Recently,  I conducted a Farmer-to-Farmer assignment on Improved Goat Rearing for Youth Entrepreneurship Development with Satkhira Unnayan Sangstha (SUS) in the Tala upazila, Satkhira district of Bangladesh (22.76006 N, 89.25346 E). This assignment was my first trip to Bangladesh.  I was pleasantly surprised to see how well positioned the Bangladeshi goat industry is.  In my travels to other countries where goats are also a ubiquitous feature of the landscape, I was not optimistic about making any real genetic progress because goats freely roamed the countryside, scavenged what they could, and bred indiscriminately.  Often, goats are seen as a resource but one that does not deem any investment.  With little management and no breeding supervision, the prospects of genetic improvement were nil. However, Bangladesh is very, very different.

The goat farming women of SUS after a successful 3 day training

Current Situation

During my Farmer-to-Farmer assignment, I learned that none of the 20 women goat farmers in the one-day refresher course and none of the 30 women goat farmers on the three-day training owned a single buck and that any male kids were castrated young.  All of these women goat farmers (76% of the trainees) rely upon buck centers for insemination services.  The women monitor signs of estrus in their does and take them to the buck centers for mating.  This trip to the buck center can be as much as 8 kilometers roundtrip and cost the women up to a full day away from home.

The buck center that I visited had nine standing bucks; one Jamnapari buck, two Hariana bucks, one Nepalese buck, four Black Bengal bucks, and one buck that they did not know the breed/origin, so they called him the “Australian.”  The service fee ranged from 100 taka ($1 ≈ 80 taka) for the Black Bengal bucks to 400 taka for the Australian.

The owner of the buck center was a former rickshaw driver and with the assistance of a loan from SUS and with the help of his wife started the buck center in 2013.

Training

The training was simple and focused on housing, nutrition, health, reproduction, record keeping, and general management.  Probably the most practical aspects of the sessions were evaluating eye mucous membranes for anemia, conducting body condition score (BCS), and estimating body weight.  Anemia was evaluated using the color under the farmer’s pressed thumbnail. The mucous membranes of the goat’s eye should be the color of the pressed thumbnail. The women farmers practiced BCS using the goat’s lower back and ribs and were taught to make management decisions based upon BCS. Body weight can be easily calculated using a tailor’s tape and the formula, kg = cm/2 – 14. Goats require feeding and medications based on body weight.

Demonstrating how to evaluate anemia using the eye mucous membrane color

Women conducting a body condition scoring exercise

The Dream

Women goat farmers invest much time, effort, and money into the current breeding system and when I realized the importance of the buck centers in the community, I immediately knew that I would love to help these buck centers with the delivery of their product to the women farmers.  The technology of artificial insemination using fresh semen is simple and developing a delivery system of fresh semen to the women goat farmers is even simpler. My dream is that bucks at the buck centers would be collected on twice- or thrice-weekly schedule, fresh semen extended with a skim milk diluent, and chilled to 4°C.  Women goat farmers would call the buck center and arrange an appointment for insemination by cell phone, which all the women farmers have. The buck center would employ a trained inseminator on a bicycle with a cool box to travel to the woman’s farmer for vaginal insemination of the goat. This system would greatly benefit the woman farmer by relieving her of the task and expense of commuting to the buck center and would benefit the buck center by expanding its reach in the community. Women goat farmers in the communities surrounding the buck centers could be given a refresher course in estrus detection, although none is probably needed. The women are already well versed in the signs of estrus. This simplified artificial insemination system delivered to the women farmers would greatly improve the efficiency of the current system and relieve the stress at breeding. An additional side note would be that training on the understanding of inbreeding and its negative consequences is also needed. Genetic improvement can easily be accomplished through the buck centers, but the buck centers and the women farmers should keep breeding records to avoid inbreeding.

A cold box with fresh, cooled semen and a simplified inseminating tool is the dream for any breeder

I was very impressed with the business-like attitude of the women goat farmers in Bangladesh, and I would gladly return to help them and the buck centers become more efficient.  I wish them both the best in their goat rearing endeavors.

Happy Micro-, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises Day!! Today is a celebration of MSMEs, who act as major drivers of employment growth and poverty alleviation worldwide! Winrock International’s Farmer-to-Farmer program partners with MSME hosts like Senegal’s National Agency of the House of Tools (ANAMO), who are helping youth engage in agriculture business as entrepreneurs.

To strengthen the capacity of ANAMO, Winrock engaged Kenton Ayers, a veteran volunteer, to train advisors on how to effectively coach and provide business development services to the young entrepreneurs in their agriculture sector. Watch the local interview with the director of ANAMO and Ken Ayers discuss the importance of the project with kind help of Winrock’s own Pape Tall.

Join us in celebrating all of USAID F2F volunteers who share their expertise with #MSMEs in developing countries to train them for success and stability! #MSMEDay18 #VolunteerImpact360 #Resilience

https://thiesinfo.com/seminaire-de-formation-de-formateurs-theme-techniques-de-coaching-pour-de-jeunes-entrepreneurs/

Dr. Herring was nominated by the Myanmar team because of his ability to quickly absorb the local situation in the field and adapt those observations into an informative presentation and training. He got along well with all the farmers he met, was well prepared and focused on the work. “Dr. Herring’s assignment and shared information delighted the host and cattle farmers, it presented real opportunities in livestock export if they practice cattle farming systematically. It pointed out potential investment areas and possible collaboration between US and Myanmar” Ai Kyaw, Chief of Party, Myanmar. We asked Dr. Herring to reflect on his volunteer experience and the trip to Myanmar, his responses are below.

My Winrock volunteer assignment was to assess the Myanmar cattle industry and to make recommendations regarding potential improvements and developments as the industry there transitions from a draft-based cattle industry toward more organized beef production. I was in country from 1 to 13 January 2018, and my host was the Myanmar Livestock Federation (MLF).

Cattle market near Pyawbwe. These cattle are bred and used for draft purposes. the farmers prefer gray cattle to red cattle. All transactions at this market must be completed by noon.

1.Why did you want to volunteer?

I am interested in opportunities that expand my knowledge base, especially those that also help other people involved in animal agriculture, and particularly those involving cattle producers.

Successful cattle grower operation where the farmer purchases cattle for a specialized market and provides adequate feeding for improved cattle performance compared to typical cattle management in the region

2. What was the highlight of your most recent volunteer assignment abroad?

The most valuable resource in the world is people, and I thoroughly enjoyed meeting and interacting with people involved in the various aspects of livestock production in Myanmar, and experiencing their culture and friendship.

Dr. Herring and the owners of a successful dairy farm. They have 56 cows on 2.5 acres of land in a suburban area near Yangon. The owners had also organized a milk collection cooperative company.

3.What made your Winrock volunteer trip distinctive?

I had never been to Myanmar or this part of Asia. One of the most distinctive aspects of this trip was seeing the degree that farmers rely on their cattle for draft work and transportation, and to personally visit and contribute to one of the less developed countries of the world.

The Myanmar cattle industry is transitioning from traditional draft use to beef-emphasized production

4.How does your experience affect your worldview?

The first thing it does is reinforce my thoughts on how fortunate people in the USA and other developed countries are regarding our daily lives. Many in developed countries do not realize how little of our annual income we have to spend on food. In the USA, in particular, we also have many liberties that people in other countries do not have. The second thing it reinforces is how similar people all over the world are.

The gentleman is Zayar Chit Sein, and his meat market purchases and fabricates 3 beef
sides per day. He supplies some restaurants and hotels in Yangon.

5.What advice would you give a new volunteer?

1) Keep an open mind about seeing new cultures and circumstances; it will be a great learning experience. 2) the people you meet will be very appreciative of your choice to volunteer. 3) don’t be afraid to ask questions, and always have patience and politeness. 4) the only impression some people may ever have about the USA could come from their experiences with you.

Meeting between Dr. Herring, Winrock Farmer to Farmer, Myanmar Livestock Breeding, and the owner of a bull buyer operation interested in receiving information regarding nutrition and how to start a beef cow herd

6.Why should people consider volunteering?

It will be a tremendous learning experience, and it will be rewarding personally. Even if there is a day or two that you wonder why you agreed to volunteer, you will be glad you decided to do it.

The owner of “The Prime Rib” restaurant in Yangon, U Myint Thu, hosted Winrock F2F staff and volunteers. U
Myint Thu is a member of the Myanmar Livestock Federation and is committed to producing value-added
cattle and beef products.

7.How have your assignments made a difference in your own life?

I have become more motivated to help cattle producers whenever I can. I have also become more motivated to work with producers and industry groups in developing countries.

Dr. Herring gives an interview to a local TV station after a meeting between him, MLF officers and government officials.

8.How do you feel about the support from Winrock, whether before, during or after your assignments?

The support I had before the trip was excellent. The in-country support that I received in Myanmar was outstanding and surpassed my expectations. All Winrock personnel were very professional and courteous in all my activities. The Winrock Asia F2F Myanmar staff were excellent partners working closely with MLF to organize informative meetings, tours, and farm visits that not only helped me understand their industry and livestock production conditions but also helped me understand the culture and daily lives of Myanmar people.

Bull buyer operation near Myingyan

9.When your friends and family find out that your volunteer assignment was abroad, what do they say or ask?

The main questions they ask are about how different things were there compared to here. Some of those things include food (rice at every meal and lots of spices!), living and driving conditions (which were much more congested than we are used to, and most cars are right-handed because they are used to cars from Japan, but they also drive on the right side of the road), and the cost of various household items (food and many items are much cheaper there than in the USA).

Food markets in Yangon are open 6:30 to 10:00 5 or 6 days a week. Many people buy their food daily because they have little storage area in their homes or have no refrigeration for perishable foods.

10.What do you do when you’re not volunteering?

I am a professor in the Animal Science Department at Texas A&M University, and teach classes and conduct research regarding beef cattle production. However, my most important job is that of dad and husband, and my biggest challenge is time management. I also enjoy working outdoors on the small cattle operation my family and I have.

11.Does anyone in your life play a role in supporting your involvement? In providing inspiration?

I try to minimize time away from my family, but they are huge supporters of me when I choose to go on volunteer assignments. As my children have become older, it has become easier for me to volunteer more. Both of my parents also encouraged me early in life to perform service and volunteer type activities.

12.Do you keep in touch with your host organization? [Host organizations are the organizations that receive volunteer support]

Yes, mainly through social media. I hope to continue communication with them in the future.

Dr. Herring with cattle farmers near Yanthar village in the Mandalay Region

13.How do you feel that your volunteer assignment has contributed to creating a shared understanding of different cultures through person-to-person interactions?

I am very glad to have contributed in a small way to a big-picture activity. The more that people understand and appreciate each other’s cultures, the more effective communication can be achieved, and more efficient learning and improvements can be made. The interactions I had with cattle farmers was very enlightening for both me and them.

The Schwedagon Pagoda in Yangon. The first shrine on this site was built around 558BC and structures have been added to it by kings and queens through different dynasties.

Demand for pork is secondary to chickens in Myanmar for meat consumption. Although the swine industry has the potential to improve, several factors— including feed, diseases, and poor genetics— have been identified as limits to mass scale pig production in the country. Individual pig farmers in Mandalay requested Farmer-to-Farmer’s technical assistance to conduct a training on general swine production management. In June 2016, Dr. Halina Zaleski and Dr. Rajesh Jha from University of Hawaii at Manoa, traveled to Myanmar to provide the requested training.

During their time as volunteers, Drs. Zaleski and Dr. Jha trained the farmers on the general concepts of pig farming. Particularly, the farmers gained increased understanding concerning the importance of genetic improvement for maintaining the pig’s resistance to diseases and increasing pig production. They quickly grasped that artificial insemination (AI) is crucial to improving genetic potential as well as improving biosecurity measures of the pigs. The volunteers’ technical training connected to the farmers’ experiences of Porcine Respiratory and Reproductive Syndrome (PRRS) outbreaks in 2011 in which the breeding boars quickly spread the disease among the swine.

The volunteers did not expect the farmers to adopt the concept of AI so soon after the first training. AI is a relatively sophisticated technique, the F2F volunteers and the Myanmar Livestock Federation (Mandalay Region) re-oriented their training to focus more specifically on AI.

After training, farmers create pens that are dry and clean for housing their pigs

Beyond expectations, one of the trainees, Ko Pyae Sone Kyaw from Mandalay, began AI not only as a farmer but also as a startup service provider. Kyaw sold his fattening pigs and then started a breeding farm by growing gilts (young female swine) in late 2016. He selected 5 gilts to breed and worked with commercial companies and other breeding farms to get boars with good genetic potential. The technical information for breeding strategy obtained from the Farmer to Farmer training was extremely helpful to him. “In addition to the training information on breeding strategy, I still needed to know how to transport semen with very limited facilities, especially limited cold storage along the transportation route. I contacted Farmer to Farmer and the volunteer Dr. Zaleski. The volunteer was very patient and she explained what I should do,” Kyaw said. Now, this entrepreneur has working relationships with commercial companies and government breeding farms which enables him to breed his sows and produce hybrid piglets.

Kyaw also has helped his friends and relatives in different townships near Mandalay to try AI on their pig farms. “I still remembering the volunteer suggesting that we look at the pig industry as a whole” he stated. Now Kyaw is convincing other farmers to use AI as a tool to reduce diseases, improve the gene pool of their pigs, and increase production. He also intends to be a service provider for pig farms wanting to use AI. He has already used AI in 2 villages and some of them have already littered.

Kyaw continues to share the knowledge he acquired from the training with Farmer to Farmer volunteers. Most notably, he shares information regarding how to manage litters of piglets. He also trains other farmers on the correct amount of feed, how to cut the teeth, how to provide and maintain a proper environment for piglets to thrive in.

Piglets now housed in clean, warm conditions

The impact of Farmer to Farmer training directly effects the participants, while also indirectly impacting members of the participants’ communities. As the participants share their training with neighbors, friends, and family, each person receives information that may improve their farming practices and increase their income.

Beyond the expected impact, this Farmer to Farmer assignment gave this Mandalay community a hero and innovator. The volunteers’ continued support after their assignment ended, a direct reflection of Farmer to Farmer’s “people to people” policy, encouraged Kyaw to become a service provider for AI. Kyaw feels proud that he can help other farmers and he looks to the future. “I hope we can produce the quality piglets ourselves to interface with the monopolizing commercial companies,” he concluded.

This week’s blog comes from Farmer-to-Farmer (F2F) volunteer, David Ringuette. Mr. Ringuette owns and manages Serikaku Farm Ltd., a 15-acre family farm located in Hawaii which produces cacao, banana, lychee, breadfruit, and star fruit. Mr. Ringuette is a retired agriculture coordinator and professor who taught IPM, pesticide safety, plant propagation, irrigation, and soil management. Since retiring, Mr. Ringuette has successfully completed 11 F2F volunteer assignments, many of which have focused on IPM and production of tropical fruits. He has provided volunteer assistance in East and West Africa, Kyrgyzstan, Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, and now Myanmar.

In September 2017, I had the opportunity to work on a Farmer to Farmer Assignment in Myanmar. The Farmer to Farmer program is funded by USAID and implemented in Myanmar by Winrock International.

During my 2 weeks in country I worked with citrus growers in southern Shan State on implementing IPM practices. It is a very mountainous area where avocados, tea, and coffee are also commercially grown. These crops were developed as a substitution for poppies. The 77 farmers were eager to learn new pest control strategies. I covered citrus nutrient deficiencies, monitoring techniques, grafting, pruning, physical control, biological control, and use of chemicals.

Like everywhere in the world there were some farmers’ orchards that were in great shape and some needed substantial work, especially pruning. Most farmers did not know the difference between a fungus and bacteria and often applied one chemical for control of everything. One orange grower from Kaungbo village in Yaksauk noted, “We decided to apply a chemical (no matter it is) whenever we saw a problem in our plant. After Winrock F2F’s training on IPM, we understand the need to think and inspect the cause- nutritional deficiency? disease? insect? fungus?”

Teaching farmers how to graft (lining up cambium layers)

Interestingly, farmers told me that there was more money to be made in citrus than any other orchard crop. They wanted to stick with citrus even with some severe disease pressure. Many orchards were intercropped with tea, tomato, garlic, ginger, or mango. I did not understand the mango/citrus system and it seemed to me there was too much resource competition to be successful. The mango usually out competed the citrus. The garlic, ginger, and tomato system lead to deep cultivation and most likely led to root diseases. The system I thought had good potential was tea and citrus. I did discuss with them about chemical application in a 2-crop system.

Discussing pruning in the orchard

The people of Myanmar are very hospitable and accommodating. The lead farmer always had his wife prepare wonderful food for lunch for me and farmers gave me enough tea to start a tea shop. I was also never allowed to carry my bag. I hope, in the future, to return to Myanmar and once again work with these wonderful people.

All of the trainees (I am the one above the Winrock logo). For most of the trainees, I was the first American they have met.

After Mr. Ringuette’s assignment, he expressed, “The growers were very enthusiastic throughout the training. They asked good questions and expressed a sincere willingness to implement the techniques explained. Many farmers inquired about the purchase of pruning tools.”