The story of Bac Thi Thi San – a powerful example of women positive change in sustainable livelihood development in Son La

This is the story of Ms. Bac Thi Thi San, and how her family was able to escape the cycle of poverty in Na Tue village, Bon Phe commune.

Before participating in the SRD project, like many other Thai ethnic minority women, she was too shy to speak out, and did not dare to express her opinion.
Neverthless, after participating in the project, she joined the indigenous rice growing group and learned technical skills on the climate-smart rice model that began in February 2018. From July, she has participated in seven sessions and has said:

"In comparison to previous methods, this new rice cultivating method is a lot more effective, and it allows us to have enough rice and money for living"
When we asked about their rice cultivating methods in the past, we learned that they usually sowed three or four seeds into a hole. This year, her rice fields have applied the new method, and she excitedly said: "I could see that my field was doing better than the other fields that did not apply the new method. This is the first year I tried this method, and I can already see significant improvements".
In regards to the classroom, San shared that "the teacher in the class taught carefully on how to fertilize and catch worms, and on grass weeding, tracking pests, diseases and natural enemies. She also applied the spase rice cultivating method, and her rice grew more beautiful and did not die like every other year.

In the last harvest, Ms. San's family harvested ten bags of rice, which is two bags more than the previous year.

In the past, when asked, Ms. San did not know how to speak clearly and be shy, but after participating in the classes of the project, she and her husband, Thai, are very confident and diligent in applying their knowledge and techniques in poultry breeding. She was nominated by the Rice team to visit the model of agricultural biodiversity in Yen Binh district, Yen Bai province. At the group meeting, Ms. San took the opportunity to share her opinions and feeling about this model visit. She was much more confident and thanked the project for giving her the opportunity to learn about the model and technique. In the future, she would apply these knowledge in her business. She firstly wanted to apply the worm raising model for chicken food and using humus as a fertilizer, this model is cheap and easy to apply. At home, she also raised fifty to sixty chickens, so the application of worm raising will be useful and help the chicken development.

Ms. San shared her opinion with the class

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