Farmer’s Club
We visited the project: Increased Resilience, and Improved Food and Nutrition Security of Vulnerable Communities in Khammouane Province, to talk with the farmers about how they were doing after the project ended in 2021.
This Project was implemented by Health Poverty Action (HPA) and Humana People to People Laos (HPP Laos) with funds from European Union (EU). It supported 5000 farmers in 100 villages of Thakhek’ Mahaxay, Xaybuathong, Khounkham, Gnommalath and Bualapha districts, Khammouane Province.
In the visit we met with Ms.Pheangkeo, one of 5,000 members of the Farmers’ Clubs Project that Humana FPP implemented.
Ms. Pheangkeo is 30 years old, and she lives in Ban Phonesad, Gnommalath District.
She says: “after Project started in Phonesad village in 2019, I learned a lot about growing vegetables and raising animal from the project, and I used the knowledge from the training. I also received seeds and animals from the project to experiment with growing a variety of vegetables and found that it worked so well. My family has more to eat and get more nutritious food after the project started. Additionally, I can also sell some products, and earn some money for spending within the family.
In the beginning our village received 3 goats,40 chicken, 40 ducks for pass-on-loans to some of the families in the villages. These "first generation" farmers passed on some of their first offspring Goats to other families, and the "second generation" families again passed offspring on to the next families. I personally see that this project is a project that allows our farmers to learn many things such as farming and animal husbandry. This has been manifested by the unity there is in the village about the activities assigned by the project. Currently, there are 25 goats for 19 families, Although the Project is finished the villagers will continue the pass-on-loans of goats to 50 families of the Farmers’ Club in the village.
The training was very good and I enjoy learning. I also participated in the step-up farmer group's activities, and currently I am continuing to use the method and knowledge from the training for growing vegetables and raising animals. We also learned to use the waste from the vegetable leftover after consumption to feed our ducks and chickens, which helped to reduce buying animal feed for our family.
