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.” 

I recently spent four months as a long-term volunteer working with Winrock’s Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) Team in Myanmar. This was my first time working as a volunteer for Winrock International. From the start, I was impressed at how well organized Winrock’s team was with logistics and making sure everything was smooth throughout the duration of my assignment.

During my assignment, I worked with the MEL Team and the project staff to review indicators for monitoring and evaluating the progress of the Value Chains for Rural Development project. M&E is an important function of a project and can serve as its backbone as it provides useful information about how the project is doing (e.g. what things are going well, what things are not going well, whether the project is on target in reaching expected milestones and outcomes, and where adjustments should be made). Ultimately, the information that is collected through M&E helps to tell the story of how Winrock’s Value Chains for Rural Development project is helping to improve the livelihoods of the rural farmers that are being reached.

It was exciting to already see positive results of the Value Chains for Rural Development project. Through agricultural training and demonstration farms, Winrock is working with farmers to raise the quality and quantity of their yields and ultimately their household incomes. The project has catalyzed and strengthened the mobilization of farmers into groups and associations, giving them a collective voice to express their wants and concerns and advocate to the government for the regulation of agrochemical companies, to hold them accountable to provide proper extension services, and control pricing and quality of chemical products. The Farmer Groups help farmers to bargain for better prices to purchase seeds, input, and equipment. The Value Chains for Rural Development project is also focusing on finding and establishing new market opportunities while helping to establish clear grades and standards that will create transparency around the prices that farmers receive for their produce.

Farmer Field School for Sesame Farmers

Farmer Field School lesson about pollinators and pests

One of the goals of my work was to standardize and simplify measurement and reporting across the five value chains that Winrock is working in, which include soybeans, melons, sesame, ginger, and coffee. Even though there are many similarities across these value chains, there are also big differences between the crops, such as the number of harvests in a year, input costs, amount of labor required, and the quantity and value of the yields. These details need to be accounted for to ensure that the data collected is thorough, reliable, and valid. In preparation for the project’s upcoming annual evaluation, the MEL team and I designed the survey questionnaires to ensure that the right questions are asked and tailor them to be appropriate for each value chain. After putting together the questionnaires, we headed out to the fields to test the questionnaires with the farmers. The process of field-testing the questionnaires highlighted the challenges of working in another language and the need to make sure that the wording of questions is as simple as possible and understandable when translated. Field-testing the surveys also revealed differences in reality versus theory. The feedback provided by the farmers was essential for modifying and finalizing the questions.

Female farmers weeding by hand

Myanmar is a beautiful country with warm-hearted people who are eager to learn and grow. The country is developing rapidly with conveniences and familiarity provided by global companies like Uber, Coffee Bean, KFC, and even Hard Rock Cafe. Trying to negotiate a fare and tell the taxi driver where you want to go used to be one of the most intimidating things about getting around town but now you can simply use an app. There is even an app to have food delivered by bicycle courier to your door. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of working as a volunteer with Winrock and plan to return to Myanmar to do another assignment soon.

Winrock’s September Volunteers of the Month are dynamic duo, Dr. Jonathan Deenik and Dr. Glen Fukumoto. They both come from the University of Hawaii at Manoa and volunteered together this summer in Myanmar, providing training to 77 farmers in Hmawbi Township on soil quality improvement techniques, including soil fertility management and composting using poultry and livestock manure. Our Country Director, Dr. Ai, notes that these two volunteers have “strong technical expertise, high cultural sensitivity, the ability to adapt to and understand local  farmers’ needs, an impressive teaching style, and complimentary qualities to form an effective team.” Jonathan and Glen have volunteered together in Myanmar three times and Dr. Ai explains that because of their work “our program has received positive impacts beyond our expectations; the trainees love them, respect them, and continue to request their return.” To learn more about the technical aspects of their assignment, check out our recent blog post.

We asked Dr. Deenik and Dr. Fukumoto to reflect on their experiences as Farmer-to-Farmer volunteers. Their responses are below:

Why did you want to volunteer?
Deenik: Volunteering is an important part of my life. I volunteer regularly in community work days, taking care of agricultural land in my community of West Oahu. This commitment to volunteerism was solidified by my 5-years as a Peace Corps volunteer (1985-1991).

What was the highlight of your most recent volunteer assignment abroad?
Fukumoto: The resourcefulness of the host-farmer and the support in coordinating an unplanned demonstration on building a composting unit as part of the workshop session. The host asked what was needed for the demonstration and gathered all the materials – carbon source, nitrogen source, local materials used to build the compost bins and aeration pipes, within 24-hours. During the day of the demonstration, he assigned a small farm crew to work with me in setting up the area and prepare the materials for the demonstration.

What made your Winrock volunteer trip distinctive?
Deenik: This was my third volunteer assignment in Myanmar. The growth, deepening, and fruition of our special relationship with the Myanmar staff, especially Dr. TK and Dr. Ai, is DISTINCTIVE and immensely rewarding.

Dr. Deenik delivering his training with the help of Dr. TK

How does your experience affect your world view?
Deenik: Our work with Winrock in Myanmar provides a unique opportunity to experience what life is like for Myanmar people from a wide range of perspectives – farmers, educators, civil servants, students…. Through these personal interactions, we see the uniqueness of their situations, but also recognize that we all face similar experiences, and thus we better appreciate the notion we are a “global family.” Maya Angelou expresses this most eloquently in her poem “Human Family.”

Fukumoto: The Winrock F2F volunteer experience makes you realize how little we know of the world. The country borders are not simply lines on a map, but are a place rich in traditions, culture and different values and the struggles and triumphs of its people. Through the farmer-to-farmer program we develop relationships with the people and their community, with hopes of advancing and improving environmental quality, or food production, or the individual lives that we touch. At the same time, these assignments enrich ourselves with new friends and knowledge of a new place on this planet.

What advice would you give a new volunteer?
Deenik: Practice humility and patience, and above all have fun.

Fukumoto: Before your trip, read all the information sent out by your Winrock recruiter, heed all safety and medical advice, read as much as you can about the country and your related assignment and keep an open mind. While in country being respectful, being humble, and learning a few words of greetings in the host country language goes a long way, and don’t forget to enjoy the journey.

How have your assignments made a difference in your own life?/Has your assignment caused you to do anything differently once you returned?
Deenik: My life experience is enriched with each assignment, where I meet and learn from so many people. These experiences continue to humble me and reinforce the essential need to be tolerant and patient, but also intentional.

Fukumoto: The assignments, especially in the rural agricultural settings, make you realize that many of your personal challenges and struggles are quite minor compared to daily struggles of the lives of the people we engage with. Living a simple life can be more fulfilling than climbing the ladder of success in our hectic and complex lives. On the first assignment, several volunteers embarked on the Yangon Circular Train (it’s a must for the first-time visitor to Yangon). You get the essence of the life in Myanmar and the warm hearts of the people. Nearing the end of the loop ride a nice gentleman, most likely a daily commuter on the train, greeted a colleague and followed with a simple question, “Are you happy?” Often in our busy lives we never think about our state of mind … but now I think about it more than before … and yes, I am happy.

Why should people consider volunteering?
Deenik: Volunteering with Winrock promotes the effective transfer of knowledge to communities who have requested technical assistance. It also allows volunteers to broaden their world view through meaningful human interaction.

How do you feel about the support from Winrock?
Deenik: The Winrock staff here in the U.S. and in Myanmar have provided stellar support. The assignments are well-researched and address a grass-roots community need, which makes for a meaningful and rewarding experience.

Fukumoto: I would go anywhere in the world with the support of Winrock. The F2F program staff, from the preparation, arrangements, guidance/logistics and de-briefing by the recruiters, to the support from the field office professionals, are simply outstanding. Knowing you have the support/safety net in the background and the hard working and knowledgeable field staff, allows you to focus on the assignment. After the hard work is done, opportunities are provided for you to learn and discover the culture and the arts, the history, and modern life of the host country.

Dr. Fukumoto with the compost building crew. ““The support of the host farm was phenomenal. I was in awe of the connectivity of the farming community in gathering all the materials needed for the demo.”

When your friends/family find out that your volunteer assignment aboard, what do they say or ask?
Deenik: They are always curious and interested in this part of my work. Recently, I spent more than 4 hours sharing pictures of my assignments in Myanmar and Guinea with my 93 year old aunt. She was fascinated.

Fukumoto: Where is Myanmar? Why are you going? Is it safe? How’s the food?

How do you feel that your volunteer assignment has contributed to create a shared understanding across different cultures through person-to-person interactions?
Fukumoto: The Farmer-to-Farmer program and the outreach activities of interpreted workshop presentation and demonstrations has allowed us to share our ideas, best management practices, and farmer adoption/implementation examples from our work experiences. These experiences provide evidence/reinforcement that the presentations are not simply theoretical, but have practical/proven applications with successful results. Farmers understand and believe other farmers more than from academia; but by blending academia and direct farmer experiences, I believe, it brings a greater understanding of the principles and applications of the topics in the assignment.

The visits with the host farmers are extremely valuable. The farm view through the eyes of the farmer provide a grounded understanding of the their issues and challenges of production, environmental concerns, marketing, and other local constraints that impact their operations.

What keeps you going back to volunteer?
Fukumoto: Genuine interest in sharing my knowledge and experiences in tropical livestock systems that can potentially increase farmers and livestock organizations knowledge and understanding, which I hope can lead to successes in the field for improved sustainability, productivity and a healthy ecosystem.

Winrock volunteers, like Dr. Jonathan Deenik and Dr. Glen Fukumoto, are helping to #endhunger by building farmers’ resilience through improved soil fertility management and composting applications. On a recent technical assistance assignment in Myanmar, the volunteers had the opportunity to work closely with two farmer organizations. The organizations attracted approximately 130 farmers, local government agents, and NGO professionals to the workshops and demonstrations; covering topics on soil fertility management, livestock waste management, and composting.

Dr. Deenik is a soil fertility expert and defines soil fertility “as the ability of the soil to supply essential plant nutrients and soil water in adequate amounts and proportions for plant growth and it is the foundation of productive, vibrant cropping systems. Soils, however, vary dramatically in their ability to store and supply elements essential for good crop growth. A sandy soil has limited capacity to store and supply plant nutrients whereas a finer soil with proportionately more clay will typically store and supply more nutrients. Soil fertility assessment is typically conducted through soil testing, which involves a series of chemical analyses to determine soil nutrient availability.  

On this assignment in Hmawbi Township, I provided training in soil fertility assessment to two sets of farmer groups. Training participants at both sites brought soils from their respective farms and we tested the soils for pH (acidity) and available nitrate, phosphorus and potassium using my mobile soil testing equipment. The reflectoquant® technology uses different test strips for nitrate (N), phosphate (P) and potassium (K) coupled with a portable spectrophotometer to acquire concentration values for each nutrient. The participants went through the extraction and filtering steps, and then used the test strips and the spectrophotometer to the assess NPK status of their soils.

The farmers easily grasped the simple procedures and eagerly brought their soil samples forward for testing. With results for their soils in hand, I also provided them with the appropriate knowledge to interpret the test results and make fertilizer recommendations. After compiling the results, I highlighted the fact that many of the farmer’s soil samples were acidic to very acidic. Soils from paddy rice fields tended to show low nutrient status whereas soils from intensively managed vegetable fields were typically higher in nutrients – especially phosphorus. On the soils with low nutrient status, I presented some options for appropriate soil amendments including compost, manure, and synthetic fertilizers and presented some simple calculations to estimate the amount of amendment to add. In cases where soils had high nutrients, I emphasized to the farmers that fertilizer additions in these soils could be reduced to prevent nutrient loss to the environment with considerable savings to the farmer.

Access to simple, rapid, and reliable soil testing will have far-reaching impacts improving the livelihoods of rural Myanmar farmers empowering them to make sound fertilizer decisions that increase crop production while protecting soil and water resources.”

Dr. Deenik observing participants soil testing skills.

Dr. Fukumoto is an animal science specialist whose work focuses on on-farm projects in co-composting and nutrient management data collection. He describes composting as “one of the great wonders of the biological world. It is a natural process of aerobic microbial degradation of organic matter resulting in a stable and valuable soil amendment. 

During the second workshop series, we discussed the possibility of including a compost demonstration with Dr. Thet Khaing, Project Management and Communication Specialist for the Winrock International Asia F2F Myanmar field office. Dr. “TK”, as we affectionately call him, is a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine and provides volunteers with wealth of knowledge about all things Myanmar – from culture and history to arts and crafts, and recommendations to the best restaurants in town. The host farm was eager to support the last-minute addition of a compost demonstration to the workshop agenda. With the farm manager, I discussed the logistics of the demonstration: dimensions and design of the compost bin, requirements for carbon and nitrogen materials, water, and tools that were needed to build the compost pile. Everything was purchased, gathered and ready the next day.

“Built with locally sourced and natural materials, this was one of the most beautifully constructed compost bins I’ve worked with.” Glen Fukumoto

I worked with the farm crew, mostly through crude hand signals, and we completed the coolest compost bin I’ve worked on: woven bamboo side panels, custom-made bamboo aeration pipes, and a bamboo structural frame. Rice husks were used as the carbon resource and the nitrogen was provided by poultry manure. I had hoped for a beautiful day for the outdoor demonstration; well, at least no rain during the build. Thankfully, it didn’t rain during the demonstration, but working in the hot and humid weather with my shoes anchored in the sticky clay mud, and being surrounded by over 70 eager farmer participants, many seeing a compost pile being built for the first time, was just another great experience of delivering practical information and introducing innovative and age-old technologies for rural agricultural development.

The recycling of farm by-products and livestock waste through simple on-farm composting systems can help to replace a portion of the chemical fertilizers and improve the biological health of the soils to improve crop production, as well as to reduce the pollution potential of animal manure runoff into water resources in the region. In addition, the compost can be an integral part of the nutrient management plan of farms considering a transition to organic farming systems.”