Help Environmental Farming in Myanmar

In late September Global Community Service Foundation’s(GCSF) project
manager in Myanmar (formerly Burma), spent two (2) weeks in Virginia at the
GCSF Headquarters. She was here to attend the GCSF 20th anniversary
celebration, to meet some of our donors and to work with, review and update our
projects in Inle Lake. The projects were reviewed by the U.S. staff, President of
the organization and members of the Board of Directors.
On the vermiculture program she confirmed that it was progressing slowly. She
did confirm that a few of the families have had marked success using the worm
casing liquid to fertilize their gardens instead of using toxic chemical fertilizer. The
the worm fertilizer is more economical than the chemicals, because the liquid
worm fertilizer can be produced at home using food scraps to feed the worms;
thereby creating nutritious plant growth enhancement.
We have faced some impediments in our goal of spreading the production and
use of the vermiculure fertilizer to more families. Reasons include:
1. Some of the producers of the casing liquid diluted the resulting fertilizer
with too much water and not enough casing. To correct the situation, we
will provide more instruction, and illustrate the difference in crop quality
when the proper ratio of water/casing is utilized.
2. Some family’s attempts to create vermiculute fertilizer failed because the
worms were not provided with a suitable habitat. Again, that shortcoming
can be remedied by more frequent instruction, and assistance, until the
families become more proficient with the care and feeding of the worms.
3. Because the family homes are built directly of on the lake, communication
between families is sometimes limited by the distances between them;
therefore the explanations of proper vermiculture techniques between the
villagers is sometimes not frequent or effective. Until now we have relied
on GCSF in-country representative and part-time volunteers to provide the
instruction and assistance which is necessary when such culture change,
and agricultural change, is implemented. Based on available funding, we
plan to hire a designated employ as the educator/facilitator/coordinator
and quality control monitor to introduce the correct vermicultute technique to additional families on the lake and to assist those who need more help with the process and procedures. We believe we now have the
resources to accomplish this.We believe that a full-time vermiculture advocate will help with many of the
situations listed above.
We believe, and the earlier results have shown, that the program can have an
immediate and progressive effect on the food production, nutritional quality
of food and will improve the quality of the water in the lake – to the villages
the lake is their world, to preserve it is to enhance the quality of life for
generations to come.
Speaking for the villagers, who have been successful with the technique, and
for the generations to come who will benefit from the cleaner water and
better crops, we thank our donors. We hope our donors will take pride in the
fact that the lake and people of Inle will be healthy and the lake
environmentally improved. We hope that you can point to Inle Lake and
proudly say, “I helped save a lake and improve the life of those who cling to the
only resource they have!”

The following report (unedited) was prepared by the Global Community Service Foundation Project Manager, Dung Chu, after her recent trip to Inle Lake to analyze and plan our charitable projects in that area;

We visit a worm project family. Kyu Kyu Win, 26, who was trained and provided 300 worm. She now has about 10,000 worms. She now can make 5 gallons of fertilizer liquid every 2 months’ worth 10,000ks (About $10) She started with 300 worm and doubled the quantity every month. She said this is a good project because she doesn’t need to spend much time on. Every morning, she just need to spray water, give some food such as left over, banana peel… and just change the soil every three months (spend a day).

People who buy the liquid are people who have garden in Kaylar village, where they have garden. An important thing is that the entire garden those close to each other should use the same fertilizer. The good thing is the price for worm liquid is lower than the chemical fertilizer.

We also visit Ban Pyin, the village on land that is very successful with this project.

Thein Zaw, 24, started worm breeding in July, 2011, with 350 worms. The needed materials are dry leaves such as mango leave sand  trunk of banana plant At first, he makes trunk of banana as small pieces puts the mix on the dry leaves, add water and cover with the cloth. After 25 days, it needs water. After one month, it is ready to use in the garden. He uses the worm liquid in his garden (tomato, garlic) He is more successful than using chemical fertilizer before.  He states “By using the worm liquid, the quality and quantity of vegetables are better. The growth rate of the plants is also better and no side effects.”  

He now can sell the worm liquid to other families. Most of families in the village do worm breeding themselves. This year he is more successful because the amount of worm is much bigger than the last year.

I talked to Hnin Hnin about our village; she thinks that the people in Naung Taw Lae Chay need to have better knowledge on community, on management. She agrees with the ideas of having a project mobilizer, going out to help the villagers once every week for at least 6 months. She agrees to provide one of her staff for this work. The cost is 10,000ks/day. I think the villagers who are still doing worm breeding need to form a committee to work together, commit on right quality of worm breeding, then work with the villagers who have the floating garden in other village, to come to an agreement on providing enough good quality worm liquid for their garden for all to use at the same time. If this is successful, then we will think about bigger production and packaging.

Hnin Hnin also have other training such as how to conduct a meeting, financial management, anti-corruption, team work, micro finance. I requested to her to support us in training Nway Nway. She is happy to offer. Kathy will follow up with the class schedule and send Nway Nway to have training.

Also, when we have the mobilizer, we should send Nway Nway with the mobilizer, so Nway Nway can learn. Nway Nway also agrees to breed worm after learning how to do it, so she will have the hands on experience and hopefully become a mobilizer after 6 month.

Links:

• Global Community Service Foundation