Workshop to develop the Tan Lac Participatory Guarantee System (PGS), Tan Lac district, Hoa Binh province.

Workshop to develop the Tan Lac Participatory Guarantee System (PGS), Tan Lac district, Hoa Binh province.

On the morning of September 29,2015, at the hall of Tan Lac District People’s Committee, the “Participatory Guarantee System (PGS) development in Tan Lac, Hoa Binh” workshop was organized by the Center for Environment and Community Assets Development (CECAD). The workshop was with the participation of Seed to Table and with the sponsorship of VECO Vietnam and the Asian Development Bank (ADB). It was conducted under the direction of Mrs. Tu Tuyet Nhung – National Consultant on PGS development, project TA8163-IFOAM – Chief of PGS Vietnam Coordinating Committee and with the participation of nearly 50 delegates from Hoa Binh and departments of Tan Lac district, donor representatives, and representatives from farmer groups and inter-groups in the province.

Mr. Dinh Cong Su, Chairman of Tan Lac district spoke at the conference

This workshop is an activity within the framework of the project “Vietnam sub-sector Development (SSD) program for Fresh Fruits & Vegetables (FFV) – Piloting PGS in Tan Lac” sponsored by VECO Vietnam. The objective is to jointly build and develop a PGS system in Tan Lac district, which helps farmers bring organic products to consumers in local and Hanoi markets.

This continues the sucess of projects on livelihood improvement, environemntal protection and cultural preservation for the Muong ethnic people in Tan Lac. In 2015, CECAD with the funding of VECO Vietnam is implementing a vegetable sector development project in Tan Lac district. Seed to Table has also had projects to support farmers in producing organic products, improving livelihoods since 2011, which resulted in forming four organic production groups and receiving PGS certificate in June 2014. From the general in order to improve the livelihood of the people based on identifying barriers to implementing the project, the PGS Vietnam Coordinating Committee gathered stakeholders to make plans for establishment of a seperate PGS organic system in Tan Lac district.

Ending on 29/09/2015, with high consensus by the representatives and participants, a PGS was established named PGS Tan Lac. PGS Tan Lac Coordinating Committee elected 9 members working in the project to stimulate the next activities. All the members agreed to hold the next meeting on 15/10/2015 to adopt the activity charter of PGS Coordinating Committee and assign tasks to each member to run the system.

Discussion on PGS Tan Lac establishment.

Hopefully , with the strong participation and support of local government in Tan Lac and the support of CECAD, VECO and PGS Vietnam, PGS Tan Lac will soon show its capacity in the system, in the Hoa Binh consumer market in particular and in the whole country in general.

Written by Tuan Anh.