Page 70 - BB_Textbook
P. 70
PROFILE
“Accommodating Climate Change: A Profile of Nguyễn Văn Hùng,”
by Nguyễn Thị Hồng Chúc
“I grew up in a poor but peaceful village,” explains Nguyễn Văn Hùng, a farmer in Kiên Giang. “People were happy as they made a living at farming rice. Many children didn’t go to school for they had to help in the fields. I was lucky since my parents supported my studies, but that ended in grade 6 when my parents died. I tilled the paddy with my siblings. We made just enough to live.”
Surveying his farm now, Hùng raises shrimp and crab naturally, and grows one rice crop during the rainy season. He and his wife have seen their daughters graduate from university. His story is one of success.
His family, however, has taken risks to realize its goals.
A dozen years ago, Hùng only grew rice, and despite his deep knowledge of farming, his yield and income continued to fall. This was due to salination. The intrusion of salt water created mounds of white soil. And at that very time, he needed extra income to support his children’s education.
Hùng explains, “I saw that others were switching to intensive shrimp production. That required a lot of money to dig ponds, fell trees, remove mangrove, treat water, and pay for medicines, probiotics, and vitamins. Since my rice yield had been low, my only choice was to borrow from the bank to begin shrimp and crab farming. In the first two months, I saw my crustaceans grow quickly. Suddenly, they weakened. In a month’s time, they were all dead. I was in serious debt.”
“I was miserable,” Hùng relates, “but determined to succeed. I knew an environmental engineer and sought
his advice. He identified a water pollution problem. And he recommended an alternative method of raising shrimp and crab naturally in a mangrove-forested waterway, apart from pollution in the Mekong River. This method works with nature, not against it. It requires no chemical inputs. It protects the coastline. There are standards that I must meet to be a certified organic producer of shrimp and crab. My yield is modest but I do not face the risks and input costs of intensive farmers.” Hùng and his wife are content to see their children graduate and enter the teaching profession.
accommodating alternative certified crustaceans income intensive
VOCABULARY
lucky modest naturally organic probiotics salination surveying
switching vitamins weakened yield
70 CHAPTER 2 | CLIMATE
BENDING BAMBOO
