Becoming a Farmer Trainer in Myanmar: Khin Nyein Thu’s Story
SHAN STATE, MYANMAR — When Khin Nyein Thu received her certificate as a community trainer, she knew she was ready to share her new vegetable farming knowledge with her community.
She had just finished an intensive training-of-trainers program held by East-West Seed Knowledge Transfer under the Fostering Resilience Through Vegetables (Foster Veg) project. Supported by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation and HEKS/EPER, Foster Veg aims to bring profitable and sustainable vegetable farming practices to diverse populations in southern Shan state. One unique component of the project is the training-of-trainers certification program, which prepares participants to train farmers in their community and to help community members set up home gardens.
Khin Nyein Thu is an alumna of State Agricultural Institute (Heho), and she heard about the Foster Veg training program from the agricultural network in her community. She successfully completed the 3-month training at the end of May, having learned vegetable production techniques for both commercial farming and home gardening.
Before the training program, Khin Nyein Thu had experience with field crops such as corn, soybean, and rice, but her experience with vegetable production was limited to her small home garden, where she grew herbs and leafy vegetables. From the training program, she learned many new techniques, including soil sterilization, mulching, fertilization dosage and techniques, trellising, and making biopesticide and natural fertilizer. She was especially excited by techniques like trellising with thread, mulching with different crop residues or plastic, and making biofertilizer like fermented fruit juice.
“I only knew the trellis with bamboo,” she said, “so I was surprised that we could use cotton thread. It is really cost effective and environmentally friendly. I was also able to learn the pros and cons of plastic mulching compared to other mulching and the yield differences.”
Immediately after graduating from the training program, Khin Nyein Thu was offered a job as a Local Field Assistant with Taunggyi Food Hub, a social enterprise business that is working with the Foster Veg project. In this position, she is using her knowledge from the training program to help local farmers grow soybeans for the commercial market and produce yard long bean seeds.
The Foster Veg program also prepared her to become a self-motivated community trainer with confidence in public speaking. In addition to her position with Taunggyi Food Hub, she has coached more than 50 farmers, especially women and youth, in successful home gardening and profitable vegetable production since she finished the training program.
“This training program trained me not only to be able to produce the vegetable systematically but also to teach or train other farmers in the community. Also, I would like to thank EWS-KT and other funded organizations for helping me to get job opportunities with recommendations and linkages,” she wrote.