Food insecurity can lead to malnutrition, hunger, and various health problems, particularly among vulnerable groups such as children, pregnant and breastfeeding women, the elderly, and those living in poverty. Moreover, food insecurity can contribute to social unrest, conflict, and migration as well as environmental degradation and climate change. Therefore, ensuring food security is crucial for promoting global health, reducing poverty and inequality, and achieving a more sustainable and equitable future for all.
In 2021, researchers from De Montfort University received a financial grant from the British Academy to investigate network resilience in Vietnam. With the collaboration of researchers from the Vietnam National University of Agriculture, they conducted a survey among small farming households in the 3 villages Van Duc, Van Hoi and Pham Tran to understand the vegetable supply chain in rural areas in Vietnam and assessed whether such a network could be resilient under significant changes.
The project received the interest and backing of Vietnamese policy makes, especially from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD). In a workshop held last February in the Vietnam National University of Agriculture, Dr. The Anh Bui, a senior officer of the Science, Technology, and Environment Department from MARD praised the efforts of the research team in addressing one of the main problems in the agricultural sectors in Vietnam which is the collapse of the trading network when shocks on the supply and demand side occurred. According to Dr Bui, this problem is hard to tackle if many products are considered. This is because the market operation is product specific. For instance, how a trader conducts business in a fish market will be different than in a fruit market.
More importantly, Dr Bui suggested that the project needs to continue in a larger scale to assist the government in making evidence-based policies. Currently, the project surveyed 500 households and 50 traders in the 3 villages around Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam. Besides the financial constraint of conducting a large-scale survey, the research team also revealed the challenges when contacting the respondents. For example, the research team had to build a certain level of trust as there were numerous attempts to use a survey as a marketing tool. In addition to assessing the resilience of the trading network, establishing contact with the respondents is another success of the project. If the project continues, the MARD, according to Dr Bui, will provide assistance in the next round.
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