Coconut palm cultivation and use in Vietnam

The Dong Go Coconut Research Centre
The Trang Bang Seed Production Centre
The IOOP in Vitro Culture Laboratory for producing Makapuno seedlings
A traditional practice: "Coconut Bonsai" for reducing the vertical growth of Tall-type coconut palms.

Coconut varieties conserved in the National Genebank of Vietnam
Coconut varieties from farmer's fields
Old botanical and ethnological studies related to Coconut in Vietnam
Coconut high value products and handicraft from Vietnam
How to sustain Coconut in situ conservation in Vietnam

How to turn a coconut farmer's field into a polyvalent seed garden producing Hybrid, Tall and Dwarf varieties

Link to the video playlist made for the training
The first Kobotool box survey test conceived during the training and how to access it on a mobile phone.

Link to this website prepared by Ms Ngo Thi Kieu Duong, Head of the Perennial Crop Department of the Research Institute for Oil and Oil Plants (IOOP) and Dr Roland Bourdeix:
http://coconutvietnam.blogspot.com
CIRAD Coconut GIS training in Vietnam: summary and planning

Dr Roland Bourdeix (CIRAD) was invited by the Department of Perennial Crop from the Research Institute for Oil and Oil Plants (IOOP) to organize a training on Geographical Information Systems (GIS) applied to coconut research and development.
Fourteen IOOP researchers and technical staff participated the training. The programme was intended to provide a global overview of the use of GIS in coconut research, and more specifically on the following points: 1) Multi functional landscape management and new trends in coconut conservation and breeding 2) collecting germplasm and integrate geographical and other data using the CGRD (Coconut Genetic Resources Database) and Kobotool box which allows to collect data from cell phones; 3) Managing ex situ genebank accessions and field’s experiment using CDM (coconut data management) and Microsoft Foxpro; 4) the Qgis and Diva-GIS software for managing geographical information. 5) Maxent to predict favorable cultivation zones and 6) Google Earth and other online tools for making interactive geographical representations. All the cited software except Bandicam and Foxpro are free or kindly provided by CIRAD; most of them are open source. Researchers were also trained to video making using Bandicam and Microsoft Movie Maker. Field visits were conducted in research centres and farmer's fields to test the gathering of data with android cell phones, and to prepare a project on assessing a traditional technique from Mekong farmers for reducing the vertical growth of coconut palms. About 10 GB of HD video shootings has been taken and a copy was let to IOOP. A short movie was co-produced during the training. Most of collected information was released online at the URL: http://coconutvietnam.blogspot.fr. Many of the new concept and ideas presented during this training comes from a recent book chapter (1) of an Indian CPCRI book and from the compilation of the Global Strategy for Conservation and Use of Coconut Genetic Resources, all in press. The training was prepared with the help of Dr Geo Coppens and Gaëlle Viennois, CIRAD researchers, and following a dedicated training provided by the CMAEE Join Research Unit in Montpellier, France. 

 

9-11h30

9-11h30

• Use of Kobotool box software to collect data on Cell phones

14-17

• Continuation on Kobotool box
• Continuation on CDM
• Use of Google Earth Pro

 

9-17

• Field visit of the Trang Bang Coconut Research Centre
• Field visit of coconut farms and test of the kobotool box kit
• Making geo-referenced videos and photos for transferring on line (Panoramio, Youtube, Google Earth)

Day 4 -21/01/2016

9-11h30

14-17

• Continuation on Qgis and Diva-gis for managing GIS information. Using data from Vietnam researchers
• Overview of CIRAD work on remote sensing techniques for detecting coconut palms

9-17

• Fields visits to Dong Go Coconut Research Centre. Test of Kobotool Box software.
• Making geo-referenced videos and photos for transferring on line (Panoramio, Youtube, Google Earth)

Day 6 - 23/01/2016 (Saturday)

9-17

• Visit of special coconut cultivation methods using salt tolerant coconut varieties for development in shrimp breeding sites. Genetic experiment for varietal tolerance to salinity.
• Video shooting

Day 7 - 24/01/2016 (Sunday)

9-17

• Visit of Kairong floating market and farmer’s fields.
• Back to Ben Tré. 
• Visit of Hung Phong community producing high-value coconut products and survey of  techniques for reducing the vertical growth of Tall-type coconut palms. Video shooting.
• Back to Ho Chi Minh

Day 9 - 26/01/2016

9-11h30

Open discussion and end of the training

18h

• Closing dinner with officials of IOOP and the Ministry of

A list of the Fourteen IOOP researchers and technical staff who participated the training is available here. 

Reference

(1) Bourdeix R., Perera L., Rivera R.L., Saena-Tuia V and Masumbuko L. 2016. Global coconut communities - status and strategies in in situ diversity management and utilization. In: Coconut: Global status and perspectives. Central Plantation Crop Research Institute, Kasaragod, India. Submitted.

Figure 1. View of different coconut stems. From left to right: Malayan Dwarf, Compact Dwarf, Indo-Atlantic Tall, Asian-Pacific Tall types of coconut varieties (Photos R. Bourdeix, Côte d’Ivoire).

Figure 2. View of different coconut stems in Mekong Delta. Normal stem of a Tall-type coconut palm (left) in comparison with same variety treated for reducing growth (Photo R. Bourdeix, Vietnam).