Photo by Quang Nguyen Vinh
Vietnam, a member of the Agroecology Coalition, is undergoing a significant transformation in its food system. Faced with a growing urban population and climate change impacts, the country is shifting away from an agri-food systems which is heavily reliant on crop monocultures and intensive livestock farming sustained by harmful chemicals and is moving towards agroecology.
These efforts are also aligned with the countries’ initiatives to enhance the nutrition of its population. Education and awareness-raising are seen as crucial first steps to shift towards healthier nutrition habits.
To explore these issues further, we discussed with Dr. Truong Tuyet Mai, Vice-Director of the National Institute of Nutrition (NIN) in Vietnam. Below are insights from our conversation.
Which challenges is Vietnam facing in terms of nutrition?
Vietnam’s nutrition challenges are multifold:
- 8 million children under five and more than one-third of ethnic minorities of the same age bracket suffering from stunting
- There are issues related to micro-nutrients deficiencies: more than half (58 per cent) of children under five has a zinc deficiency as well as more than 60% of pregnant women
- Anemia affects 30% of children under five and 20 % of pregnant women
- 8% of the population is affected by diabetes and 30 % by hypertension
- Obesity is an emerging issue with one-in-five children and adolescents overweight or obese, partly due to an increasing consumption of processed food.
Nutrition threats are forecast to intensify with an estimated two million people impacted by climate-driven natural disasters each year such as floods and heavy storms and therefore having less access to local food.
To tackle some of these issues it is crucial to improve people’s awareness about nutrition; despite widespread access to the internet, many people still lack people are still missing crucial information on maintaining a balanced diet.
What are the main elements of the National Nutrition Strategy (NNS) 2021–2030?
The strategy aims to improve the nutritional status of the Vietnamese population, reduce malnutrition, and address emerging nutrition-related health issues. The strategy focuses on improving nutrition in all life stages life and promoting a balanced diet while reducing disparities between regions and population groups, particularly ethnic minorities.
The strategy focuses on five main objectives:
- Improving dietary intake for Vietnamese people
- Reducing malnutrition in children and improving data for children and mothers
- Addressing micronutrient deficiencies
- Preventing, obesity, overweight and non-communicable diseases
- Reviewing sourcing and financing for nutrition activities
Vietnam’s Food System Transformation strategy is closely tied to nutrition and is aligned with broader efforts to ensure food security and promote healthier, more diverse diets.
Key points of connection between agroecology strategy and nutrition strategy include:
- Moving away from monoculture (which is now focused particularly on rice production, rice being the main staple food) towards more diversified farming systems. By promoting a wider variety of crops the strategy aims at improving the availability of diverse and nutritious foods for the population, particularly in rural and remote areas (e.g.: mountain areas).
- Ensuring that food is free from harmful residues, contributing to safer and healthier diets.
- Encouraging to strengthen research and application of digital technology to enterprises and cooperatives and farmer organizations to make the food systems information transparent to improve food safety and nutrition
- Supporting smallholder farmers by promoting local food systems and markets that connect rural producers to urban consumers, in the context of growing urban population. This should ensure that healthy foods are more accessible and affordable to diverse population groups.
- Placing a strong emphasis on education and awareness for balanced nutrition through agroecological practices. This includes training farmers on the nutritional value of diverse crops, encouraging local communities to adopt healthier diets, and integrating nutrition education into agricultural extension services.
- Promoting localized and decentralized food systems, particularly in remote and marginalized communities, it aims to improve the availability of diverse, healthy foods in areas where malnutrition and food insecurity are more prevalent.
Dr. Truong Tuyet Mai also emphasized that while the strategies are promising, there is an economic barrier to overcome. Healthy food is still too expensive for a part of the population and there are several regional disparities. To address and for this Vietnam is receiving support from some NGOs to improve family home gardening for families and boost the nutrition outcomes for children.
To dig deeper:
Plant Resources Center Vietnam, organization member of the Agroecology Coalition
All eyes on agroecology as Vietnam embarks food systems transformation journey– Article published on Forest News, CIFOR- ICRAF (2023)
Food Systems Transition in Vietnam scientific article (2023)
[1] National Action Plan on Food Systems Transformation in Vietnam towards Transparency, Responsibility, and Sustainability by 2030