Ecological Agriculture Saves a Happy Life for Women

On October 16th, 2015, the event "Ecological Agriculture Save a Happy Life for Women" was held by the Centre for Sustainable Rural Development (SRD) in the Phu Luong district, Thai Nguyen province in response to the 16 Days of Women's Global Action for Food Sovereignty for Rural Women campaign (October 1st – 16th 2015). With the direct participation of over 400 people (mainly local women), and general participation of about 6000 people in the Yen Lac commune, Phu Luong district, the event helped to raise awareness, especially for women and children, on the benefits of adopting measures for ecological agriculture with reduced hazardous chemicals.

Overview of the event

This activity was within the framework of the project "Towards a Non Toxic Environment in South East Asia" (coded VMMIC14 - sponsored by PAN AP) with the support and cooperation from the on-going project "Improving rural livelihood and sustainable forest management through PLUM and Value chain approaches" (coded VM048 – sponsored by Manos Unidas) implemented by SRD.

The Chairman of the Phu Luong People's Committee - Mr. Pham Binh Cong - made a speech at the event

The participants included the Chairman of the Phu Luong People’s Committee – Mr. Pham Binh Cong; head of the district Agriculture and Rural Development Department – Mrs. Le Thi Thuy Nguyen; Deputy Director of SRD – Mrs. Nguyen Thi Hoa, representatives from the Agricultural Extension Station; the Agriculture Department; the People’s Committee; the mass organizations of the Yen Lac, Dong Dat and On Luong communes; and numerous local people. There were also a number of national and provincial media agencies at the event including: Vietnam Television 2 (VTV2), Agriculture newspaper, Phu Luong District’s Television.

More than 400 people (mainly local women) participated in the event

From early morning, the hall of the People's Committee of the Yen Lac commune was filled with local people. The event was lively and vivid with interlaced content such as: ecological agriculture dialogue, ecological livestock feed making contests, question-and-answer interactions on ecological agriculture, and entertainment performed by local people.

In the ecological agriculture dialogue, experts from SRD, the Phu Luong district, the Agricultural Extension Station, and the local areas addressed the most basic ecological agriculture questions such as: What is ecosystem and ecological agriculture?; Why should adopt ecological agriculture?; How do we implement ecological agriculture?; And how does ecological agriculture relate to women?  Mrs. Nguyen Thi Hoa shared that: "People understand how hard the women's lives are, and we are trying to help them improve their lives. An essential step is to implement ecological agriculture". Mrs. Hoa also emphasized that women are directly engaged in agriculture the most, which is why their understanding of ecological agriculture would help protect their health, environment and create sustainable livelihoods.

The Deputy Director of SRD - Mrs. Nguyen Thi Hoa participating in the dialogue

In the dialogue, the Head of the Phu Luong Agriculture and Rural Development Department – Mrs. Le Thi Thuy Nguyen – shared that local leaders recognized the positive improvements inincome, productivity, and in the excitement of people joining the project activities in the field of ecological agriculture. Mrs. Nguyen also said that local people should be more aware of the useof chemicals and pesticides. Along with that, she encouraged teamwork, cooperation in developing livelihood models for ecological agriculture, supporting each other to improve output quality and meet the market demand, and protecting health and the environment. Local authorities will also focus on strengthening communications and awareness raising activities for local people.

The Head of the Phu Luong Agriculture and Rural Development Department – Mrs. Le Thi Thuy Nguyen sharing in the dialogue

Also, the local farmers shared the advantages and difficulties in applying livelihood models such as red worm farming, and received consultation from experts on their questions regarding ecological agriculture. Ms. Du, one of the local farmers, said: "I have been supported to develop earthworm farming for several months. I'm very glad that the income from this activity is relatively high for my family. Earthworm farming is not only easy, but also makes use of the waste so I don't waste money buying pesticides. I am thankful for the project and experts who have supported us so much."

Sharing about women's roles, Ms Ninh – leader of the farmer group in Na Pang village, On Luong commune—said "women not only play a key role in developing family happiness and healthcare but are also tasked with agricultural production which includes regular chemical usage. Therefore, ecological agriculture will help to protect our health."

Representatives of local women sharing their experience and knowledge

In the Q&A session, many women were encouraged to share their experience and knowledge. "We are thankful for this event which helps farmers exchange experience and learn a lot about ecological agriculture from the experts. We look forward to joining other activities like this." (Ms Oanh – Yen Lac commune). "With the earthworm livelihood model, we can raise chickens and pigs without wasting money buying livestock feed from market while still getting a higher price to help reduce poverty."(Ms Luong – Yen Lac commune).

Ecological livestock feed making contests

Entertainment performed by local people

Mini photo exhibition of the project activities

The event “Ecological Agriculture Saves a Happy Life for Women” ended with a lively contest where participants made ecological livestock feed. Through this activity, farmers who are not part of the project, and would normally not participate, were able to learn techniques directly from the experts. Through this model, farmers can prepare livestock feed by themselves to reduce cost and gradually abandon instant feed.

Mr. Dao Duc Liem, head of SRD’s Sustainable Agriculture Department, said besides providing technical support, SRD also connected with several social enterprises to support the development of value chains and clean agricultural product output for farmers. It is also one of the activities associated with the event "Organic Market" that SRD and partners organize monthly in Hanoi (from March 8/2015).

The head of SRD's Sustainable Agriculture Department - Mr. Dao Duc Liem

-SRD-

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