Vol. 5 No. 2 (2022): Vietnam Journal of Agricultural Sciences

The study was carried out with twenty-four genotypes of rice during the Spring season, 2020 in Hanoi, Vietnam in order to exploit the attributes and divergence of quality properties from existing rice cultivars in North Vietnam. The rice genotypes were characterized based on ten quality parameters of milling, physical appearance and physiochemical characters using Mahalanobis D2 statistic. D2 analysis allocated the 24 genotypes into eight clusters, of which cluster I was the largest with 12 genotypes. The clustering showed the random distribution of genotypes into different clusters indicating that the origin and release duration were not related to the genetic diversity of grain quality. Among different traits, amylose content, length/width ratio and gel consistency were identified as topmost contributors in total divergence. Cluster I possessed a maximum intra-cluster value of 296.34 and the maximum inter-cluster distance was recorded between cluster IV and VI (2247.39) succeeded by cluster I and VI (2245.94) designing the members presented in these clusters can be exploited as potential donors in a breeding program to result good physicochemical quality traits in rice.

This study was conducted to evaluate the factors contributing to the spatial distribution of European hazelnut (Corylus avellane L.) in Bhutan and determine the suitable areas for cultivation of the crop in the near future (2040-2060) and distant future (2060-2080) under different climate scenarios of Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP)  2.6 and RCP 4.5 in Bhutan. The environmental layers were obtained from WorldClim and processed in ArcGIS and R software prior to running the model in MaxENT. The multicollinearity test showed six bioclimatic factors and three topographical factors contributing to the distribution of European hazelnut in Bhutan. The findings indicated that approximately 10,744.8 sq. km is potential for hazelnut crop cultivation in Bhutan, with Wangduephodrang District harboring the highest area of 1,227.9 sq. km (11.4%) and Gasa district the least at 130 sq. km. The primary factors affecting climate suitability of European hazelnut were elevation, contributing 87.9%, followed by Bio3 (3.7%), BIO2 (3%), and Bio1 (2.5%), and the least factors were Bio15 and aspect at 0.1% each. The model showed that the most suitable elevation for the growth of hazelnut ranges from 1500-1900 masl. The suitability area for the crop projected under the RCP 2.6 and RCP 4.5 scenarios showed a decline in the near future (2040-2060) in the southern part of the country and a slight increase in the distant future (2061-2080) in Central, Eastern, and Western Bhutan. Therefore, there is an urgent need for climate risk assessment, community-based mitigation measures, and spatial monitoring techniques on agriculture crops in Bhutan.

The genetic diversity of five natural populations of milkfish (Chanos chanos) collected in Nghe An, Quang Binh, Binh Dinh, Phu Yen, Khanh Hoa provinces in Vietnam was examined using COI gene sequence analysis. Twelve haplotypes were noted from a total of 50 sequences along with 12 variable sites and 6 parsimony informative sites. The Quang Binh milkfish population had the highest haplotype (0.889 ± 0.060) and nucleotide diversities (0.00301 ± 0.00049). Overall, haplotype and nucleotide diversities were 0.804 ± 0.036 and 0.00212 ± 0.00026, respectively. Genetic differentiation (FST) was high between the milkfish populations of Nghe An – Quang Binh (0.21744) and Nghe An - Phu Yen (0.26215). Haplotype network analysis indicated that milkfish populations shared common haplotypes and each population had its own private haplotypes. Population structure and demographic expansion were not evident for all populations except for Quang Binh. This is the first principal endeavor to understand genetic information of milkfish in Vietnam, thereby providing information for scientists, managers, and the general public to establish timely strategies to explore, protect, and develop milkfish genetic resources in the future.

Payment for forest environmental services (PFES) has been widely implemented in Vietnam for enhancing the reforestation and conservation of natural resources. However, fairness and transparency in the implementation of PFES programs have not been given due attention. In order to gather the community's opinions about the fairness and transparency of PFES's implementation, two case studies of direct and indirect payment programs in Bac Kan Province were selected to investigate. In this study, a five-point scale to rank the levels of "importance" and "implementation" of eight criteria of fairness and five criteria of transparency were used. There were 167 people who participated in the evaluation process through a questionnaire. The results pointed out that the community highly evaluated fairness and transparency in terms of "importance". Nevertheless, the "implementation" of these criteria had lower evaluation points. In comparing the evaluation results between the service providers and buyers, there were no statistically significant differences in terms of the "important" criteria. However, the difference between providers’ and buyers' evaluations regarding "implementation" were significant, with the mean values of the providers' being relatively higher than the buyers'. In addition, the analyses also found that participants in the direct program evaluated fairness and transparency higher than those in the indirect program. Finally, we state that policymakers and other stakeholders should include fairness and transparency criteria in designing the evaluation framework of PFES programs in Vietnam in order to promote more participation of people and improve the sustainability of PFES programs.

This study was conducted to analyze water quality in a coastal province of Vietnam. Multivariate statistical methods, namely cluster analysis (CA) and principal component analysis (PCA) were utilized. Twelve parameters, namely pH, dissolved oxygen (DO), total suspended solids (TSS), biological oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD), nitrite (N-NO2−), nitrate (N-NO3−), ammonium (N-NH4+), orthophosphate (P-PO43−), chloride (Cl−), iron (Fe), and coliforms were collected from ten locations in the 2020 dry season. The results showed that surface water was polluted by TSS, organic matters, nutrients, salinity, and coliforms compared to the national technical regulations on surface water quality (QCVN 08-MT: 2015/BTNMT). Cluster analysis results classified the original ten sampling locations into three groups due to BOD, COD, TSS, N-NH4+, N-NO2−, coliforms, and salinity. Principal component analysis (PCA) revealed that three principal components (PCs) could explain 84.5% of the variance of surface water quality parameters in the study area. Moreover, pH, TSS, DO, BOD, COD, N-NH4+, N-NO2−, N-NO3-, P-PO43−, coliforms, and Cl‑ were the key variables that influenced surface water quality in the dry season. The findings in this study can provide useful information for policymakers in developing programs of surface water quality management and protection.

The research focused on evaluating the economic efficiency of swine farms applying biosecurity practices in Bac Ninh Province. Our study surveyed 143 pig farms in Bac Ninh province. The ordinal logit regression model was employed to estimate the factors affecting the level of biosecurity practices. Moreover, the semi-log regression model was used to examine the influence of some factors affecting the profitability of pig farms. The results showed that biosecurity practices had a significant impact on the economic efficiency of livestock farms by helping livestock farms increase their economic efficiency, reducing the mortality rate of animals, and reducing the rate of abandonment of farms.  The factors affecting the level of biosecurity application on the farms included the gender, experience, and education of the farm owner, and the livestock scale. The results aslo expressed a negative relationship between the economic efficiency of the farm and seeding costs, electricity and water costs, feeding costs, labor costs, and veterinary medicine costs, and a positive relationship between the economic efficiency and selling price as well as between the livestock scale and biosecurity application. Finally, some appropriated solutions could be recommended for the improvement of the economic efficiency of swine farms applying biosecurity practices.

The article attempted to examine the influences of social and economic determinants on poverty in seven Southeast Asian countries, namely Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand, Timor-Leste, and Vietnam, between 1996 and 2013 using a panel dataset. It was empirically found that the average GDP per capita and Gini index contributed to poverty reduction in Southeast Asian countries. The results also addressed that the population and poverty gap had positive impacts on the rate of the poverty headcount in the region. Policies were recommended to accelerate economic growth, reduce poverty, and achieve sustainable development in Southeast Asia. First, economic growth should be fostered since it assists in reducing poverty in Southeast Asian countries. Second, although the growth of population provides the labor forces to the economy, population growth in Southeast Asia should be carefully controlled since it increases poverty in the region. Third, an increase in the number of rich inhabitants in the society should be encouraged because it can mitigate poverty in the region. Finally, policies in redistributing income as well as in narrowing down income inequality in each society should be considered by the governments because these contribute to poverty reduction in the region.