News

June 2010 : Vietnam Update
ACDI/VOCA staff finished distributing fertilizer and farming inputs to new SUCCESS Alliance farmers from Dak Lak and Lam Dong. Seedling distribution is now well underway. For all SUCCESS Alliance farmers in the Central Highlands, SUCCESS Alliance continued to conduct farmer field schools (FFS) and in-service trainings (IST). Staff conducted 171 FFSs and 4 ISTs in Dak Lak and Lam Dong in June.

May 2010 : Vietnam Update
ACDI/VOCA-Vietnam organized a visit for Vietnamese government officials to travel to Ghana to learn about large-scale, state-managed cocoa quality control. As Vietnam scales up its cocoa production, maintaining its high quality will be increasingly important for SUCCESS Alliance farmers and the cocoa industry.

SUCCESS Alliance also held opening ceremonies in Vietnam for 40 new cocoa clubs.

April 2010 : Vietnam Update
In April, SUCCESS Alliance completed farmer mobilization in Ea H’leo and Lak districts in Dak Lak province. Veteran SUCCESS Alliance farmers continued to improve their production methods, as SUCCESS Alliance field technicians provided support and technical knowledge to cocoa groups.

In Lam Dong, cocoa planted in 2009 has begun recovering after the dry season. As the rainy season starts, farmers are now weeding and applying fertilizers. Field technicians continued to support the farmer groups. The topics for the farmer field schools were composting techniques and how to design a cocoa grove and prepare for planting.

On April 26, ACDI/VOCA Managing Director T.J. Ryan, Chief of Party Dinh Hai Lam and Training and Extension Director Tran Thanh Huyen participated in a workshop on Vietnam's cocoa post-harvest and quality management organized by Vietnam's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in Ho Chi Minh City.

March 2010 : Vietnam Update
From March 15-20, SUCCESS Alliance-Vietnam conducted a training course on post-harvest and cocoa quality. Twenty participants attended from Dak Lak and Lam Dong, including potential and existing fermentary owners, extension staff and local traders.

On March 16 SUCCESS Alliance-Vietnam conducted a nursery workshop for both Dak Lak and Lam Dong. The workshop introduced potential nurseries to ACDI/VOCA requirements and standards for seedling distribution. The nurseries will apply for price bidding. Nursery selection, monitoring and seedling distribution will occur between April and June.

From March 15-28, Katy Murphy-Lubowicz, ACDI/VOCA project coordinator, traveled to Vietnam to meet SUCCESS Alliance staff and partners. She traveled with ACDI/VOCA field staff to project sites, observed several farmer field schools and participated in the opening of two training of trainer (TOT) courses in Lam Dong and Dak Lak.

February 2010 : Vietnam Update
In February, the SUCCESS Alliance-Vietnam conducted farmer field schools (FFS) in Dak Lak for farmer groups from 2007, 2008 and 2009. Topics were Water Management for Cocoa Groves, Years 1 & 2 and Pruning for Mature Cocoa. In Lam Dong the project conducted FFS at cocoa clubs in Da Huoai, Da The and Cat Tien districts. The topic was Agro-Eco System Analysis (AESA) for Immature Cocoa Trees.

January 2010 : Vietnam Update
In January, SUCCESS Alliance-Vietnam completed site surveys in Dak Lak and Lam Dong to select areas for new cocoa club establishment in 2010. In Dak Lak, SUCCESS Alliance will establish 20 new cocoa clubs—10 in Lak district and 10 in Ea H’leo district. In Lam Dong, SUCCESS Alliance will establsih 21 new cocoa clubs—10 in Da Huoai district, 7 in Cat Tien district and 4 in Da Teh district.

The SUCCESS Alliance staff in Dak Lak also established two fermentaries in Lak district. Staff are indentifying fermentary establishments in Ea Kar.

September 2009: Vietnam Update
In Lam Dong, SUCCESS Alliance distributed 126,000 seedlings to cocoa clubs and completed cocoa planting in Da The district. Cocoa planting is 80 percent complete for farmers in the Da Huoai and Cat Tien districts. SUCCESS Alliance also conducted farmer field schools for 800 farmers in Da Huoai, Da The and Cat Tien districts.

For the Community Sustainable Cocoa Agroforestry System II, Nong Lam Univiersity (NLU) completed an initial survey at a project site. The survey included cocoa land-use planning for 10 households. NLU also delivered a training section on land sanitation for cocoa plantation. Farmers will start land clearing and preparation for cocoa plantings in August.

July 21-July 31, ACDI/VOCA Project Accountant Guangrong Fu conducted training for accountants in the SUCCESS Alliance Vietnam office. The training is part of the process to move from the current financial report system to a more updated version.

In Dak Lak, SUCCESS Alliance completed its seedling distribution to Lak project farmers. SUCCESS Alliance started cocoa planting following the distribution and is expecting its completion by mid-August.

July 2009: Vietnam Update
USAID Mission Director Frank Donovan and USAID Outreach/Communication Officer Richard Nyberg visited SUCCESS Alliance in Dak Lak to attend the opening of the Training of Trainers 2009 (TOT). They also met with officials from the Leaders of Provincial People Committee (PPC), including Chairman Lu Ngoc Cu.

ACDI/VOCA Deputy Director for Agribusiness Elizabeth Adams and Technical Director for Agribusiness Paul Guenette also paid a visit in June to the project and met with SUCCESS Alliance partners and beneficiaries.

Project activities in Dak Lak & Lam Dong:

• Completed TOT for 48 training facilitators (TFs).
• Completed in-service training for 14 TFs recruited in 2007 in Lak district.
• Distributed 84,400 seedlings to 10 cocoa clubs (approximately 400 farmers). The remaining 41.600 seedlings will be distributed in July.
• Conducted farmer field school (FFS) to 2,900 farmers in 3 districts.
• Conducted a participatory monitoring and evaluation training workshop for 32 participants.

March 2009: Vietnam Update
Technicians from ACDI/VOCA and DARD/Lam Dong conducted site selection in the three districts in the south of Lam Dong province. The districts selected were Da Huoai, Da Teh and Cat Tien. Throughout 8 communes, 21 villages were selected as suitable for cocoa development.

February 2009: Vietnam Update
USAID has approved SUCCESS Alliance–Vietnam for an additional $1.3 million in funding to implement phase II of SUCCESS Alliance in the Central Highlands. Phase II will be active from 2009 to 2010 in the provinces of Dak Lak and Lam Dong. Additionally, the project is hoping to expand into other provinces in the Central Highland region to introduce an advantageous cocoa agroforestry model.

January 2008: Vietnam Update
In December the Tien Giang training team organized a three-day workshop in the province for 47 fermentary owners and technical staff on improving cocoa bean fermentation technology and sharing fermentary management experiences. The results of project implementation and the 2008 plan to develop cocoa in each province was shared with participants, who expressed positive feedback and comments on the project’s successes and impact.

July 2007: MARS Inc. Delegation Tours SUCCESS Alliance Sites in Vietnam
As part of a MARS Inc. corporate video, a U.S.-based film crew visited and filmed SUCCESS activities in Vietnam. ACDI/VOCA-Vietnam was also visited by MARS Inc. Chairman of the Board Pamela Mars, Chief Science Director Harold Schmitt, Plant Science Director Howard Shapiro and Global Sustainability Manager Joseph Toledano. The MARS delegation visited project activities in the Ben Tre province, which included attending a farmer field school. Mrs. Mars emphasized her family’s commitment to sustainable cocoa and to working with “organizations that make a difference, such as ACDI/VOCA.”

June 2007: USAID/Vietnam Director Visits SUCCESS Alliance
On June 28, Mr. Dennis Zvinakis, Director of USAID/Vietnam, visited SUCCESS Alliance in Dak Lak province. He was impressed with the progress made and looks forward to his next visit and word of program achievements.

March 2007: SUCCESS Alliance Vietnam partners with Touton
A French cocoa trading company based out of Bordeaux, Touton, has agreed to fund ACDI/VOCA for a modest-sized project of cocoa development in the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong, Vietnam.

February 2007: Cocoa Plantings Predicted to be Bigger than Ever in Vietnam in 2007
SUCCESS Alliance staff expected 2007 to be a “wait-and-see” year for cocoa development in Vietnam, but they were wrong. Private investment in cocoa seedling production has picked up greatly and beat all estimates. SUCCESS Alliance staff estimates that over 3.4 million cocoa seedlings will be produced in nurseries of which they know in 2007. This is a 33 percent increase over the 2006 year and almost without any project or public investment. Please click here for the full detail and analysis.

January 2007: SUCCESS in the Central Highlands of Vietnam: MOU Signed between ACDI/VOCA & Dept. of Agriculture and Rural Development
The provincial Dept. of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD) and ACDI/VOCA together signed an memorandum of understanding (MOU) that clearly lays out the main activities, roles and responsibilities of the two parties for project implementation. The project document is before the provincial people’s committee and expected to be signed shortly, thereby authorizing project start-up in the province.

November 2006: Vietnam Cocoa Farming Appraisal Completed
The SUCCESS Alliance/Vietnam program recently completed a cocoa farming system appraisal report. The appraisal, which assessed adoption rates among the smallholder cocoa farmers trained under the program, found that 19 nurseries, which have provided 2,850,818 F1-hybrid and clonal seedlings to farmers, and 68 demonstration sites as well as 15 fermenting locations have been established. Additionally, 317 facilitators and 16,297 smallholder farmers (16% female) have been trained in four provinces. To read the full report, click here.

October 31- November 3, 2006: 3rd Annual SUCCESS Alliance International Conference
The conference, “Strengthening the Smallholder Link in the Cocoa Value Chain,” was held in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, October 31–November 3, 2006. Sponsored by ACDI/VOCA as part of its U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded cocoa development program in Vietnam and the Philippines, the conference brought together partners, field technicians, industry experts and leading cocoa farmers from Asia and beyond to share their experience in the area of sustainable cocoa production systems.
Read conference press release.
View conference presentations.