Phase 3 of the project “Remote Sensing-based Information and Insurance for Crops in emerging Economies” (RIICE) will be implemented by Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) and financed by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). MARD also contributes counterpart funding for the project.
As part of a larger global project of SDC that covers several other rice producing countries such as Cambodia, India, Indonesia, and Thailand, RIICE has been implemented since 2013 in Vietnam in cooperation between Vietnamese and international counterparts.
Specifically, RIICE benefits from technical capabilities of sarmap, a Swiss company, to process satellite data and those of IRRI, the International Rice research Institute based in the Philippines, to estimate yield. RIICE also benefits from valuable crop insurance knowledge of Swiss Re, the world leading re-insurer.
Speaking at the event, Mr. Reymond Marcel, Head of Swiss Cooperation in Vietnam, said: “We are very happy to see that the previous two project phases were a success. Our main counterparts, MARD, NIAPP (the National Institute for Agriculture Planning and Projection), and CTU (Can Tho University) have shown a high level of commitment and hard work in the implementation of this project. Building on past success, MARD and SDC have decided to continue phase 3 to maximize the benefits gained and to ensure the project sustainability”.
Phase 3 of RIICE will focus on two major areas—fully integrating RIICE in the government rice monitoring and agriculture disaster management system, and supporting the Government’s crop insurance program. The first component will support MARD to make advanced technology work smoothly and sustainably in the government system in all aspects—technically, institutionally and financially. Commercialization options will also be looked at to collect user fees to reduce government expenses. In the second component, RIICE will produce rice yield data at commune level to support the implementation of the crop insurance program in seven provinces as specified in the Prime Minister’s Decision 22/2019/QD-TTg leased recently.
“Our mandate is to implement the Government’s agriculture insurance program successfully. This is a very new challenge to us. You cannot imagine how much data is required by the insurance industry. It is very fortunate that we can benefit from RIICE support in this regards. It also opens up a very promising opportunity to expand the government program”, said Mr. An Van Khanh, Deputy Director of the Cooperatives and Rural Development Department of MARD.
About RIICE
RIICE is a public-private partnership program sponsored by SDC with a view to support crop insurance systems for smallholder farmers through the use of technology in the region.
It is implemented by a consortium of IRRI (International Rice Research Institute), sarmap (a Swiss remote sensing company), SDC, and Swiss Re in cooperation with Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Vietnam, NIAPP, CTU and others.
For more information, please contact:
Mr. Bui Hai Nam, National Institute of Agriculture Planning and Projection;
Phone: +84 91 255 7979;
Mr. Nguyen Hong Ninh, Embassy of Switzerland in Vietnam;
Phone: +84 24 3934 6589 (ext. 803 983);
