The workshop had the participation of Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Tran Van Nam; Vice Chairman of Can Tho City People's Committee Nguyen Ngoc He; the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development; Departments of Agriculture and Rural Development of 12 localities in the Mekong Delta region.

The project will be carried out in twelve cities and provinces over a five-year period, from 2026 to 2031, with a two-year preparation phase in 2024 and 2025.

According to the Deputy Head of the Agricultural Project Management Board at the MARD, the estimated cost of the project is around $375 million, with funding primarily sourced from a 360-million-dollar loan of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development of the World Bank (IBRD) of the World Bank (WB). The remaining 15 million dollars will be invested by the Vietnamese government and local authorities.

The project aims to help Vietnamese farmers adapt to climate change and increase farm profitability while supporting small-scale producers through the development and strengthening of farmer organizations and cooperatives. It will also mobilize credit resources for areas implementing low-carbon practices. Moreover, it will promote private sector participation, facilitate the development of markets for low-carbon rice, and establish favorable policy and technical frameworks to support the production of low-carbon rice.

The project has three components:

1. Developing a low-carbon rice value chain: This component involves investing around 350 million USD in goods and public works to attract and promote investment in the private sector. The focus is to encourage the private sector to invest in the low-carbon rice value chain.

2. Technical development and transfer: This component involves an estimated 20 million USD investment to improve the technical capacity of research agencies and departments at national, regional, and provincial levels. The focus is on research, development, and technology transfer, with the aim of improving climate-smart and low-carbon operations and adding value to help producers increase productivity, efficiency, and quality while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

3. Project management: This component involves an estimated 5 million USD from counterpart funds to provide support in project coordination, management, monitoring, and evaluation. The aim is to ensure that the project is implemented in line with goals, targets, and expected impacts with the highest quality and efficiency.

Representative of the Agricultural Project Management Board at the MARD presented ideas for the project to support technical infrastructure for low-carbon rice in the Mekong Delta at the workshop

Speaking at the workshop, Deputy Minister of the MARD Tran Thanh Nam emphasized the importance of implementing the Project to support infrastructure for low-carbon rice cultivation in the Mekong Delta. He proposed that the project should concentrate on four key areas, namely irrigation systems, inter-regional transportation, logistics, and synchronous mechanization.

Deputy Minister of the MARD Tran Thanh Nam has proposed that the Agricultural Project Management Board communicate with the twelve participating localities, urging them to strengthen or establish new project management boards at the provincial level to facilitate project implementation.

The official said that this project has attracted significant international attention and enjoys strong support from farmers as it has the potential to fundamentally transform rice production methods in the Mekong Delta region. He urged participating localities to provide accurate data promptly, eliminating the need for time-consuming reviews. The deadline for submitting the data to the Ministry is April 2024.