Ha Noi,  Viet Nam has taken one step towards developing integrated food-energy systems (IFES) through enhanced nationally appropriate mitigation actions (NAMA) following a FAO-supported workshop in Ha Noi today.

Co-hosted by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), the workshop was a platform for policy-makers, scientists, donors and representatives from government institutions to review the results and chart the way forward to develop further supportive policies towards promoting IFES. Integrated Food-Energy System (IFES) is a diversified farming system, which is a system of agricultural production that incorporates agro-biodiversity and builds on the principles of sustainable production intensification

The workshop was also convened in the context of the project "Enhancing NAMA readiness: Building capacity in integrated food-energy systems (IFES)", implemented by the MARD with technical support from FAO. The three-year project, which started in March 2014, aims to undertake a policy gap analysis in relation to climate change and NAMAs in agriculture, a sustainability analysis and provide policy guidelines for IFES as well as share international experiences on NAMAs.

"It is crossing borders by looking at food and energy production. This makes the project challenging, but also interesting," said by Kaisa Karttunen, Senior Natural Resources Officer from FAO headquarters in Rome, who attended the workshop.