Livelihoods and Rights Clubs (LARC) in Tet village, Nong Ha commune, Cho Moi district, Bac Kan province, Vietnam
Mrs. Hoang Thi Van lives in a poor household in Tet village in Bac Kan province, north of Hanoi. She wanted to improve her knowledge on growing soybeans to raise her income. When the Livelihoods and Rights Clubs (LARC) project started in her village, she joined the interest group on cultivation of soybeans. She has participated in training on how to grow soybeans and is currently attending the training in raising sows for producing piglets. In the rainy season she grows rice on her field which is about 0.1 ha and when the soil goes dry she plants soybeans or maize.
“I have produced soybeans for some years,” she says, “but with the training I know better when to apply fertilizer and pesticides. This means that I have reduced the input of the chemicals and at the same time I increased the yield of my soybean crop a lot.” This season she got 200 kg of soybeans from 600 m2 of land which she sold for almost 3 million VND.
“34 women in her village attended the training on growing soybeans. They are all very happy to get the opportunity to learn more about cultivation and they have all applied their new knowledge,” she says and adds, “and I am pleased that I gets the chance to share my experiences with other women. I would like to attend more trainings and especially cross visits to see how other women grow the soybeans. I learn well when seeing how the training works in practice,” she explains. The trainings follow the principle of the “Farmer Field School” which is a combination of theory and practice in the field.
Thi Van attended the training on gender equity that is one of the activities of the livelihoods and rights clubs. This means that men and women should be more aware of their different roles and for example share the work in the household more equally. In some cases, the men did not allow the wifes to join the meetings in the village. However this has changed, because the men can see the benefit in terms of increased knowledge on for example cultivation of soybeans and raising of pigs. The men now have more respect for the women because they become more knowledgeable and contribute with income to the family.
“My husband helps me with the housework if I need to go for a training,” Thi Van says. “Even when we were harvesting rice and we were very busy, he thought that it was good for the family if I went to the training on growing soybeans.”
At the moment Mrs. Thi Van has 3 pigs and she has been raising pigs for more than ten years. However, she doesn’t know how to keep a sow and piglets. The training she is attending gives her more confidence in how to take care of the sow. If she can grow enough fodder for the piglets, she will raise them herself, otherwise she will sell them. She looks forward to an increased income from the piglets.
Mrs. Thi Van has a plot of 1.5 ha of forest land and hopes that CARE will do more training on afforestation, because she wants to plant acacia trees on her land. Acacia is good for timber and will increase the income of the household.
“Right now the village forest is overexploited because the people are very poor so they cut the trees to earn some income. Sometimes they also cut the trees on my land,” she says.
Only her husband’s name is in the Red Book that says that the family has land use rights to the forest land. She would like to have her name in the Red Book as well, because if there is any trouble with the land, she can go to the authorities as well as her husband to get help. But she doesn’t know how to get her name in the Red Book.
LARC will do a training next year on legal rights in relation to land use. Most people in the village have a plot of forest land, but as Mrs. Thi Van, most of the women don’t have their name in the Red Book. This can become a problem if the husband is away or dies or the couple wants to get separated. She said that she understands that it is important knowledge and she looks forward to attending the training next year.