Participatory Watershed Management in Nghia village, Ban Cong commune, Ba Thuoc district, Thanh Hoa province, Vietnam.
Mrs. Luong Thi Mai joined the Participatory Watershed Management project in Vietnam in July 2007. She was quickly elected as the facilitator for her village, Ban Cong because of her good reputation in the village. When the village chose to form an interest group on Sloping Agricultural Land Techniques (SALT) she joined. They had training in SALT and how to make organic fertilizer. Later she also joined the group on raising chicken and a group for women and men on gender analysis.
Even though her land in the hills was not part of the land chosen to demonstrate the SALT, she has used the techniques that she learned on the training course. She says that she has already benefitted a lot.
“Before using the SALT I could harvest about 100 kg of maize from 0.1 ha, but with the SALT and seedlings provided by the project my production has already increased to 150 kg/0.1 ha,” she states.
Mai has put a lot of effort into working with her field which is steep sloping land on the hill above her village. She went to the neighbor province Son La to see how the SALT model was implemented there. It took her and her husband 20 days to gather stones from the field and put them into stone lines on 0.1 ha of her land. After planting rice seedlings in February, she wants to apply the SALT to her other fields on the hill.
“It is a lot of work,” she says, “but then you only need to do it one time. Afterwards, when stones come to the surface, we will maintain the stone line. Before we could only plant cassava which grows very easily on the field, but now we can get a good harvest from maize. The stone lines help to slow down the water when it rains, so that more water seeps into the soil. Because the water is slowed down, the fertile top soil is not washed away so easily. The land is better and more fertile already.”
There are 20 households in the SALT interest group. About 20 other households who didn’t participate in the training directly have also applied the techniques, because they saw how the training was conducted. They noticed that when they put the stones in a pile, the plants would grow better around the pile. So it was easy for them to be convinced that the stone lines would increase the productivity of the land.
There are 117 households in the village and 70 of them have joined the trainings offered by the project. Each group has 20 people and the village voted for which households to join, based on criteria given by the project: At least 70% of the households should be poor and should have land and labour. Many people wanted to join, but there was not enough capacity for all to join a group. However, the people who join the trainings share their knowledge with those who are interested in the techniques.
Beyond agriculture
Mai enjoys her tasks as a facilitator. She is the link between the project management and the villagers and organizes the interest group meetings. The project have given her training in facilitating the needs, rights and visions of the villagers, to be aware of gender and environmental issues and to help identify products and markets.
“I’m always very busy because I have chicken, buffalos and a small shop to take care of, apart from the work on the rice and maize fields. But my husband and my son help me if I have to go for a meeting with one of the groups.”
Mai takes care of 500 chicks that the project has supported the group with. Because of Avian Influenza she has applied a bio security model where the chicks get vaccinated when they are three days and 14 days old. She has built a special shed for them with proper drainage and concrete floor, following the instruction of the project. When they are older, each household gets 20 chicks each to raise.
She plans to spend the increased income from the fields and from raising chicken for her children’s education so that their lives will not be as hard as her own. The oldest son is interested in music and wants to go to Hanoi to study. The youngest son wants to be a motorbike maintenance worker, which he can study in the nearest town.
Maybe there will also be enough money to build a new house. She explains that 10 years ago, her and her husband built the house they live in now.
It was the fashion at that time to build directly on the ground and it was cheaper. But she likes the traditional stilt house better, because it is easier to keep clean. The dogs and chicken won’t get into the house and because of the bamboo floor it is cooler in summer.
Mai hopes that the project will do more different trainings, because she sees the benefits for herself and the other people in the village. Improved kitchen gardening could give some people an extra income by selling vegetables in the town.