How Mr. Nguyen Cao Khai and Tien Thuan Cooperative turned rice straw into healthier fields, new livelihoods, and a model for circular agriculture in Vietnam.
“Seeing is believing.”
For years, the end of a rice harvest at Tien Thuan Agricultural and Service Cooperative was marked by smoke. With few buyers for loose straw and little information about what else could be done with it, farmers often burned what remained in their fields. The practice was quick and familiar. It also made rice straw seem like a problem to be removed rather than a resource with value.
Mr. Nguyen Cao Khai, the cooperative’s director, remembers the uncertainty behind that old routine. Farmers worried that taking straw away might harm the soil. Their attention stayed fixed on the next rice crop: protecting yield, managing costs, and hoping their income would hold. Straw was rarely part of the business calculation. At most, a few people bought it in raw form; more often, it disappeared in flames.
The effects were visible beyond the smoke. Mr. Khai recalls that beneficial insects became scarce in the rice area and field crabs disappeared. Chemical-intensive production added to concerns about farmers’ health. Yet changing a practice followed for years required more than instructions. Farmers needed evidence they could see in their own fields.
