Salinity Scoping Study in Vietnam

The Vietnam scoping report is based on desk research, a review of relevant Vietnamese policies and programmes, and stakeholder interviews with government agencies, research institutions, cooperatives, private sector actors, and international organisations. Together, these inputs provide a comprehensive overview of how salinity intrusion is affecting agriculture, water availability, and rural livelihoods across the country, with a particular focus on the Mekong Delta and emerging risks in Central and Northern coastal regions.

The report shows that Vietnam has made significant progress in shifting from short-term crisis response towards long-term, integrated adaptation. National policies increasingly promote the concept of “living with salinity,” supported by investments in water infrastructure, salinity monitoring, salt-tolerant crops, and diversified farming systems. At the same time, the study highlights persistent gaps in implementation. Monitoring and early warning systems remain fragmented, farm-level access to actionable information is limited, and many promising initiatives struggle to scale due to weak coordination, limited finance, and insufficient market linkages.

By mapping existing initiatives and identifying concrete farm-level needs, the scoping report points to clear opportunities for collaboration between Vietnamese and Dutch stakeholders. These include strengthening knowledge exchange, introducing appropriate technologies and services, supporting cooperative-based approaches, and developing climate-resilient value chains that connect farmers to high-value markets.