Vietnamese farmers reduce field burning by turning rice straw into mushrooms

Farmers in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam are using a circular economy model to transform leftover rice straw into mushrooms and compost.

The New Green Farm Cooperative, which works with about 100 farming households across 148 hectares, implemented this system in 2023 to provide an alternative to burning stalks after harvest. This shift has reduced straw burning in the operating area by 90 to 95 percent.

Director Dong Van Canh partnered with the International Rice Research Institute to establish the project. Under this model, a machinery company bales the straw, which the cooperative then uses to grow about 9,000 bales of mushrooms annually. The remaining straw becomes compost that returns nutrients to the fields. These methods have allowed farmers to cut their use of chemical nitrogen fertilizer by 40 percent, saving them between USD 57 to 65 per hectare each season.

The transition has diversified the income of the cooperative members. While rice still provides about 60 percent of the earnings, mushrooms now contribute about 30 percent. The cooperative has expanded its operating space to approximately 11,000 square meters to accommodate this growth. Other cooperatives in the region, such as the Tien Thuan Agricultural and Service Cooperative, are adopting similar methods to produce organic fertilizer and improve soil health.

The model is also being used in northern Ninh Binh Province to produce potatoes. In that region, composting rice straw with cow manure has shortened composting time from 90 to 45 days. While the project faces challenges like cash flow gaps and limited storage space, it has already reached 5,084 farmers and informed national guidelines on sustainable rice straw management in Vietnam.