The coordination board of the Climate Change Adaptation in the Mekong Delta ( AMD ) project in Tra Vinh organised a conference to introduce the Climate Change Adaption (CCA) fund on June 25.

The goal of the fund is to reduce risks and encourage the application of proper production models and services to yield sustainable incomes for local residents under changing environmental conditions as well as raise climate change adaptation capability among communities.

Huynh Nghia Tho, Director of the board, said from 2015-2019, the CCA Fund will sponsor 28 CCA production models in farming, animal livestock and seafood with a non-refundable aid of 47 billion VND (2.15 million USD).

Qualified models yield high output despite climate change impacts and have been recommended for expansion by the Tra Vinh Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Under the conditions of the fund, organisations and individuals participating in verified production models will be assisted with non-refundable aid up to 50 percent of the total production or business costs.

Households will be provided with a maximum assistance of 30 million VND (1,375 USD) each while maximum loans for groups or teams is up to 750 million VND (34,387 USD).

Of 28 models qualifying for access to the fund, 13 are in farming, seven in animal livestock and eight in seafood aquaculture.

The AMD Tra Vinh project is being implemented from 2014 to 2020 in 30 communes in seven districts with 15,000 impoverished and nearly-impoverished households benefitting from it.

The total investment capital of the project is 521 billion VND (23.88 million USD), a blend of a 233.5 billion VND (10.8 million USD) loan from the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), a non-refundable aid package of 126.5 billion VND (5.86 million USD), 79.5 billion VND (3.68 million USD) in corresponding capital from the Vietnamese Government and a 81.5 billion VND (3.77 million USD) from beneficiaries.-VNA