Several waves of HPAI caused by the H5N1 strain have swept through Vietnam over the past three years and Vietnamese authorities have plans to restructure the poultry industry. These plans are costly, likely to have negative impacts on smallholder producers and will not necessarily achieve the desired objective of eliminating HPAI from Vietnam. As an alternative, PPLPI aims to assess mechanisms designed to overcome serious incentive problems for product quality improvement, reducing disease and food safety risks, while increasing smallholder incomes and reducing public expenditure for conventional surveillance and control measures. In particular, we want to explore the potential of the demand side of the poultry market to achieve higher food safety standards, thereby displacing costly and inefficient government intervention.
This report presents the main findings from a Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) held in Ha Vi village, Le Loi commune, Thuong Tin district, Ha Tay province in North Viet Nam. The overall objective of this PRA was to introduce a planned traceability study to local authorities and to triangulate, externally validate and supplement general information1 required for the planning of the traceability study. The aim of the latter is to assess the feasibility of tracking bird movements through smallholder market networks in an area recognized as being at high risk of HPAI infection.