HCM CITY — Farmers in HCM City and a few provinces where cows are raised for dairy received training in the implementation of best practices from their Dutch counterparts.

The programme was run by Agriterra, which is a Netherlands’ agriculture agency founded in 1997 to promote, facilitate and support lasting co-operation between rural organisations in the Netherlands and in developing countries, in co-operation with FrieslandCampina Vietnam from October 16 to 27.

The Dutch farmers were chosen by Agriterra.

Like during previous training programmes, they visited dairy farms at times when Vietnamese farmers milked the animals to study their techniques and take samples of milk for making tests on somatic cell counts (SCC) and bacterial levels.

They then collaborated with experts from FrieslandCampina Vietnam to tailor a training programme based on practical cow raising techniques for the Vietnamese farmers.

The programme was aimed at improving milking techniques to reduce the somatic cell counts and bacterial levels in the milk.

The Vietnamese farmers learnt best practices in raising and will now train others to help improve the country’s dairy cow farming industry.

They were also trained in advanced technologies for raising cows to raise productivity and ensure high quality of milk.

Wim Van Ittersum, one of the Dutch farmers, said he was back after three years in Việt Nam and was impressed that local farmer’s techniques had been improved, leading to higher quality and quantity of milk, which is bought by FrieslandCampina.

The programmes are being carried out as part of an agreement FrieslandCampina Vietnam signed with Agriterra in 2012 to sustainably develop the dairy farming industry in countries where it has operations to improve the lives of farmers there. — VNS