Abang, M.

Everaarts, A.P.

Huong, Pham Thi Thu

Neeteson, J.J.

Putter, H., de

Struik, P.C.

Name not available

Advancing smallholder vegetable production systems in Vietnam and Tanzania

de Putter, H.

NARCIS 

Wageningen Yield 

58 | The Food Puzzle | Advancing smallholder vegetable production systems in Vietnam and Tanzania
Experts from Wageningen UR have been working 
with researchers and smallholder farmers in two 
very different regions of the world, South East Asia 
and East Africa, to develop innovative ways to 
increase vegetable production. Project sites were 
set up in Vietnam and Tanzania and various 
scenarios considered using actual data gathered 
from the two countries to support their analyses. In 
Vietnam, they looked for the best way to improve 
yields taking into consideration local conditions 
such as the limited availability of suitable lands 
close to urban areas (because of the perishability of 
vegetables), labour, planting materials, yields and 
profitability. Alternatively, in Tanzania they 
monitored the way farmers produce seedlings and 
the profitability of growing vegetables there.
Vietnam: year-round supply of vegetables
In Vietnam, as in many other South East Asian 
countries, vegetables are often produced in rotation 
with two crops of flooded rice (i.e., rice grown in 
fields temporarily flooded with water) annually. This 
system has two main disadvantages – after the rice 
crop has been harvested, raised beds are constructed 
for vegetable production, and then flattened again for 
rice production; this practice makes the soil compact 
and less suited to vegetable production.
To overcome these problems, the team set about 
designing and testing for a sustainable year-round 
vegetable production system in the Red River Delta. 
It should be mentioned here that the proportion of 
land area cropped with vegetables is minor 
Advancing smallholder 
vegetable production systems 
in Vietnam and Tanzania
Rapid population growth and changing consumption patterns in response to healthier eating habits 
and rising incomes have been fuelling the demand for vegetables and fruits in many developing 
countries. Juxtaposed to this has been the loss of prime agricultural lands to sprawling urbanisation 
and land degradation consequent on deforestation in highland areas to satisfy fuel needs and 
expansion of agricultural land. Innovative ways to raise productivity on existing agricultural lands and 
to improve rural livelihoods are therefore necessary to continue to adequately feed local populations 
and stem the flow of people to the urban centres.
Wageningen UR | 59
compared with that cropped with rice. The results 
of the study were very encouraging and the initial 
reaction of farmers has been enthusiastic. Results 
showed that yields went up and that farmers could 
get good returns from growing vegetables. The 
returns would even be higher when the vegetables 
would be directly sold to city wholesale markets. 
The amount of labour needed to grow the vegetables 
also increased (Table 1). Planting vegetables year-
round is therefore not only an effective way 
to increase farmers’ income, it also leads to more 
employment opportunities in rural areas.
Tanzania: seedling and vegetable production
The use of high-yielding vegetable cultivars in Africa 
is a recent phenomenon and the use of many 
modern production methods is still considered too 
expensive by the average African vegetable 
producer. This is in contrast to South East Asia 
where the use of high-yielding vegetable cultivars 
and production technology, such as mulching and 
water- saving drip irrigation equipment, is 
increasingly the norm.
Tanzanian vegetable growers in the Arusha region 
currently produce seedlings in open field nurseries. 
Seedlings are later transplanted into the fields. 
Often the percentage of seedlings that can be used 
in these fields for production is low. With farm-
saved seeds or other low-cost seeds, the cost 
implications of this practice are not so high, but 
when expensive high-yielding varieties are used, 
it is important that all or most of these seeds result 
in a productive plant.
Results of the ‘African vegetables’ project showed 
that it would be very difficult to increase the 
percentage of seedlings produced in open field 
nurseries. However, for seedlings that were first 
produced in trays in a small plastic house nursery 
constructed from locally available material, the 
percentage of seedlings that could be used in the 
fields increased dramatically. Calculations showed, 
for example, that if tomato was grown in this way 
using conventional seeds, around €40 per hectare 
Table 1 Profitability of vegetable production in the Red River Delta, Vietnam
Vegetable 
production 
system
Profit per hectare 
per day at local 
prices
(kVND)
Profit per hectare 
per day at city 
wholesale market 
prices
(kVND)
Labour needed 
per hectare 
per day
(hours)
Income for one 
day of work
(kVND)
Potential income 
for one of day 
work
(kVND)
‘Profitability’ 321 797 78 33 83
‘Labour’ 277 877 52 42 135
‘Traditional’ 168 406 40 34 82
Exchange rate: kVND = 1,000 Vietnamese Dong; 1 € = 23 kVND
Land preparation in the Red River Delta, Vietnam
Testing the new systems in the field, Red River Delta, Vietnam
Nursery built from locally available materials
60 | The Food Puzzle | Advancing smallholder vegetable production systems in Vietnam and Tanzania
could be saved. The savings were even bigger for 
hybrid seeds – about €800 per hectare.
Production and profitability
At first it was difficult to get the farmers to record 
the data such as time spent in the fields, the 
amount and type of fertilisers used and planting 
materials. However, once they started recording the 
data and an analysis was made of the production 
costs and the returns, the farmers were amazed at 
the results (Table 2). The average earnings for 
a farmer (per hectare) on a daily basis can be up 
to three times the local daily wage for work done 
in the vegetable fields, suggesting that if farmers 
budgeted properly, they could possibly invest in 
modern production methods if they wanted to. 
The worthwhileness of doing this was even further 
underscored by the results from a collaborative 
project that showed that the yield of a traditional 
African eggplant cultivar could be increased from 
8 metric tonnes per hectare to just under 30 metric 
tonnes per hectare by using only modern 
production methods. A spin-off of the project has 
been the changing attitudes of farmers towards 
keeping records, with many resolving to continue 
monitoring their activities.
Potential of the vegetable sectors in Vietnam 
and Tanzania
The case studies demonstrated the excellent 
opportunities for increasing the productivity either 
by increasing yield per hectare and by increasing 
the number of vegetable crops in rotation annually, 
or by doing both. Vegetable production therefore, 
has the potential to provide smallholder farmers 
with increased income and employment 
opportunities as well as to help stimulate rural 
development. However, to ensure future vegetable 
production capacity and the livelihood of farmers, 
attention must also be paid to the preservation of 
good vegetable production land in places close to 
sprawling urban areas and to proper soil and water 
management, especially in the mountainous areas.
Contributors
Arij Everaarts arij.everaarts@wur.nl
Jacques Neeteson
Pham Thi Thu Huong
Herman de Putter
Mathew Abang
Paul Struik
Table 2 Profitability of vegetable production in the Arusha region, Tanzania
Crop Profit per hectare per day at 
local prices
(kTZS)
Labour spent per hectare 
per day
(hours)
Income for one hour of work
(TZS)
Eggplant 2.8 4.6 797
Cabbage 16.3 6.0 695
Carrot 17.0 6.4 619
Potato 15.2 5.6 601
Sukuma wiki 18.9 6.3 897
Tomatoes (non-staked) 27.4 9.3 583
Tomatoes (staked) 23.4 12.7 615
Average 17.7 7.1 681
Exchange rate: kTZS = 1,000 Tanzanian Shilling; 1 € = 2.2 kTZS
Harvesting tomatoes
Land being prepared for planting by a smallholder farmer


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Advancing smallholder vegetable production systems in Vietnam and Tanzania

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