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This paper discusses the local knowledge of the Muong in Xe II Village in northern Vietnam
. The Muong are one of 53 ethnic minority groups in Vietnam. Xe II Village is located in the highlands, far from urban centres. Its inhabitants are mainly subsistence farmers. This paper examines the role of local knowledge in villagers' land-use systems. The paper focuses on local knowledge in wet rice cultivation and animal husbandry. Wet rice cultivation is a long- standing tradition of the Muong people, who have benefited from scientific and technical expertise. However, they have preserved traditional techniques in land preparation and irrigation, with positive effects on soil fertility and protection from soil erosion. Although many villagers use new rice strains, they have carefully selected different rice varieties to suit plots located in different conditions. The villagers continue to use compost and some traditional materials against rice pests and rats, in addition to chemical fertilizer and pesticide. Just as in wet rice cultivation, people have preserved and developed local knowledge concerning animal husbandry. They have flexibly combined rice farming and fish rearing in the same fields. Traditional rules strictly enforced by villagers on the use of natural resources and grazing areas have protected the sources of feed for cattle. The paper concludes that the traditional knowledge of the Muong in Xe II Village has made valuable contributions to community development. The knowledge has been preserved and handed down from generation to generation in families, family clans and villages, through exchanges during farming activities, leisure time, and meetings. The paper also finds that each gender possesses different local knowledge
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The inception workshop of stakeholders in the new project "Increasing Livestock Productivity in Mixed Crop-Livestock Systems in South Asia" was held at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Patancheru, Andhra Pradesh, India f rom the 15-17 November, 1999
. The workshop brought together natural and social scientists. Three international agricultural research centers (International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, the International Livestock Research Institute, and the Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maiz y Trigo) of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) were represented. The national agricultural research systems (NARS) of four countries in South Asia; Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka and one advanced institution - the Natural Resources Institute (NRI ) , University of Greenwich, UK - also participated in the workshop. The purpose of this project is to develop a crop-livestock typology that wi l l ultimately improve the effectiveness of technical and socio-economic interventions aimed at improving animal performance and protecting the natural resource base at farm level in South Asia. The workshop provided an overview of the project proposal, the allocation of resources for specific activities, the definition of specific milestones, a description of crop-livestock systems in the regions and the status of data available on livestock production in the four countries. The CGIAR Systemwide Livestock Program (SLP), co-ordinated by the International Livestock Research Institute ( ILRI ) , financially supported the workshop. This initiative was established in 1995 to promote the formation of ecoregional research consortia between the crop and livestock centers of the CGIAR, the NARS and advanced institutions in developed countries to address common problems. The SLP is a component of the global research program of the ILRI
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Enormous changes have occurred in Vietnam since 1990
. The policy of liberalisation brought a shift to a market based economy and an injection of funds through loans, grants and investment. New ideas, possibilities and funding are receiving very positive responses from researchers in Vietnam, leading to the question of what types of agricultural research in Vietnam will provide the greatest benefits. These proceedings look at the animal sciences in Vietnam and include chapters on approaches to research, major farm animal species in Vietnam, species and disciplines, as well as systems, economics and management
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