing from outside of their farm, no pesticides, fertilizers, or antibiotics to maintain its productivity”.

In responses to our surveys, VACB farmers in Phong Dien stated that their daily life now includes feeding their livestock, tending their orchards, and filling biogas digesters with pig dung, water cabbage, or biomass. “We really enjoy this farming model, and maintaining the system doesn’t require a lot of work. Now the system can take care of itself. Sometimes, I don’t have to tend to it for a few weeks,” said Mr. Le Hoang Thanh, one of the proudest and most ingenious VACB farmers in the Mekong Delta.

Participants have helped university experts to train other monoculture farming households in making the transition and have also been invited to conventional events, workshops, and TV talk shows to share their success stories.

Table 3 shows that farmers who have kept on farming in the traditional ways and often grow rice as a monoculture crop, do earn less, and are less able to cope both with climate change impacts and fluctuating market prices. It is important to note that many small-scale rice farmers are women. With their incomes irregular and less predictable, they keep searching for additional incomes though temporary, poorly-paid cleaning or productive work or other income-generating activities. This appears to specifically apply to farmers with less than 0.5 hectares of land. The incidence of sons and daughters migrating to big cities or industrial zones in search of better paid work is highest here, just like the importance of monthly remittances to their families. These may make up as much as almost one-third of their family annual income (Table 3).

So although the T-learning process endeavors to engage with all sort of farmers: bigger and smaller, rice or mango, male or female, young(er) and old(er), it is critical to stress that not all of them can be easily motivated or supported to change their ways. There is a cultural, socio-economic dynamic here. Nearly 80% of the Mekong Delta people are engaged in agriculture and fishery, and have done so for generations in the context of the one party-state of Vietnam. They are often rather passive in terms of self-reliance and self-confidence, their attitudes no doubt stemming from the ideology “the state leads and all should follow” (The Diplomat 2017a). Such historical, cultural and political factors need to be acknowledged in any intervention including novel models of T-learning. Innovation, creativity and publicly proposing new ideas can be a bridge too far for many: people may remain “very superstitious and overly protective,” and not open-minded (Eyler 2019). When proposing and establishing T-Learning, it is critical to first map such information and build it carefully from there – at the risk of people not getting engaged and actually becoming a challenge to new ideas or solutions.

The basic indication of sustainability is self-reliance, especially economic self-reliance (Bridger and Luloff 1999; Fonchingong and Fonjong 2003). A community demonstrates its self-reliance by showing that its members are confident and have the capacity and skills to garner and hold economic resources to meet their essential needs in a sustainable manner (Godfrey 2008). The measure of community self-reliance is based on a diverse set of indicators which are grouped into five clusters: (i) economic inclusive development, (ii) gender equity and female empowerment, (iii) water and energy security, (iv) community education, (v) community climate resilience. These five clusters and attendant component indicators were designed in accordance with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Table 4 outlines the progress that the VACB communities in Phong Dien District have made in the given self-reliance indicator clusters. Targets were set to clarify what is meant by “demonstrated progress,” and to clearly state expectations.

Given the figures shown in Table 4, the VACB communities in Phong Dien District have achieved two-thirds (17 out of 25) of targets set to demonstrate their self-reliance. The self-reliant VACB communities have also demonstrated progress in key goals that constitute the MDGs and SDGs, namely: Mobilized communities that continuously set and achieve their own development goals (Cluster 1); Empowered women and girls (Cluster 1 and 2); Improved access to safe drinking water and sanitation facilities (Cluster 3); Improved literacy and education (Cluster 1 and 4); Improved gender-equal access to and use of development resources (Cluster 2, 3 and 5); Improved land productivity and climate resilience of smallholder farmers (Cluster 5).

When the VACB communities have achieved the targets set to demonstrate their self-reliance, the VACB project gradually activates its exit strategy by reducing financial inputs and scaling down supporting activities with the exception of less-frequent staff visits and a post-project three to five months later in a select number of locations. Given that community leadership plays a key role in aiding the continuity and development of grassroots innovations, which operate in niches and require nurturing, the project’s exit strategy also emphasizes training in community leadership and management.

Before this milestone was achieved, local communities went through a transition period during which T-learning workshops were the key activity to introduce new ideas and solutions without inciting doubt, dismay or concern. The workshops targeted local farmers, women, and ethnic minority representatives, many of whom are relatively conservative and not open-minded. For many years, local farmers have experienced noticeable changes to their environment that adversely affect their crop productivity, such as rising temperatures, irregular flooding and droughts, and environmental degradation.

In our training workshop, Lam Thi Suol, 41, an ethnic Khmer farmer in Phong Dien Commune, explained how she and her neighbors have been experiencing environmental changes in her village. “It seems to be almost 2 times hotter than it was ten years ago. Drought season seems to last longer and longer with uncertain, unpredictable precipitation… In the past, we could drink water directly from rivers or pools while working in the rice fields. But in recent years, you see, the rivers get heavily contaminated due to saline intrusion, so we have to stop using this major water source, even for irrigation,” she said.

Suol is among millions of farmers and fishermen in the Mekong Delta who completely rely on the waterways’ fish resources and agricultural production for their subsistence, and have observed the changing circumstances over many years. With very low literacy rates, however, they were unable to understand the root causes of the problems they have been facing, and as a result, failed to search for a sustainable and resilient model that they could adapt their life to.

Thus, a series of T-learning workshops were regularly organized to build confidence, capacity and skills at the household and community levels. Suol and 650 other farmers in Phong Dien District (Can Tho City) and Phong Dien Commune (Ca Mau Province) have been invited to attend these workshops.

The T-learning activities in VACB and Flying Cranes projects demonstrate that changes in livelihood constitute a process of transformation in which trainees, or “T-learners,” have gradually changed their mind, perception, attitude and confidence through new experiences. During the workshops, emerging environmental changes and challenges appear to serve as a disorienting dilemma forcing T-learners to reconsider their traditional perspectives and farming habits. Since most training workshops took place in local fields (orchards, fishing ponds, pastures, paddy fields, etc.), they can be described as “field-based schools” – a kind of institutional platform where participants (particularly farmers and experts) meet regularly to make information sharing, regular field observations and learn new techniques on the job. Local farmers are expected to compare what they have learnt from the field-based schools with past experiences to pursue eco-friendly farming practices that enable them to meet economic needs without degrading the local environment. In this T-learning process, local farmers were asked to work in groups in accordance with their expertise, interests, and geographical proximity.

More than 12 professional courses have been offered by CTU experts on different VACB‐related topics, from horticultural diversification, swine farming techniques, swine disease prevention and treatment, fish hatching and fish stock management, to biogas plant construction and maintenance. Each training course, which was structured around a theoretical component followed by practical sessions, lasted normally from one to three days or sometimes longer and enrolled 30–40 farmers, women, and ethnic minority representatives. A few outstanding trainees from these courses were appointed to work as group facilitators to sustain and lead T-learning activities after the project completed.

The third sustainability dimension stresses the energy and environmental security which means that “the use of energy and material is in balance with the local ecosystem’s ability to absorb waste” (Bridger and Luloff 1999). The VACB model in the Mekong Delta is a visible example for this. In the VACB system, T-learning workshops have been organized to provide local farmers with techniques and knowledge to effectively use electricity while correctly managing the waste from agricultural activities such as straw, muck, biomass, etc. for household-level energy generation.

Since its inception until 2017, the VACB project has assisted local people in building 642 biogas digesters (Table 1). The project also organized pre- and post-installation training seminars to circulate digester-building techniques. The Viet Nam News (2014) reported that recent research findings estimate that a 2-cubic-meter bio-digester can reduce up to 3 tonnes CO₂, and each household using biogas can save 19,904 tonnes CO₂ equivalent per year due to displacing wood fuel and lowering deforestation in local forest.

The T-learning approach was also employed to make and promote behavioral changes essential to realizing the full benefits of bio-digesters. For generations, rural women have always completely relied on firewood for daily cooking. The traditional fuel, mostly collected from forests, is a free energy source for local residents; meanwhile biogas installation usually costs a family an average of VND 3,000,000 to 5,500,000 (approx. US$130–250) depending on biogas container size. Nonetheless, our household survey in December 2017 showed that using biogas for family cooking, irrigation and lighting purposes helps VACB farmers save up to VND 14,000,000 (approx. US$600) each year by reducing their need for commercial gas and electricity (Table 2). Thus, T-learning workshops were carefully designed to introduce bio-digesters as a clean, reliable and cost-effective source of power. In these workshops, we did invite farmers, who have successfully implemented the biogas system, to share their real-life experience and cost-benefit analysis. Their success stories are the ideal way to present and justify the significance of biogas. Participating farmers were asked to compare what they learnt from the field visit to biogas systems with their traditional fuel in order to better understand how the new solution matters. By doing so, T-learning activities build credibility and support for a new direction.

Somewhat related to the third dimension, a sustainable community is underpinned by biodiversity conservation and wise stewardship of natural resources. The results and narratives from the Flying Cranes Project are analyzed herein to clarify how T-learning contributes to fostering this sustainability dimension.

As sea level rise and saltwater intrusion into farmlands become more prolific, more and more rice farmers in coastal areas of Ca Mau Province are switching to shrimp farming as a way to sustain their livelihood. Many small-scale shrimp farmers preferred farming in an intensive way because of the higher yield. Intensive farming of shrimp crops, however, is doing harm to local ecosystems due to the overuse of chemicals to maintain water quality and mangrove clearance for shrimp farming expansion (Anh et al. 2010; Truc et al. 2018; Mongabay 2018). While local governments and greedy economic interests seem intent on boosting this high intensity, artificial style of shrimp farming, ecological conflicts are also emerging as new threats undermining years of economic progress following on from Vietnam’s newfound strength – the shrimp farming industry (Quang and Weatherby 2019). In a clash between intensive shrimp farmers trying to expand their business at all costs, and the need to protect and preserve the local ecological riches, conservation and stability is clearly losing out.

The Flying Cranes Project was designed to help address these conflicts. The pre-project survey highlights that before participating in the project, most local farmers developed intensive shrimp ponds in which they had to invest a lot of money, much of which came from loans from banks, on food for the shrimps, medicines, fertilizers, and other chemicals to use in the pond to ensure productivity. To provide more space for shrimp farming, mangroves were cleaned out since local people believe that tannic acid extracted from mangrove trees is poisonous, harmful to their shrimp productivity. The overuse of fertilizers, medications, and chemicals has resulted in negative impacts on local environment, causing serious water pollution and soil quality deterioration (Anh et al. 2010; Truc et al. 2018). As a result, local farmers were unable to sustain their shrimp ponds due to frequent epidemic diseases caused by poor water quality as well as changes in weather patterns due to climate change. After years of borrowing money, and ultimately harvests that failed, many shrimp pond owners have no choice but to sell their land to pay debts and migrate to big cities to look for off-farm jobs because they were unable to make ends meet with traditional shrimp-raising methods (Mekong Environment Forum 2018).

In response to this situation, local governments in the Delta have implemented a conservation program that requires any farming activity to meet environmental standards and prohibits mangrove clearance. However, the reality is that most shrimp farmers are reluctant to change unless they have hit rock bottom (Mongabay 2018).

Through the Flying Cranes Project’s training workshops in Phong Dien Commune (Ca Mau Province), educators raised the visibility of the deplorable environmental, economic and human rights impacts of non-sustainable development projects and old-fashioned farming practices and the viability of better options. They provided information on a wide range of water and energy issues. Also, they worked to generate awareness that efficiency and small-scale, decentralized and eco-friendly solutions are essential for meeting economic needs, alleviating poverty and protecting local ecosystems. The polycrop – an integrated farming system of shrimp, mangrove and natural marine species – was introduced and employed in a sample field in the commune.

The combination of using mangrove, seagrass, and polycrop techniques appears to be a viable alternative to help the local community meet their economic needs and maintain their livelihoods while reducing pressure on ecosystems. The significant reduction in fertilizers and chemicals reduces polluted waste water from shrimp ponds (see Tables 5, 6). Mangrove and seagrass help to naturally purify water and filter pollutants in the ponds. Participating farmers also learnt that fish and sick shrimps are also a major food source for crabs. Without crabs in the pond, some sick shrimps could fuel a possible epidemic disease that would wipe out the whole shrimp pond. However, crabs will eat the sick shrimps and thereby help prevent outbreaks. Farmers concluded that the polycrop method results in fewer epidemic disease risks than with intensive shrimp ponds. Since all pond owners discharge waste water directly into the river – which is the major water source for the whole village – switching to a polyculture model is an important investment not only for farmers but their communities more broadly.

A few weeks later, the project team came back to assess how well local farmers apply new knowledge, techniques and skills learnt from the workshops to their work and life. We recognized that local farmers have begun to change their perception and habits. Some tried to sustain the last piece of mangroves in their ponds while some others agreed to diversify their crops with high-yield marine species. They also used water monitoring techniques more frequently to observe the water quality of both river and groundwater. Understanding the negative impacts caused by wastewater discharged from neighboring intensive shrimp ponds, some farmers raised their concerns over the current policy that encourages intensive shrimp farming, but lacks serious consideration for environmental justices.

The progress from Flying Cranes Project demonstrates the role T-learning plays in transforming local perspectives and traditional practices. New ideas are often associated with difference, change, and upheaval, especially when introduced into a well-established community culture. In Phong Dien Commune, where shrimp farmers traditionally perceived mangroves as the “enemy” of shrimp productivity, and where intensive shrimp farming remains most preferred as its potential earnings are higher, it is unlikely to persuade people to re-forest in their shrimp ponds. Thus, the positively changing perspective and habits of farmers engaged in the Flying Cranes Project demonstrates that T-learning workshops and attendant real-life experience can be an effective strategy to mobilize and support local farmers to transition to more harmonious agricultural paradigms.

The above-mentioned results and analyses reaffirm an important argument of this paper: T-learning can be seen as an appropriate form of education for sustainability since it offers unique learning opportunities for adult learners to gradually change their perspectives and behaviors through real-life experiences in on-the-ground activities. In our projects, T-learning demonstrates that it’s an effective educational approach to sustainable transition communities that remain overly protective and reluctant to embrace innovative strategies. T-learning activities were designed to utilize and combine tacit knowledge, such as the ability to work, modern techniques, and community leadership, to empower local people to change and respond to their concerns in proper, sustainable, and impactful ways. In the T-learning process, smallholders are individuals who learn to change themselves and then circulate their new experiences to inspire and facilitate their neighbors to change. As the progress of T-learning has formed a nexus of multi-stakeholder relationship (local farmers, academics, policy makers, enterprises and investors), individual changes quickly increase the likelihood of a broader social change being sparked by interacting with other stakeholders and actors in the nexus.