Minutes of the OrganoRice kick-off meeting held 23rd to 25th of April 2023 at the College of Agriculture, Can Tho University
The first day of the kick-off meeting was reserved for internal discussion amongst the OrganoRice
project partners. Before, all partners were welcome by Assoc. Prof. Le Van Vang from Can Tho
University followed by the welcome of the German co-ordinator Dr. Lutz Weihermüller. After giving a
short overview of the project aims and the schedule for the 3 days kick-off meeting, the group broke
out into 4 working groups (Remote Sensing and Hydrology, Rice Quality and Post Harvest, Socio
Economics and Market, Field Experiments).
The first day of the kick-off meeting was reserved for internal discussion amongst the OrganoRice
project partners. Before, all partners were welcome by Assoc. Prof. Le Van Vang from Can Tho
University followed by the welcome of the German co-ordinator Dr. Lutz Weihermüller. After giving a
short overview of the project aims and the schedule for the 3 days kick-off meeting, the group broke
out into 4 working groups (Remote Sensing and Hydrology, Rice Quality and Post Harvest, Socio
Economics and Market, Field Experiments).
The afternoon was reserved again for internal discussion and preparation of the poster presentation
of day 3. A strong discussion was in the market group as the transition of rice to organic production
requires compensation for yield and income loss for the farmers. Additionally, the documentation for
the certification needs to be clarified as soon as possible to avoid delay of the certification process.
The OrganoRice consortium committed to the invited guest to find solutions for compensation and
On the third day next to the officials from the three provinces (Vinh Long, An Giang, and Dong Thap),
also stakeholders, companies, media, and farmers were invited. The day started with some official
welcome from by Prof. Ha Thanh Toan, President of Can Tho University, followed by a welcome from
the project coordinators Dr. Lutz Weihermüller and Prof. Chau Minh Khoi. Next, Dr. Keil from the
German project agency PT DLR provided some information about the funding within the Client-II
initiative, where OrganoRice is also embedded. For details, we here refer to the Client-II homepage.
During the coffee break, all guests had the possibility to visit some posters in the outside poster area
or to read through the posters handed out together with some more information material. Finally,
there was time for open discussion in the plenum, where a lively discussion started amongst
participants and partners.
The kick-off meeting ended with a lunch and further discussion in small groups.
The OrganoRice team would like to thank all guests for their openness in the discussion, which will
help to sharpen the project over the next three years. Additionally, it provided the OrganoRice team
with concerns and ideas to be taken into account over the project phase.
Finally, we would like to thank the local organization team, especially Khoi and Giang for the perfect
organization.