European Union
Food security for Women and Rural Poor in Viengkham District Luang Prabang Province LAO PDR (Contract number: FOOD/2009/211-621)
FINAL REPORT
July 2009 to
December 2011
January, 2012
AGRISUD I NTERNATIONAL SIEGE : 48, RUE DE LA SABLIERE 33500 LIBOURNE – FRANCE – TEL/FAX : +33 5 57 25 17 06 BUREAU A PARIS : 195, BOULEVARD SAINT-GERMAIN – 75007 PARIS – FRANCE – TEL : +33 1 58 50 41 63 – FAX : 33 1 58 50 03 19 e-mail : [email protected] – site web : www.agrisud.org Association à but non lucratif reconnue de Bienfaisance – N° Siret : 390 364 776 00026
List of abbreviations:
AHC: Asian Heritage Consultancy ASI: AGRISUD International CIFOR: Centre for International Forestry Research DAFO: District Agriculture and Forestry Office DEO: District Education Office DHO: District Health Office DLMA: District Land Management Authority EU: European Union GFS: Gravity Fed System GoL: Government of Lao PDR INGO: International Non-Governmental Organisation IRD: Institut de recherche pour le Développement LANN: Linking Agriculture, Natural resources management and Nutrition Lao PDR: Lao People’s Democratic Republic LWU: Lao Women Union MAF: Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry MoFA: Ministry of Foreign Affairs MoU: Memorandum of Understanding NAFRI: National Agriculture and Forestry Research Institute NTFP: Non-Timber Forestry Products PAFO: Provincial Agriculture and Forestry Office PLUP: Participatory Land Use Planning PQ: Practical Question ToT: Training of Trainers TQ: Theoretical Question UNICEF: United Nations Children's Fund WCS: Wildlife Conservation Society
Food security for Women and Rural Poor in Viengkham District – Final Report 2
FINAL REPORT
1. Description
1.1. Name of beneficiary of grant contract: AGRISUD International Headquarters : 48, rue de la Sablière 33500 Libourne – France – Tel/Fax: + 33 5 57 25 17 06 Headquarters in Paris: 195, Boulevard Saint-Germain – 75007 Paris – France – Tel: +33 1 58 50 41 63 Email: [email protected] – Website: www.agrisud.org
1.2. Name and title of the Contact person: Yvonnick HUET AGRISUD International France: Director [email protected]
Sylvain BERTON Director of Operations [email protected]
Raphaël VINCHENT Chief financial officer [email protected]
AGRISUD International Laos: Claire KIEFFER International coordinator [email protected]
1.3. Name of partners in the Action: France Volontaires, formerly called AFVP, Association Française des Volontaires du Progrès 1.4. Title of the Action: Food Security for Women and Rural Poor in Viengkham District, Luang Prabang Province 1.5. Contract number: FOOD/2009/211-621 1.6. Start date and end date of the reporting period: From 01/07/2009 until 31/12/2011 1.7. Target country(ies) or region(s): Lao PDR, Luang Prabang Province, Viengkham District
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1.8. Final beneficiaries & target groups
The project works in 25 villages of Viengkham district, nine of them being classified among the 18 most vulnerable villages by the District Authorities. Among these 25 villages, 14 villages are inhabited by Khmu ethnic group people, 6 villages are composed of Lao and Khmu households, 3 are Lao and 2 are Hmong. All of these villages have been moved from their original location at some points of their history.
The project aimed to support the population of these 25 villages with various activities: - 508 vulnerable households with direct support from the project with priority to women heading households, and poor farmers with very limited access to land - Population of 10 villages without water supply - 25 Villages Committees
Final beneficiaries: The whole village communities in 25 poor villages will finally benefit of the project, as well as women in need of capacity building and financial empowerment, Village Committees, local government and organisations, in particular the DAFO.
Direct beneficiaries: In total, the project exceeded the number of direct beneficiary households expected during the whole project (566 households instead of 508). However, the number of women among the trainees remained low (31%) compared to the aiming of the project. In these communities, the women heading households is quite low, still the project managed to work with them, mostly on vegetable gardening activities. As for the others women, many of them, especially in Khmu ethnic group, didn’t dare to enter the trainings proposed by the project. They preferred to send their husband and then learn from him the contents of the trainings. In order to attract more women to the trainings, the project changed its methodology by implementing the trainings in the villages. The DAFO technicians were also encourage to promote women participation to the trainings, using the head of villages influence, talking with the husbands as well as explaining to the women the importance and role of the trainings. Because many of the women are illiterate, they were afraid that they will not understand the contents of the trainings. The technicians reassured them that the training tools used by the project have a lot of pictures and a practical training will be done to help them understand and remember the techniques.
Chart n°1: Number of beneficiary households for each agriculture activity
Number of households Number of households Number of women Activities expected for 25 trained to date among the trainees villages Pig farming 125 112 13 Poultry farming 250 213 41 Vegetable production 100 31 16 Home-gardening 250 246 115 Rain-fed crops 375 329 51 VVW 50 49 1 TOTAL 1150 980 237
In this chart, the total number of direct beneficiary households expected for the whole project (508) doesn’t match the sum of direct beneficiary households expected per activity. The reason is because some beneficiaries can enter one to three activities upon condition that he/she doesn’t apply to pig AND chicken farming. For example, some beneficiaries were interested in chicken farming and vegetable gardening. In the same time, they can be elected by their peers to be the Veterinary
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Village Worker (VVW). In this example, we see that one person can be count three times. As for the rain-fed crop production for animal feed activity, all the beneficiaries in pig and poultry farming were expected to enter this activity.
Target villages: The project worked in 25 target villages chosen in October 2009 in close cooperation with the PAFO, the DAFO and the Head of the district. Nine of them are listed among the 18 poorest villages in the district. The District offices selected the villages according to various criteria as the presence of others projects (to avoid overlapping), the needs for water supply systems and for agricultural extensions activities.
Chart n°2: Activities, number of final and direct beneficiaries per village
Water supply Project PLUP Direct No of Population construction n˚ Villages coverage implem- beneficiaries 566 households or ented Total Male Female 2010 2011 improvement Male Female 1 Vangheung 68 329 170 159 X X X X 17 10 2 Hat Gnao 48 279 139 140 X X X 3 8 3 Bouamvanh 59 302 150 152 X X X X 17 4 4 Viengkham 226 1299 645 654 X X X X 23 16 5 Hat Lao 33 197 104 93 X X X 17 3 6 Hat Houng 48 294 157 137 X X X 9 9 7 Houay Soy 37 195 94 101 X X X X 17 2 8 Hat Kor 69 342 166 176 X X X X 19 1 9 Samton 73 424 208 216 X X X X 11 1 10 Houay Ko 44 308 175 133 X X X 8 4 11 Poukeo 60 391 188 203 X X X X 20 1 12 Donkeo 63 383 211 172 X X X 15 2 13 Vangkham 45 259 131 128 X X X 16 5 14 Toumming 52 251 126 125 X X 18 4 15 Kiulay 62 387 161 226 X X 18 3 16 Vangbong 105 628 330 298 X X 13 13 17 Nakkang 47 276 132 144 X X X 15 11 18 Chakkang 122 682 338 344 X X X 17 3 19 Thavan 59 309 117 192 X X 16 11 20 Phonkham 73 395 170 225 X X X 18 5 Houay 21 90 711 408 303 X X 16 10 Thong 22 Paklao 67 414 259 155 X X 14 11 23 Namsoy 94 761 475 286 X X 12 12 24 Nongkham 84 484 235 249 X 19 6 25 Bouammy 68 437 258 179 X X 19 6 Muang 26 178 X 5 13 Mouy 27 Vangbay 87 X Total 1974 10737 5547 5190 13 23 392 174
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The project first started its activities in 14 villages in 2010, and then added 11 villages in 2011. The village of Muang Mouy can be considered as the 26th target village of the project since the project supported the Technical Service Centre, 18 families in vegetable gardening, as well as the improvement of the water supply system of the village. The project also supported the improvement of the water supply system in the village of Vangbay which is added in the chart below as the 27th village. The village of Viengkham is composed of two neighbourhoods (Viengkham I and Viengkham II, distant by two kilometres) where the project supported 2 water supply systems.
Map n° 1: Localisation of AGRISUD target villages within the District of Viengkham
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2. Assessment of implementation of Action activities
2.1. Executive summary of the Action
As new implementing agency in Lao PDR at the beginning of this project, AGRISUD had to deal with the regularization of the INGO and the project by the Government of Lao PDR prior to the effective implementation on the field. The process to get the Operation Permit and the signature of Memorandum of Understanding, requesting approvals of the Luang Prabang PAFO, the MAF and the MoFA, has taken eight months. Due to these administrative procedures, the start of the activities of the project in the villages was delayed to April 2010.
During this project’s preparation phase, one operational office has been set-up in Viengkham district. The recruitment of the human resources of the project was accomplished and the staffs from district and provincial offices have been assigned to the project. As requested by the Head of PAFO, the national coordinator was a provincial coordinator from the PAFO so as to strengthen the partnership. The process to purchase the vehicles taxes free was done by November 2010.
The conduction of a baseline survey in the 25 target villages took place in November 2009. This first activity implemented on the field of Viengkham in a common process with the two other grant contractors enabled an in-depth study of the activities to be supported on the agricultural field. According to the farmers’ needs and market’s opportunities, four main sub-activities were also identified with a set-up of a work frame for the whole duration of the project. Small activities with short term effects have been selected in coherence with the short duration of the project. Target villages for the years 1 and 2 and the first beneficiaries have been identified.
The first component of activities on the diversification of agricultural and non-timber forestry products started in April 2010 with the sub-activity “Improvement of rain-fed cropping system”. In September 2010, the sub-activity “Improvement of small livestock raising conditions” has been launched in the 14 first villages. Then, in November 2010, the sub-activities “market-oriented vegetable production” and “home-gardening” were launched in the 14 first villages. In February 2011, the project started working with the additional 11 villages, starting with the sub-activity “Improvement of rain-fed cropping system”. By September 2011, all the beneficiary households have been trained in livestock farming and vegetable gardening. Every target village is now endowed with one or two Veterinary Village Workers (VVW) and a village veterinary pharmacy.
As for the second component of the activities focusing on the improvement of sanitary conditions in 10 villages, the technical expertise and the design of the water supply systems have been realised during the rainy season 2010. The construction phase started in November 2010 with the arrival of the water engineer and one foreman. By June 2011, ten water supply systems have been implemented as planned in the schedule. In October 2011, the project agreed to improve three existing water supply systems within the District.
About the nutrition part, the project has joined the LANN approach, a coalition of 9 INGO projects implementing the same village training approach about hygiene and nutrition since February 2010. Four District technicians from 4 different District offices (DAFO, DEO, DHO and LWU) were trained as trainers, then three sessions of Village trainings were held in ten villages. In addition, the project decided to contract with the office of Lao Women Union in Viengkham District to add 25 new village trainings about health, nutrition, women’s rights and family planning within the 25 target villages. These trainings started in January 2011 and were achieved in October 2011.
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The third component of the project’s activities was launched in January 2011 with the arrival on the field of the IRD-CIFOR-NAFRI training team and the set-up of Viengkham District team. In May 2011, after practicing doing Participatory Land Use Planning (PLUP) in 4 villages and village monographs in 7 villages, the District team composed of 3 DAFO technicians and 1 DLMA technician was ready to continue on their own without the support of the trainers. To date, they have achieved by themselves the PLUP in 19 villages, bringing to 23 the number of target villages where the PLUP have been implemented.
2.2. Activities and results
Activity 1: Diversification of agricultural and non-timber forestry products, launched in 25 villages with 978 beneficiaries for 20 months on December, 31st, 2011.
The first component of the project concerns 4 agricultural sub-activities that have been chosen according to the needs expressed by the District Authorities and the communities of the target villages, and to the potentialities of the area, while respecting the results expected for the project. Low yield in rice production due to a decrease of the soil fertility, high mortality rate in livestock due to bad raising conditions, a lack of water, a low diversification in vegetable production and depletion of natural resources were the major issues noticed in the area.
Identification of 4 agricultural sub-activities to be supported according to the needs: 1. Improvement of livestock farming conditions like adapted piggeries and barns, feed from local resources, animal health (small livestock farming: pig and poultry), 2. Development of existing market oriented vegetable production (based on local production which can be sold in local markets), 3. Improvement of small activities aiming at improving self-consumption like home- gardening (in relation with nutrition training). 4. Improvement of the rain-fed cropping systems focusing on the production of livestock feed especially for pig and poultry raisings (better use of local resources),
1 - Improvement of livestock farming conditions like adapted piggeries and barns, feed from local resources, animal health (small livestock farming: pig and poultry)
Pig farming
During the 30 months reported in this document, 112 persons received specific trainings on pig farming in order to be able to improve their livestock farming conditions, in the 25 target villages of the project. It has been decided at the beginning of the project that, in each village, 5 households will be selected by their peers to become pilot families who after mastering the techniques will be able to transfer their capacities to others families in their village. For this extend, the pilot family selected one member to attend the project’s trainings. In some villages, the number of family representatives sent to the trainings is below five, that’s why the project didn’t reach its objective of 125 pilot families.
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Among the family representatives, only 13 were women (9%). The number of women among the trainees remained low. Even if, in the reality, it’s mostly the women that take care of the pigs in the village, it seems, for the villagers, that the men are the ones who should benefit of the training. There are several reasons to explain this phenomenon: - The educational level of men is higher: they are seen, by the villagers, like more able to understand the contents of the training. - The women are in charge of a lot of tasks in their households and have often difficulties to leave them for two days, especially the women with young children. The trainings were done with two methodologies. Nineteen (57) persons were trained during 2 days in the DAFO training room for theoretical lessons about pig farming, and then were brought to the Technical Service Centre in Muang Mouy village on the third day as to see the project’s pigs in the quarantine, and to witness vaccinations, while fifty-five (55) persons were trained directly in their villages, during two days, using training posters as tools. The first session of training was done by a professional trainer from Luang Prabang PAFO, and then the rest of the sessions were done by the four DAFO technicians assigned to the project. All the trainees received handbook manual at the end of the training as a capitalization of the lessons they learned during these two days. The document of training is based on PAFO training documents for pig farming, but some pictures have been add for a better understanding of the trainees. Seven topics are covered during these two days: . Conditions for pig farming . Selection of male and female pigs . Place to build the pigpen . Management of pregnant females and the delivery . Management of piglets and weaning . Alimentation . Health
According to the beneficiaries of the trainings, the theoretical training was interesting but sometimes difficult to understand. Many of the trainees being illiterate, they can only rely on their memory to remember all the lessons. For this reason, the follow-up done regularly by the technicians in the target villages is very important to support the beneficiaries during the implementation of this activity. In addition with the training, the beneficiary households received nails to help them build their pigpen, water taps for pigs, as well as two sows to try out the techniques and start the reproduction process. The sows were given to the households who finish building correctly their pigpen and showed great motivation to start their farm. The project decided to buy local breed knowing that they will be more suitable for the hard conditions of raising in the villages. When all the beneficiary households of one village have received their sows, the project gave them one studboar to manage in association to start the breeding. In total, 224 sows were delivered and 25 farmers’ associations were created. Each beneficiary who received pigs signed a moral contract with the project in which they agreed to raise the pigs according to the techniques taught during the training (alimentation, pigpen, vaccination…) and to give back for a revolving stock two four-month-old piglets produce by the pigs they received, in order to be distributed to others households who would be interested to follow the techniques.
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One session of training in pig farming Beneficiary with his two sows in Poukeo village
After the trainings, the DAFO technicians observed some changes in the villages. For example, some beneficiaries, like in Toumming village, showed a great deal of motivation by building quickly their pigpens, while others, like in Had Gnao village, were not very convinced by these techniques of pig farming. They attended the training but have decided not to apply the techniques. According to them, raising pigs in captivity make them weak and unable to walk. They didn’t agree with the terms of contract imposed by the project: enclose pigpens, daily meals to serve for the pigs, vaccinations... They considered it as a burden. We considered these families as drop-out families and they didn’t receive any pigs. So far, only three families dropped out of the project (which means 115 households were trained, but 112 applied the techniques).
The pigs purchased by the project are bought locally to local collectors. After each purchase, the pigs were kept in the quarantine of the project in the Technical Service Centre for 10 to 15 days before to be distributed in the villages. During this time, the pigs were vaccinated against diarrhoea and treated for parasites. Then they stayed a few days in observation to make sure they were not hosting any disease. The quarantine building was finished in December 2010 and could accommodate 40 pigs. After the end of the project, six families from Muang Mouy village will be selected by the head of the Technical Service Centre to raise their pigs in it.
Sows brought by the project and the quarantine in the Technical Service Centre
In October 2011, data were collected among 36 beneficiary households who had already received their sows. The data were collected by the DAFO technicians assigned to the project. The sample of
Food security for Women and Rural Poor in Viengkham District – Final Report 10 households is composed of households that have been practicing the techniques taught for at least 4 months. The data collected were the weight of the sows at distribution, its weight at the date of the survey, the number of piglets produced and the number of death among the animals given or produced.
At the same time, evaluations of knowledge were run among the beneficiaries of trainings in the 14 first villages of the project to select the Master-Farmers and to determine which lessons were well assimilated and which ones were not. Theoretical questions were asked (TQ) and observations of the practice were done (PQ). The first week of December 2011, these evaluations of knowledge were done among the beneficiary households in the 11 remained villages. At the end, 27 Master- farmers were selected.
Chart n°3: Collected data among sows given to 36 beneficiary households
Number of sows given 72 Number of piglets produced 104 Total number of animals 176 Total number of animal deaths 36 Mortality Rate project 20% Mortality Rate Baseline 64%
In this chart, we can see that among 72 sows given, 104 piglets were produced, in 2011. The mortality rate among the animals is 20%, mostly among the piglets. Indeed, the evaluation done in October 2011 showed that the beneficiaries have difficulties to remember the lessons specific on sows care before birth, delivery and weaning. The piglets produced are not vaccinated, rarely received specific food and then are vulnerable to illness. The technicians’ job is now to continue the sensitization for special care for gravid sows and piglets among the beneficiaries.
Graph n°1: Percent of correct answers about “sow care”, among 50 beneficiary households
Sow care 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% Separate sown Adapted food Prepare Follow-up of Weaning Look after the ready for equipment for delivery pigglets delivery delivery
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Graph n°2: Average score for each questions of the evaluation about pig farming (105 respondents)
Farmers Average Results
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0
As for the average gain of weight, it is 104 g per day and per female. We can say that this result is still low considering that a female pig from a local breed can gain up to 250 g per day, but for a first year of introducing this technique of farming, this is optimistic. The mortality rate among the sows given to the beneficiaries is also very low (2 losses for 72 given) compared to the 64% of mortality rate in the baseline survey, which is the best proof for the villagers that vaccinations, treatments and good alimentation are efficient to keep their animals healthy.
With this result, we can say that the average beneficiary family can produce 76 kg of pork meat a year with two sows. Adding the production of piglets, which are 4.1 piglets per sow per year (6.2 if we don’t take the mortality rate in account), the production of pork meat per beneficiary household is 384 kg, equivalent to a net income of 3 449 000 LAK (431 $) per year and per household, or 240 additional days of rice consumption per family per year.
Beneficiary’s pigpen in Poukeo village Beneficiary’s sows and piglets in Had Kor village
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Poultry farming
During the 30 months reported in this document, 213 persons received specific trainings on chicken farming in order to be able to improve their livestock farming conditions, in the 25 target villages of the project. It has been decided at the beginning of the project that, in each village, 10 families will be selected by their peers to become pilot families who after mastering the techniques will be able to transfer their capacities to others families in their village. For this extend, the pilot family selected one member to attend the project’s trainings. In some villages, the number of households representatives sent to the trainings is below ten, that’s why the project didn’t reach its objective of 250 pilot families.
Among the household representatives, only 41 were women (19%). As for the pig farming activity, the number of women among the trainees remained low. The reasons given are the same as for the pig farming beneficiaries.
The trainings were done with two methodologies. One hundred and four (104) persons were trained during 2 days in the DAFO training room or in the Technical Service Centre in Muang Mouy village (depending of the localisation of their village) for theoretical lessons about chicken farming, while one hundred and nine (109) persons were trained directly in their villages, during two days, using training posters as tools. The first session of training was done by a professional trainer from Luang Prabang PAFO, and then the rest of the sessions were done by the four DAFO technicians assigned to the project. All the trainees received handbook manual at the end of the training as a capitalization of the lessons they learned during these two days. The document of training is based on PAFO training documents for chicken farming, but some pictures have been add for a better understanding of the trainees. Four topics are covered during these two days: . Selection of roosters and hens . Place to build the chicken pen and raising techniques . Alimentation . Health
According to the beneficiaries, the theoretical training was interesting and they understood it well. All the families have received nails from the project on order to build their chicken pen. After completing the construction of their chicken pen, each beneficiary family received one rooster and three hens to try out the techniques and start the reproduction process. The project decided to buy local breed knowing that they will be more suitable for the hard conditions of raising in the villages. Some hybrid breed hens were delivered before to the beneficiaries, but most of them had not survived in the villages. At least, the project tried to provide good quality breed for the rooster, but had difficulty to find good suppliers for chicken. In the District, farmers rarely collected chicken. Afraid of epidemic, they remain low their breeding stock. In the neighbouring Districts like Nambak District, many families have chicken farms; however they mostly raise cross-bred kinds as they grow faster than local kinds. As for the beneficiaries of the project, cross-bred species are not adapted for vulnerable families like in Viengkham District. Most of them hold several activities to fulfil their needs and spend few times a day caring for the chickens. They also lack of quality food for their animals.
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Training using posters in Phonkham Village Beneficiary families in Namxoy village
After each purchase, the chickens were kept in the quarantine of the project in the Technical Service Centre for 10 to 15 days before to be distributed in the villages. During this time, the chickens were vaccinated for two diseases (cholera and New Castle virus). Then they stayed a few days in observation to make sure they were not hosting any disease. The two quarantine chicken pens could accommodate 100 chickens each.
Chickens in quarantine Beneficiary with his chickens
All the trained households have received their chickens and started their farm. Each beneficiary who received chickens signed a moral contract with the project in which they agreed to raise the chickens according to the techniques taught during the training (alimentation, chicken pen, vaccination…) and to give back for a revolving stock one rooster and three hens produce by the chickens they received, in order to be distributed to others families who would be interested to follow the techniques.
In July 2011, data were collected among 46 beneficiary households who had already received their chickens. The data were collected by the DAFO technicians assigned to the project. The sample of beneficiaries is composed of households that have been practicing the techniques taught for at least 3 months. The data collected were the number of chicken received, the number of chicken produced and the number of death among the animals given or produced.
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Chart n°4: Collected data among chicken given to 46 beneficiary families
Number of chickens given 184 Number of chickens produced 534 Total number of animals 718 Total number of animal deaths 362 Mortality Rate project 50% Mortality Rate Baseline 71%
The results showed that the production of chicken is around 12 per family at the time of the follow- up. Because each family received 3 hens, we can say that the productivity per hen is 4 chicks. This result is low but it had to be considered that at the time of the follow-up, many hens haven’t produced any chick yet. In the same time, the mortality rate among the chickens remained high, even if it’s lower than the rate in the baseline survey. Most of the beneficiaries didn’t renew the vaccinations every three months for cholera and didn’t vaccinate the chickens produced as well. It is common to hear the beneficiaries said that they don’t want to vaccinate their chickens because they don’t want to spend money on small animals like this. With diseases striking the villages every 2 or 3 months, this finding didn’t bode well for the future of chicken farming in Viengkham District. As a result, the monitoring system showed that the average of chicken meat production is only 9.4 kg per family per year, which is equivalent to a yearly income of 236 000 LAK (30 $) or 16 additional days of rice consumption.
In October 2011, evaluations of knowledge were conducted among the beneficiaries of the 14 first villages to select the Master-Farmers and to determine which lessons were well assimilated and which ones were not. Theoretical questions were asked (TQ) and observations of the practice were done (PQ). The first week of December 2011, these evaluations of knowledge were done were done among the beneficiary households in the 11 remained villages. At the end, 23 Master-farmers were selected. In an ideal situation, the project wished to have one Master-Farmer per activity per village (which means 3 per village), however in some villages, the scores of the beneficiaries were too low to select anyone, when in others villages two families were selected for having both high scores. The data collected during the beneficiaries’ evaluation confirmed the observations on the field. Concerning the question about “how to keep the chicken healthy”, only 18% of the persons interviewed mentioned regular treatments and 54% vaccinations. About “how to raise chicks”, 22% mentioned disease prevention. The average score is quite similar from one village to another.
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Graph n°3: Average score for each questions of the evaluation about chicken farming (187 respondents) 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0
Veterinary Village Workers (VVW) In December 2010, the trainings started for the two volunteers per village that have been selected to become the Veterinary Village Worker (VVW). The selections of these persons were done during village meetings where villagers elected them considering that they are the most suitable persons for the job. Then the persons selected can accept or refuse the position. In case they refused, someone else is proposed by the villagers. From the 27th to the 29th of December 2010, 21 beneficiaries from 12 villages have been trained in veterinary basic knowledge. The training took place during the two first days at the DAFO facilities and was based on the identification of several diseases currently occurring among livestock (pigs and chicken), the way to protect the animals from them and to use vaccinations and medicines. The third day, the beneficiaries were taken to Muang Mouy Technical Service Centre where they learned how to vaccinate chickens and pigs, by doing it on the project’s chickens and one villager’s pigs. In August 2011, from the 1st to the 3rd, a second session of training was held in order to train the veterinary village workers of the 13 remaining villages, as well as the second veterinary village worker of the villages that sent only one person to the previous training. In total, 26 persons were trained. Only the VVW from Nongkham village were absent due to misinformation. They were invited to join the third and fourth sessions of trainings that was organized from the 21st to the 24th of November 2011 to refresh everyone memory. For all these trainings, a professional trainer from Luang Prabang PAFO was called by the project, in order to enhance the DAFO technicians. In total, 49 VVW from 25 villages have been trained by the project. The beneficiaries of the trainings complained that the sum of knowledge they have to assimilate in four days was too much for them, especially about the chicken’s diseases. They received too much information, even about diseases that never strike in their villages. They told us that they will not be able to remember everything they learned. Therefore, the DAFO technicians under the supervision of AGRISUD agriculture and livestock supervisor were encouraged by the project to continue the training in each village, by time to time, in order to refresh everyone’s memories. Each village received a veterinary kit composed of one metal box, one metal syringe, 12 needles (21 and 18 sizes), one pair of pliers and one cool box.
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In September and October 2011, in each of the 25 target villages of the project, a veterinary village pharmacy was set-up by the DAFO technicians with the participation of the villagers. In total, 25 village pharmacies have been set-up. In each village, the technician brought together the villagers to explain the meaning of the veterinary village pharmacy and discuss its organization in the village. First kits of medicines were donated by the project to the villages, in order to allow the villagers to buy new stocks with the money collected from the selling. One referent per village was elected by his peers to manage the pharmacy by selling the products, keeping the money and replacing the stock when needed. Record keeping books have been distributed to each referent for better transparency in the accountability. During that time, the allowance of the veterinary village worker was discussed among the villagers to decide how much he should receive per intervention. By now, the roles of the DAFO technicians will be to check regularly the buying and selling of the medicines, as well as the record keeping. In many villages, the pharmacy referent is also the veterinary village worker.
Set-up village pharmacies in Houay Ko and Phonkham villages
2 - Development of existing market oriented vegetable production (based on local production which can be sold in local markets) In vegetable gardening, the project proposed to the households to grow vegetables for their own consumption only (called home-gardening in this report) or to grow vegetables for the market (called market-oriented vegetable gardening). The main difference between these two sub-activities didn’t lie in the techniques but in the size of the garden. The households with enough labour force, land and water tried to grow more vegetables in order to sell a part of their production, when the households with few land and/or low access to water choose to remain their garden small and mainly eat their production. In order to help some households to produce for the market, the project responded to certain demands of irrigation support. As for the trainings, both groups, home- gardening and market-oriented vegetable gardening, were trained at the same time. Some households started as beneficiaries in home-gardening, and then decided to extend their garden to have more production and sell to the market, becoming beneficiaries in market-oriented vegetable gardening. In this stage of the project, only 5 sites suitable for market-oriented vegetable production have been identified but only 3 were suitable for irrigation support. The first one is a 1-hectare paddy field in Bouamvanh village with rice in rainy season and vegetable production in dry season, the second site is a 0.5 ha site on the ground of the Technical Service Centre in Muang Mouy village and the third one is a 625 m² garden in Had Kor village.
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In the first one, in Bouamvanh village, a spring has already been channeled to the site by a previous EU project but the project added one water storage tank of 6 m3 for all of the five gardens in order for the families to be able to water their garden more easily. The 5 beneficiary families have been trained on vegetable growing techniques during the first training session, from the 27th from the 29th of November 2010. They have received vegetables seeds and tools (watering can, rake and spade) so as to start enhancing their lands. The 20th of December 2010, a contract between Agrisud, the beneficiaries and the DAFO has been signed by each stakeholder, in order to prepare the construction of the irrigation system and to formalize the agreements of the project. The improvement of the irrigation system started the 29th of March 2011 and was finished by the 6th of April 2011.
Water storage tank in Bouamvan village Beneficiaries’ gardens in Technical Centre
The second site is in the Technical Service Centre of the district so as to launch market-oriented vegetable productions too. In addition to the Technical Service Centre’s technicians, 14 families from Mouang Mouy village benefited of 5 000 m² of lands on the Technical Service Centre’s territory, in order to grow market-oriented vegetable production. These families have been trained on vegetable planting techniques the 23rd and 24th of December 2010, in the Technical Service Centre, by the DAFO technicians. A contract between the stakeholders has been signed the 23rd of December 2010 in order to insure the usufruct of the lands for 5 years for the 14 families, to prepare the construction of the irrigation system and to formalize the agreements of the project. The beneficiaries have received vegetables seeds and tools (watering can, rake and spade) so as to start enhancing their lands. The construction of the irrigation system was finished in April 2011. At the beginning of the dry season 2011, 4 families were added to the 14 beneficiary families in order to grow vegetables in the Technical Service Centre. All the 18 families received additional trainings from the DAFO technician in charge of the Centre for the project, in September 2011.
In Had Kor, the site concerned only 1 family, but the area of the garden is big enough (625 m²), the beneficiary showed a great motivation and the cost of a small irrigation system for his garden remained quite low, because the irrigation became part of the water supply system construction. This farmer became an example for the others families as well as a “Master-Farmer” to ensure the multiplier effect in his neighbourhood where home-gardening activities are taking off. The construction of a water storage tank as well as taps in the garden was finished the 18th of April 2011. In the field, we can already see that this family extended its irrigation system to others gardens, using bamboos as pipes.
In April 2011, 2 new sites have been identified in Viengkham village territory with ten beneficiary families, but after study, no suitable spring was available for any of these sites.
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In addition of these 24 beneficiaries, 7 individuals have been trained on vegetable planting and have the area to grow vegetables both for consumption and market, in Viengkham, Vangheung, Had Kor and Had Hung villages. At the end of 2011, only 31 families have been identified and trained on market-oriented vegetable productions. The results and number of beneficiaries for this sub-activity remains lower than foreseen (100 families initially planned) for several reasons: low demand around the existing markets in the district; long distance with Luang Prabang market with expensive transportation fees and high perishability of the products; lack of water for agricultural activities in the target village; few lowland areas with suitable spring to canalize… Data were collected in March 2011 among the beneficiaries in the 14 first target villages to show the results of the first season production of home-gardening and market-oriented vegetable gardening. The first results using a sample of 6 families (random selection) for market-oriented vegetable gardening showed that the families sold 60% of their production and ate 40% of it. Indeed, the productions that can’t be sold often finish on the plates of the producer families or are given to relatives. The beneficiaries complained that there are not enough customers in the villages to absorb their production. Based on the monitoring system, the average annual production per family is 262 kg of vegetables. The average annual income per family, based on the average production sold and the average number of production cycles made in one year, is around 2 300 000 LAK (288 USD), which correspond to 920 kg of paddy rice (160 days of consumption for a family of 6 persons). In November 2011, 26 beneficiaries among the beneficiary households in market-oriented vegetable gardening were selected to become pilot families for liquid compost production and use. They received specific training from the DAFO technicians as well as a container to prepare their own liquid compost and a handbook manual.
Practical training for liquid compost production in Muang Mouay Technical Service Centre
3- Improvement of small activities aiming at improving self-consumption like home- gardening (in relation with nutrition training). Between November 2010 and September 2011, 246 beneficiaries in the 25 target villages have been trained in home-gardening by the 4 DAFO technicians assigned to the project. Among them, 115 were women (47%). The project’s objective was to train at least 10 families per village in home-gardening. Some villages where access to water is troublesome have sent only 5 to 7 beneficiaries, whereas other villages where the beneficiaries can grow on riverbanks have sent more people, like in Viengkham where 26 persons have followed the trainings.
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For the first session of training, a professional trainer from the PAFO came to strengthen and improve the capacities of the project team itself, especially the technicians from DAFO. For the following sessions, the DAFO technicians and the agriculture and livestock supervisor were put in charge of the trainings.
Theoretical lessons in Bouammy village Practical lessons in Phonkham village
As for pig and chicken farming trainings, the project used two methodologies to organize these trainings. For the 14 first target villages of the project, the trainings took place during two days in the training room in the District for theoretical knowledge and then one day in Muang Mouy Technical Service Centre for practice. For the 11 target villages added in 2011, all trainings took place in the villages themselves, during two days, alternating between theoretical lessons using training posters as tools and practical lessons in the gardens. As a result, the number of women and poor households among the trainees increased when the trainings are done directly in the villages. Among the 110 persons trained directly in the villages, 69 were women (63%), against 46 women among 136 persons (34%) in the trainings done in the District centre.
The beneficiaries were trained on 11 different vegetable technical itineraries (Cabbage, Chinese cabbage, Green kuang futsoi, Common bean, Garlic, Cucumber, Coriander, Lettuce, Kale, Long bean and Tomato) and 3 agro ecological techniques (composting, mulching and bio pesticides). During the practice, they learned how to prepare soil, plots, spread the seeds and prick out young plants. They also prepared stakes for long beans and cucumber, as well as bio pesticides. New techniques, like the liquid compost, were experiment by the beneficiaries in Muang Mouy Technical Service Centre. The practical lessons enabled the beneficiaries to better understand what they learned during the theoretical lessons. Indeed, many of them have difficulties to read and write, as well as to understand technical vocabulary. The techniques learned during the training are very different from what they used to do, even the basic knowledge in vegetable planting. Most of them never used manure or pricking out. The size of their plots is irregular and often very small. They never cared about maintenance as hoeing, weeding or daily watering. They showed a great interest during the training because they really want to improve their production.
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After training, the beneficiaries have received vegetables seeds (14 varieties) and tools (watering can, rake and spade) in order to start their vegetable gardens. According to the following up of the technicians in the villages, the vegetable gardens in the villages have improved since the trainings. The vegetables grow well and we can see that the producers used manure, build plots and prick out the young plants. However, during the first vegetable campaign of the project (dry season 2010- 2011), some techniques like mulching were only applied by a few of the beneficiaries, and compost and liquid compost were not done at all in the villages. As for the compost, this is not really surprising because the villagers have enough manure from their animals but very few spaces within the village to build a compost pit. Compost also required time before to be ready to be used. The liquid compost is easy to prepare and is ready in a relatively short period (4 to 6 weeks), but it required a container. Most of the families might have not been willing or the possibility to invest in one. That’s why specific trainings on compost liquid preparation and utilization were held in November 2011 for the households who do market-oriented vegetable gardening, with a supply of one container per household. As for the mulching, it was applied more by the beneficiaries of the 11 new villages because the trainings in vegetable gardening were done before the rice harvest. The trainings were done in September 2011, and then during the rice harvest, in October, the beneficiaries kept the rice straws in order to use them as mulch.
Training in bio pesticides, Houay Ko and Samton villages
In order to enable to beneficiaries to use bio pesticides, the project supported one to two spray per village organizing farmers’ groups with collective management of the equipment. To date, 28 groups have been set-up around one sprayer. The numbers of groups exceed the number of target villages because in some villages, two groups were created, like in Bouamvanh village where there is one group composed of the households who do home-gardening and one group composed of the households who grow vegetables for the market, or Viengkham where the beneficiaries are in large number and divided in two neighbourhood. In Muang Mouy Technical Service Centre where the project supported 18 families in market-oriented vegetable production, only one group was created but one additional sprayer was offered to the Technical Service Centre and can be lent to the families. Each group has a leader who is in charge of keeping the equipment, record its utilization by the group members and check the maintenance after utilization. With this activity, the project aims to increase and diversify the production of vegetables in the target villages, in order to improve the alimentation of the families and provide small incomes. Data were collected in March 2011 among the beneficiaries in the 14 first target villages to show the results of the first season production of home-gardening. The first results, with a sample of 18 families (random selection), showed that the beneficiary families grow in an average area of 85 m². The average yield is 2.1 kg/m². The vegetables which are produced more are: Chinese mustard (83% of the families), coriander (71%), Chinese cabbage (58%), Kale (54%). The average
Food security for Women and Rural Poor in Viengkham District – Final Report 21 vegetable production per family is 45 kg of vegetables per year. The average cycle duration is 56 days with an average area of 21 m² per cycle.
Beneficiary’s garden in Vangbong village Associated crops in Namxoy beneficiary’s garden
Considering the data for home-gardening beneficiary families, it showed that the families eat 89% of their production and sell about 11% of it. The vegetables that are eaten the most are: Chinese mustard and Chinese cabbage. According to the beneficiary households, now that they have the garden near the house, they spend less time searching for wild vegetables and leaves in the forest to prepare their meals. The women find it particularly convenient as they save time, even when considering the time spend to take care of the garden (most of the forest areas are located at more than one hour by feet). The families also appreciated the taste of the vegetables. They said that the meals are really tasty and they are satisfied with this activity. They grow condiments like coriander, dill, mint, and garlic to accommodate the meals and use less monosodium glutamate, as they learned during the LANN and LWU nutrition trainings.
Graph n° 4: Repartition of the vegetables produced in the alimentation of the households
Vegetables eaten by the families
Cabbage 1% 2% Chinese Cabbage 7% 5% 9% 24% Chinese Mustard 7% Coriander 0% Cucumber 0% 8% 31% Dill 4% 2% Garlic Green Bean Kale
In October 2011, evaluations of knowledge were conducted among the beneficiaries in vegetable gardening (both market-oriented and home-gardening) of the 14 first villages to select the Master- Farmers and to determine which lessons were well assimilated and which ones were not.
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Theoretical questions were asked (TQ) and observations of the practice were done (PQ). The first week of December 2011, these evaluations of knowledge were done were done among the beneficiary households in the 11 remained villages. At the end, 29 Master-farmers were selected.
Graph n° 5: Average score for each questions of the evaluation about vegetable gardening (194 respondents)
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 Q1: Plot Q2: Land Q3: Nursery Q4: Q5: Mulching Q6: Direct Q7: Tending of Location Preparation preparation Tranplanting Advantages sowing crops after Selection methodology methodology transplanting
About the sustainability of the vegetable gardening activity (home-gardening and market-oriented vegetable gardening), the project has confidence that the beneficiary households will be able to continue after the end of the project. The evaluation of knowledge showed that the lessons taught during the trainings were correctly assimilated with an average score of 43 (maximum score 80), meaning 54% of the answers given were correct, for 142 beneficiaries interviewed. This average score is comforting knowing that most of the beneficiaries are illiterate and can’t rely on the training manual to refresh their memory. According to the technicians, most of the beneficiaries have difficulty to answer direct theoretical questions about the techniques but are able to apply them in practice in their garden, which explained that 50% of the potential answers were not given. For example, when ask about the different steps to prepare a flowerbed, they will answer half of the possible answers, when in reality they are able to prepare correctly a flowerbed in their garden following all the steps.
Vegetable seeds are also available in the District level. Compared to the year 2010, more shops are now selling seeds and the quality of it has improved as well. The shop owners realized the potential of selling vegetable seeds with the appearance of new gardens and new potential customers. In the local market, more vegetables (quantities and varieties) are also available which showed that there are now more producers than before. According to the beneficiaries, the prizes of the vegetable seeds are affordable for them (the prizes are different according to the varieties) and they will buy it in the District when they will run out of the seeds supplied by the project. They will use a part of the incomes they earned by selling their vegetables to buy their seeds. The next challenge for the District will be now to have producers growing vegetable during the rainy season as well.
4- Improvement of rain-fed cropping system
The sub-activity of improving rain-fed cropping system started in April 2010 with the beginning of the rainy season. 11 demonstration plots were launched in 10 villages. 60 planting sticks (special
Food security for Women and Rural Poor in Viengkham District – Final Report 23 equipment like a cane to facilitate the sowing – developed in Brazil by CIRAD for DMC systems: Direct seeding Mulch based Cropping system) have been acquired so as to alleviate the workload. 30 beneficiaries were directly supported by the project with equipment (seeds and planting sticks) and technical follow-up. Their fields have become demonstration plots at village level for a new sowing technique using planting sticks. These demonstration plots raised other motivation by the villagers. Some of them asked to test the new crops on their own field. 57 additional beneficiaries have been also associated to the new practices by receiving seeds, basic knowledge and training on demonstration plots. The farmers were encouraged to launch the crops on shared plots so as to develop farmers’ associations and enhance the appropriation of the techniques. A common work on a same plot enables exchanges between farmers, a better cooperation between the farmers and a better management of the workload.
The promoted crops were cover crops allowing a faster regeneration of the soil fertility and a better weed management for the following crops. This activity was very relevant in an area where slash- and-burn is still the major cropping system, since it gives a real alternative to this traditional system. These crops can also be used as fodder. The species provided to the farmers were: rice beans (Vigna umbellata), pigeon peas (Cajanus cajan), Stylosanthes guianensis. The last crop was an improved fodder: Brachiaria ruziziensis.
During the month of February 2011, the activities started in the new 11 villages for the year 2011 by a presentation of the project in each village and a first identification of the beneficiary households for the rainy season, from the 21st to the 25th of February 2011. In each village, 15 households were supported by the project in order to grow animal feeding crops during the rainy season 2011. In addition with the beneficiaries from the first 14 villages, 313 households were directly supported by the project with training, equipment (seeds and planting sticks) and technical follow-up.
Demonstration with the planting sticks Improved fallow with rice bean
Two groups of farmers were formed in each village: one group of chicken farmers and one of pig farmers. The chicken farmers group were encouraged to grow each 1600 m² of maize associated with rice bean, as well as 500 m² of sorghum. Each of them received 1.8 kg of maize seeds, 2.5 kg of rice bean seeds and 0.6 kg of sorghum seeds. The pig farmers group were encouraged to grow each 2500 m² of maize associated with rice bean, as well as 500 m² of Stylosanthes. Each of them received 3.6 kg of maize seeds, 5 kg of rice bean seeds and 0.3 kg of Stylosanthes seeds. They received training regarding the proprieties of these crops and the techniques of planting. Two training teams, composed of two DAFO technicians per team, provided these trainings in the villages, using training posters and field demonstrations, between the 30th of March and the 11th of April 2011.
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Two more villages that are not Agrisud’s target villages have also been supported by the project to grow animal feeding crops during the rainy season 2011, as part of the partnership with IRD/CIFOR/NAFRI. There are Houay Kone and Muang Mouy villages, in the kumban of Muang Mouy, with 16 beneficiaries. These 2 villages received training as well as rice bean and Stylosanthes seeds from the project.
Except for the maize, all the seeds bought by the project (rice bean, Stylosanthes, sorghum) can be harvested and used as seeds for the next season. Indeed, it is important for the sustainability of this activity that the producers don’t need to buy new seeds every year, since these seeds are not available in the District. As for the maize, the villagers have their own seeds of a local breed.
Chart n°5: Total of seeds supplied to the beneficiaries for both rainy seasons (2010 and 2011)
Species Weight of supplied seeds Brachiaria ruziensis 50.5 kg Stylosanthes 118 kg Rice beans 1179 kg Pigeon peas 89 kg Sorghum 107 kg Corn 807 kg
The seeds as well as the planting sticks were delivered to the beneficiaries at the end of the training day. Each group of farmers (pig and chicken) were organized in groups around one planting stick and a contract was signed between the project and the beneficiaries. In this contract, the beneficiaries agreed to plant the seeds supplied by the project using the techniques taught during the training. It is mainly a moral contract between the project and the beneficiary households, but it formalizes the relationship and it’s a proof that the project has supplied these households in training, seeds and tools. In total, 50 farmers’ groups were created around planting sticks.
Following the agricultural calendar in place in this area, the rain-fed crops must be planted the last week of April, after the festivities of Lao New Year. However, during the year 2011, because the rain started earlier than usual, the villagers were late to prepare their fields. The humidity of the season hampered them to start preparing their fields (especially the burning), so most of the planting was delayed to late May. As consequence, in 2011, the harvests were not very good, especially for the rice.
Harvest of rice beans in Kiulay village
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Follow-up forms were distributed among the technicians at the end of May 2011, in order to collect information among the beneficiaries about the rainy season activities. By the end of June, almost all the forms were collected and summarized. According to the data, 324 farmers trained applied the techniques using the seeds provided by the project for a total of 41 hectares of maize, 37 hectares of rice bean (with overlapping with maize production for the families that combined these crops), 9.5 hectares of Stylosanthes and 10.3 hectares of sorghum. The data collected by the end of August 2011 showed that the average surface planted per family was 1384 m² for the maize with an average quantity harvested of 264 kg per family. For the sorghum, the average surface planted was 342 m² per family with an average quantity harvested of 4 kg. The production was around 2 t per hectare for the maize, and 108 kg per hectare for the sorghum. If the result for the sorghum is quite low, it can be explained by several factors: heavy rainy season, poor soil quality, bad storage of the seeds. Unfortunately, the project was counting on this production to develop this variety in the District. But if the yield of this crop is poor, the beneficiaries will not be interested to keep growing it.
5- Support to the Technical Service Centre
The Technical Service Centre of the District, based in the village of Muang Mouy, was supported by the project on various activities. A small vegetable garden (estimated 187 m²) was already in place before the project arrived, as well as a vast poultry pen. With the beginning of the project, the DAFO technicians improved their own capacities on vegetable planting and learned new techniques as liquid compost or bio pesticides. Because the garden was used as a school field during the trainings, new plots and cultures were often implemented and the garden was very well managed. According to the technicians, they can see an improvement of the production in the garden, and estimated that they doubled it during this dry season 2010-2011. In order to use the Technical Service Centre as a model farm for vegetable planting, the project also implemented there compost, as well as a liquid compost.
Vegetable gardening at the Technical Service Centre
The Technical Service Centre in Muang Mouy was also used by the project as a quarantine area for pigs and chicken bought by the project. A pigpen and two chicken pens were built for this purpose. The animals bought by the project were kept 10 to 15 days in the quarantine before to be distributed to the beneficiaries. This enabled the project to vaccinate and de-worm the animals before sending them to the villages, as well as to check for any sign of illness. During the trainings for pig farming, chicken farming and veterinary village workers, the trainees were brought to the Technical Service Centre in order to witness vaccinations and good raising techniques with appropriate pens. During the month of November 2011, the project supported the improvement of the fences for the livestock area, with wire netting. Indeed, the bamboo fences were damaged really quickly by the animals, the termites as well as the bad weather, which make it difficult to keep the chickens in the pens.
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Storage tank and water tap at the Technical Service Centre
Because the Technical Service Centre was suffering by a lack of water, problem that affected not only the vegetable gardening activity but as well the good raising of the pigs in the quarantine, the project decided to support the construction of an improved irrigation system for the Technical Service Centre. The condition was imposed by the project that 14 families from Muang Mouy village should be able to grow vegetables for at least 5 years on the ground of the Technical Service Centre to justify the costs of the irrigation system and benefit a large number of villagers. A contract was signed between the project, the DAFO and the 14 families to legitimate this approval.
During the rainy seasons of 2010 and 2011, the project used the Technical Service Centre as a demonstration farm for the rain-fed crops and techniques promoted by the project. In 2010, 0.8 ha of rice, 0.8 ha of rice beans, 0.8 ha of maize associated with rice beans and 0.8 ha of pigeon peas with cassava and Stylosanthes were planted within the territory of the Technical Service Centre. In 2011, 2240 m² of new fields were prepared in order to plant 1120 m² of hybrid maize associated with rice bean, and 1120 m² for sorghum associated with Stylosanthes. Also, in the areas used by the project during the rainy season 2010, 2000 m² of fields were cleaned in order to receive rain-fed crops for animal feed. Another area (1500 m²) having a very degraded soil, the project decided to plant only rice bean in order to improve the quality of the soil for the next year rainy season. Within the area (500 m²) that was used in 2010 for pigeon peas, cassava and Stylosanthes, in 2011, the project decided to keep only the Stylosanthes and planted local maize in order to compare the results in production between the hybrid maize bought by the project and the local maize used by most of the villagers in the District. From the year 2010, the project also kept two others crops: a field of Stylosanthes and a field of Brachiaria ruziziensis, in order to collect seeds and cuttings. More than 1000 cuttings from cassava were planted around the agricultural fields.
Chart 6: Productivity on the demonstration fields in 2011
Dates of Total kg Variety Area surfaces Yield harvest Harvested 12/07/2011 Local maize 76 500 m² 1.5 t/ha 3-4/08/2011 Hybrid maize 535 1120 m² 4.8 t/ha 8/09/2011 Sorghum 60 1120 m² 0.5 t/ha
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The results show that the productivity of the local maize is quite low compared to the hybrid maize. However, the local variety has the capacity of generating seeds, unlike the hybrid one. The hybrid is also not well distributed in the local stores and is quite expensive for the poorest families. This situation might be a problem for the development of improved livestock farming within the District. If the families are not able to produce more fodder crops, they will not be able to keep their animals healthy in pens. As for the Sorghum, the production in 2011 was 1/3 of the production of 2010 (0.5 t/ha Vs 1.4 t/ha). This result can be explained by several factors: heavy rainy season, poor soil quality, bad storage of the seeds in the Technical Service Centre, despite the advices given by the project (the granary wasn’t built yet at that time and the seeds were kept in the technicians’ room). Unfortunately, the project was counting on this production to develop this variety in the District.
Planting the hybrid maize at the Technical Service Centre
The third quarter of 2011 was also the occasion for the project to support the Technical Service Centre in small infrastructures. The 13th of September 2011, a new fence was built around the Technical Service Centre area to maintain the villagers’ livestock out of the Centre and the crop fields. The project also built a granary to stock the crops. A concrete floor was added under the granary to receive a new cereal mill supported by the project. This mill will allow the technical service centre to produce appropriate food for their small animals, as well as to generate incomes to the centre by selling milling services to the neighbouring villages.
A granary and a cereal mill for the Technical Service Centre
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Activity 2: Improvement of sanitary conditions launched in 13 villages with 1019 beneficiary households and Awareness on hygiene, nutrition and food security launched in 25 villages with 2564 beneficiaries for 30 months on December, 31st, 2011.
The second component of the project concerned two activities: the construction or rehabilitation of water supply systems in 13 villages among the 25 target villages and the raising of awareness on hygiene, food security and nutrition basic principles, with the specific objective to improve the village sanitary conditions.
1- Improvement of water supply systems:
The objective of this activity was to give a sustainable access to water (quality and quantity) to 10 villages within the 25 target villages of the project for a total of 580 beneficiary households. The lack of water supply is a major issue in some of the target villages. So as to guarantee the quality of the technical expertise and of the gravity fed system designs, AGRISUD chose to contract the consulting group “Asian Heritage Consultancy” whose experience on this field is important in Lao PDR. This consultancy took place from June to September 2010 in anticipation of the construction during the dry season 2010/2011. The Viengkham District Health Office was also fully involved in the process with the association of two of their technicians at each stage of the implementation: technical expertise and construction. The technical manuals were submitted to Nam Saat (provincial water office) to get approval at provincial level. The different points of the consultancy were: - Implementation of the technical studies (topographic data gathering of the river system and of the flows, identification of the localisation of the systems) in close cooperation with the District Health Office (DHO) - Analyse of water quality: Analyse of the principal physic-chemical parameters by the Luang Prabang laboratory (pH, hardness, turbidity, manganese, fluorine, iron) - Design of the gravity fed system (GFS) (Work sizing, calculation of buildings material quantities and cost estimations. Planning of works, editing of technical manual for gravity fed systems including detailed work plans) - Involvement of local communities in the project: set-up of contracts between villages and Nam Saat The water flows were measured during June 2010 at the beginning of the rainy season. Even if during this period rains were not so heavy, in order to secure the population supply, Asian Heritage Consultancy has taken in account: - The needs of the village population in the future and for ten years (growing rate 3%) - A daily consumption per inhabitant of 60 liters (average consumption is more often close to 45 liters in rural areas)
In 6 villages turbidity is also important because catchment of water is done on a stream after the spring which is too far from the village. Organic materials and sediments are responsible of this turbidity level. To face this problem the catchment boxes are equipped of gravel filters (2 filters one after the other) and the finest elements are trapped in the first basin located immediately after the catchment boxes. Then, water in the villages’ basins should be at a turbidity level below the current standard.
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Then, in October 2010, a contract was signed with a supplier for water supply equipment, in Luang Prabang. In November 2010, the water supply supervisor and one foreman joined the project team in order to support and supervise the construction phases in each village selected by the project. The constructions started the 10th of November 2010 in two villages. The water supply system in the 10th village was finished the 24th of June 2011. In October 2011, the project accepted to support the rehabilitation of water supply systems in 3 additional villages, at the request of the villagers and the DHO. In total, the project was able to finish 13 water supply systems constructions or rehabilitations within 14 months, for the benefit of 1019 households.
Chart n°7: General information on the water supply system done in each village New Date Date N° Villages Nb of HH Rehabilitation construction starting ending 1 Houay Soy 37 X 10/11/2010 18/12/2010 2 Viengkham II 34 X 10/11/2010 20/12/2010 3 Vangheung 68 X 24/12/2010 16/01/2011 4 Poukeo 73 X 14/01/2011 26/05/2011 5 Chakkang II 59 X 28/01/2011 04/03/2011 6 Muang Mouy 178 X 28/02/2011 30/05/2011 7 Had Kor 69 X 15/03/2011 18/04/2011 8 Samton 73 X 24/04/2011 30/06/2011 9 Phonkham 73 X 24/04/2011 30/06/2011 10 Nakkang 47 X 26/05/2011 24/06/2011 11 Viengkham 192 X 10/11/2011 05/12/2011 12 Bouamvanh 59 X 26/11/2011 21/12/2011 13 Vangbay 87 X 26/11/2011 17/12/2011
Before launching any construction in the villages, the project signed a contract with the village authorities, the District Health Office (DHO) and the District Governor Office. This contract established the participation required for each counterpart, as well as their responsibilities during and after the construction of the water supply system.
Catchment box in Had Kor water supply system Water tap in Phonkham village Service Centre Service Centre
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One of the conditions imposed by the project in the contract is that the beneficiary villages will set- up a water supply maintenance committee, with the help of the project. Each committee is composed of one president, one treasurer, two hygiene volunteers and two village technicians. The president is in charge of calling the committee meetings and organizing the activities, when the treasurer collected the villagers’ monthly contribution and keep update the ledger. Any reparation needs on the water supply system should be paid by the maintenance fund managed by this committee. The hygiene volunteers are in charge of checking the different water taps and inform the households if the hygiene around the taps is not respected, when the two technicians are in charge of checking the system regularly and do the repairs when necessary. The members of the committee are elected during a village assembly. Usually, the two technicians are selected among the villagers who have supported the project technicians the most during the construction phase. The village technicians have already been trained by the project technicians during the construction phase. When the water supply system is finished, the village technicians received a final training about monthly maintenance of the system, as well as a manual packaging all the information needed for a good maintenance of the system and a tool kit. The president, the treasurer and the hygiene volunteers also received training about each person’s responsibilities, as well as a manual and a ledger. The monthly assessment for the villagers is decided during the village assembly, as well as the monthly allowance for the two village technicians.
Chart n°8: Important dates for each water supply system
Date set-up Date signature Date of the N° Villages maintenance contract inauguration committee 1 Houay Soy 08/11/2010 04/01/2011 02/02/2011 2 Viengkham II 08/11/2010 05/01/2011 01/02/2011 3 Vangheung 13/11/2010 26/10/2011 12/12/2011 4 Poukeo 05/01/2011 05/06/2011 21/07/2011 5 Chakkang II 08/11/2010 04/05/2011 05/05/2011 6 Muang Mouy 25/02/2011 27/12/2011 Not yet 7 Had Kor 08/11/2010 02/05/2011 03/05/2011 8 Samton 22/04/2011 27/10/2011 26/09/2011 9 Phonkham 22/04/2011 28/10/2011 30/09/2011 10 Nakkang 26/05/2011 24/06/2011 16/12/2011 11 Viengkham 08/11/2011 27/12/2011 05/12/2011 12 Bouamvanh 24/11/2011 28/12/2011 24/12/2011 13 Vangbai 23/11/2011 26/12/2011 18/12/2011
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Inauguration of the system in Vangheung village Maintenance committee in Vangheung village Service Centre Service Centre
Map n°2: Localisation of the target villages for water supply systems within AGRISUD target villages
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The 21st of June 2011, the District committee of control for the water supply system was invited to visit the work done by the project in the villages of Viengkham II, Phonekham, Samton, Poukeo and Muang Mouy. In general, the committee was satisfied of the work achieved by the project. Some improvements were requested (rises of hovered pipes in Poukeo and Nakkang villages) and the project agreed on it.
During the inaugurations of the water supply systems, a maintenance kit was handed over from the project to the District Authorities, and then to the village maintenance committee. The idea of the inauguration is that the project delivers the water supply systems to the District who passed it over to the village authorities. During these times, it is also a great occasion for the District Authorities to visit the installations done by the project and to submit their advices and recommendations.
From July to October 2011, some improvements have been done to the systems, in Poukeo, Nakkang, Vangheung, Chakkang II and Viengkham II villages, according to the recommendations of the villagers and the District Authorities. These improvements mainly concerned the reinforcement of the system in some weak points during the rainy season.
In October 2011, the project decided that the rest of the equipment and budget for this activity will be used to improve more water supply systems within the District. During the year 2011, the project has received various request letters for water supply constructions or rehabilitations from some villages. After consultation with the DHO, it was decided that 3 additional villages will be supported for rehabilitation: Viengkham, Vangbai and Bouamvanh villages. One technician from DHO was put in charge of these constructions and contracts were signed with the village Authorities, the DHO and the Governor office.
2- Training on hygiene and nutrition
In the logical framework, only the villagers of the 10 target villages for water supply system constructions should benefited of trainings from hygiene, food safety and nutrition basic principles, at village level. For that, the project entered the LANN (Linking Agriculture, Natural resources management and Nutrition) approach to design the training program and contents, as well as train the trainers. It has been developed as a community based approach to nutrition for upland minority communities. It is a coalition of 9 INGO projects implementing same village training approach in cooperation with WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society). The aim was to improve capacity building at district offices level and knowledge at village level: 4 staffs from district offices (District Agriculture and Forestry Office, District Health Office, District Education Office and Lao Women Union) were trained by the LANN team. Women were encouraged to become trainers with 3 women out of the 4. The topics of the trainings were: - Malnutrition: What is nutrition and malnutrition, causes, impacts, self-evaluation, commitment to solutions - Food: How to improve diets and optimize food sources (production, forest, market), commit to 10 food actions - Mother and child, hygiene and health: How to improve mother and child care, hygiene and health and increase women empowerment, commit to 10 care and hygiene actions. - Management of natural resources and the preservation of the forests
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During the time of the project, the three trainings of trainers (ToT) have been done, in Xieng Khouang province, by the LANN team, from February to August 2010. Three village training sessions per village, were done from March to November 2010. The last session of village trainings were particularly popular with a total of 953 persons attending the trainings (against 651 persons during the second session). Among them, 553 were women.
Third session of LANN training in Houay Soy villageCentre
In November 2010, the project was solicited by the IRD/CIFOR/NAFRI to participate on their “Koumban Day” festivities, the 16th-17th of December 2010. The project was requested to perform nutrition sensitization activities. Using the tools of UNICEF blue box, the nutrition team organized educational games and reading spots for the children, as well as sketches and presentation of the sensitization posters for all the participants, using the LANN approach. To complete the LANN approach, the project decided to support the district office of Lao Women Union in their initiative to organize hygiene and nutrition trainings in the villages. The 19th of November 2010, a proposition was made by the president of this organization regarding the contents of these trainings. The project and Lao Women Union agreed that the trainings should first take place in the 14 villages where the project was at that time working and that 2 days of training per village should be sufficient. The objects of these training concerned two major topics (one topic per day): Women Right and Nutrition through vegetable gardening. Hygiene was a cross-topic. The project provided to the LWU trainers the training equipment and tools developed by LANN team, as well as the bluebox, educational tools developed by UNICEF. The trainings started the 18th of January 2011, and were spread over two months. During these two months of January and February 2011, the District office of Lao Women Union organized two-day trainings in the 14 target villages. The topics of these trainings were: - Women rights in Lao PDR: Information about the protection Law for women and children; discussion around women education and the importance of school for young girls; the relationship between wife and husband; conjugal violence... - Nutrition and Hygiene: The good practices in hygiene and nutrition; the food groups; breastfeeding and child care; the link between good alimentation and the consumption of vegetables and fruits; vegetable garden for home cooking, cooking demonstration of 2 nutritious recipes... The training was organized and set-up by the President and the vice-president of LWU of Viengkham District. The project provided them support on training materials and tools, on budget for gasoline and daily Perdiem, as well as food for the cooking demonstrations.
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In July 2011, the collaboration with the District office of Lao Women Union started again in order to spread information among the target villages of the project about nutrition, hygiene and women rights. One new topic was also added: family planning and birth control. These topics were often brought up by the beneficiaries (especially the women) as a main issue in their life.
Training session on hygiene and nutrition and cooking demonstration in Had Kor village
New lessons were then elaborated, with the participation of a technician from the DHO. Booklets and training posters were printed as training materials, in addition to the LANN posters and equipments. The methodology of these sensitization trainings in the villages was changed as well. In order to secure the durability of the knowledge spread among the villagers, two representatives of each village (one man and one woman) received special training during two days in order to master all the topics taught and to become sensitization agents in their village. The role of these village sensitization agents or village trainers is to become a person of reference for the villagers who wish to have more information regarding one or several topics. Indeed, during the village training, many people didn’t dare to ask questions, even when the contents of the training were not entirely clear to them. If there is someone in the village that they trust and has this knowledge, it will be less embarrassing for them to ask questions to him/her in private than ask questions in front of the whole village. The village trainers are also encouraged to perform village trainings from time to time in order to refresh everyone’s memory. The 25 villages of the project were divided in 4 groups, according to their geographical locations, in order to reduce the number of trainees during the training and to facilitate the transportation and housing of the participants. As for the village sensitization sessions, it was decided that they will be held only in the 11 new villages of the project added in 2011, after each session of training for village trainers. From June to October 2011, 48 village trainers were trained by LWU in partnership with the DHO. Only the village of Nakkang didn’t benefit of village trainers because the two persons selected were not able to attend the training due to heavy raining and the cut-off of the path they’re using to get to Vangbong village.
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Training for village representatives in Namxoy and Vangbong villages
According to Lao Women Union reports, the first day of training, most of the village sensitization agents are very diffident and don’t really dare to speak or ask questions. But, by the second day, they are able to perform during the training simulations where they were asked to play the trainer’s role. After the training of village sensitization agents, 2-days-village sensitization sessions where organized in 11 target villages. The purpose of these sessions was to spread the information learned by the villager sensitization agents among all the villagers, as well as to allow the village trainers to test their new knowledge in front of their peers. In total, 1611 villagers attended these trainings. Among them, 1000 were women (62%). After each training session, Lao Women Union delivered to the project a report summarizing this activity: number of villages sensitization agents trained, number of participants per village (women/men), good results and issues found... The pictures took by the LWU team during the trainings were also delivered to the project. In general, the authorities of the village and the villagers responded well to the training. The number of participants was sometimes quite high, like in Had Kor and Nongkham villages (more than 120 participants), and the participation was good. The participation of men was also high during the training. In the other hand, the trainers encountered some issues during the trainings. Some villages have no meeting room so the training had to be done in the school class (which disturbed classes) or outside; the women were often shy to ask questions in front of the men and remained silent; some villagers were absent because they were occupied in their agriculture fields (sanam); in some villages where water is an issue, it was difficult to prepare the meals; in the Hmong villages, there were some issues of comprehension because the training was in lao language.
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Family planning sensitization in Vangbong village During the mid-term evaluation in March 2011, the consultant found out that some villages received only one day of training. The explanation of LWU was that in these villages the chief of village asked them to do only one day because the villagers were too busy on their fields. The result is that the villagers of these villages found the training too short with too much information to remember in one day. In the future, Lao Women Union should considerer the agricultural calendar when trainings like these are planned.
Activity 3: Institutional strengthening and capacity building at village and district level: 4 District offices fully involved with the project (DAFO, DLMA, DHO, LWU); 10 District staff affected to the project; 19 villages supported on Participatory Land Use Planning including monographs and Village Action Plan, for 30 months on December, 31st, 2011
1- Involvement and strengthening of district staff in the project’s implementation
The strengthening of district staff’s skills was continuous during the process of the project. During these 30 months reported by the report, the four DAFO technicians affected to the project have received support on livestock farming, veterinary services, rain-fed crop systems and vegetable gardening trainings, with the PAFO trainers and AGRISUD booklets.
Two DHO technicians that have been working on the water supply systems benefited of the knowledge and experiences of the AGRISUD team to improve their capacities on GFS water system and water committee set-up.
During the second quarterly of year 2011, the project added four more technicians (one from DLMA and three from DAFO) to its team, in order to realize in the villages the activity of Participatory Land Use Planning. All District technicians involved in the project have been trained to be able to conduct land use planning activities in the villages.
By supporting Lao Women Union of Viengkham District on their awareness raising mission among women, the project helped this organization to strengthen their capacities on training and on sensitization activities among the population. It offers them the possibility to conduct concrete actions and to increase their presence, with the help of the Lao Women Union volunteers, at village level.
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2- Set-up of a partnership with the IRD/CIFOR/NAFRI for the strengthening and capacity building at village level
In January 2011, the partnership between AGRISUD and IRD/CIFOR/NAFRI started effectively with the arrival in Viengkham of two junior experts from Agro Paris Tech institute, the 17th of January. After a first phase of settlement and recognition of the field, the two junior experts and an IRD/CIFOR/NAFRI team started their work in the villages conducting monographic studies in 7 villages, from the 21st of January to the 25th of February 2011. The villages selected were: Bouamvan, Had Lao, Had Hung, Had Kor, Houay Ko, Phonekham and Namxoy. These villages where selected according to various criteria: accessibility, ethnic group, economical activities, degree of poverty, date of implementation, presence of others projects... in order to form a sample of the target villages. The main goal of these monographic studies was to set-up an effective method to conduct village monographs that the District staff can reproduce. Two DAFO technicians were involved in the process1. Then, the 28th of February 2011, training was organized, at the District level, to show the first results and explain the methodology to a larger number of District government officers, especially from DAFO and DLMA. A quick training on GIS software program was also organized the 1st of March 2011.
In March 2011, the two junior experts and the IRD/CIFOR/NAFRI team, as well as the 2 DAFO technicians and one DLMA technician, worked in 4 villages (Had Hung, Houay Ko, Namxoy and Houay Thong) in order to set-up land management village committees, participatory land use management plans and village action plans. In each village, they started with a village meeting in order to elect the 12 persons who will constitute the land management village committee. A particular care is taken to assure that at least 2 persons in this committee are women and that every type of households is represented. After that, six persons of the committee worked together with the project’s team to build a 3D map of their village, meanwhile the others six were trained to analyse land use planning socio-economic impacts at village level. The 3D map enabled the village as well as their neighbouring villages to delimitate precisely the boundaries of their villages and to settle an agreement between them in order to respect it. A contract is then edited and signed between the stakeholders and the Authorities of the District. In the event of litigation, GPS points are taken by the project’s team, under the supervision of the villagers, in order to define the exact boundaries of the village. When the limits of the village are settled, the village committee started showing on the map their actual land use management. Then they proposed a new land use management plan for their village according to their needs and the reality of their fields and labour force. This new proposition is done according to the projection they made for their village action plan for the next 5 years. The last day, the new land use management plan is presented to the entire village by the village committee members, as well as new regulations concerning the management of the land. For example, fines are decided for the ones who don’t respect the preserved forest area. A wooden board with the new land use planning map is set-up in the centre of the village for everyone to see, as well as wooden signs at the village boundaries and the preserved areas. The District authorities were invited to legitimate the activity and an agreement is signed between the District governor, the head of DLMA, the head of DAFO and the villagers to settle the new land use management planning. In order to realize this activity, the project’s team needed at least 10 days per village.
The 7th of April 2011, a meeting took place in the AGRISUD office in Viengkham with the field team and the partners from IRD/CIFOR/NAFRI to decide how to continue the activity. Indeed, after this date, the two junior experts went back to Vientiane in order to compile the data collected and to start the redaction of a methodology booklet on PLUP and monograph. Starting in May, only District staffs were conducting PLUP in the target villages of AGRISUD.
1 In addition of the 4 DAFO technicians already involved in the agricultural activities of the project.
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From the 4th to the 10th of May 2011, the District PLUP team was trained, by two experts from IRD/CIFOR/NAFRI, on GIS software (QGIS software), Publisher program, as well as 3D map modelling. This training was opened to every staff from DLMA and DAFO interesting in the process. This training was also an opportunity to select a new member for the PLUP team AGRISUD (one of the DAFO technician who has been working with the project since January withdrawn herself). The 11th of May, three technicians were selected (two from DAFO and one from DLMA). From the 13th to the 29th of May 2011, the 3 technicians of the PLUP team, as well as the 4 DAFO technicians from the Agriculture team were trained on the field by the two experts from IRD/CIFOR/NAFRI, in the villages of Had Gnao and Poukeo. The purpose of this exercise was to reinforce the capacities of the District team to set-up Participatory Land Use Planning from A to Z.
Working on the 3D map, Chakkang village
Starting the 2nd of June 2011, the PLUP team, composed only of District staffs, started working on their own in the villages. In the end of June, the IRD/CIFOR/NAFRI team came again in Viengkham to check on the progress done by the District team, to determine the additional support needed and to hold a provincial workshop in order to show the results done to the Province and District authorities, as well as others NGO and partners. This workshop was the occasion for the PLUP team to present their work as well as to advocate the methodology to the DAFO and DLMA offices. During this time, it was also decided that a new technician should be added to the team. Additional training in computer basic knowledge was also decided to be done internally to teach the team how to classify and back up their files, as well as to prepare powerpoint presentations.
Provincial workshop, the 23rd and 24th of June
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The 23rd of June, a provincial workshop was held by the project in the Governor meeting room. Thirty-three (33) persons attended this workshop. Were represented the District governor office, Luang Prabang PAFO, Viengkham DAFO and DLMA, the National Park of Nam Ed, NAFRI, NAFREC, GIZ-NUDP, GRET, JVC Savannakhet and ADB Viengkham. Each powerpoint presentation was the subject of discussion, and the day ended by a simulation of the “PLUP fiction” board game, an exercise to measure the degree of comprehension of the committee on land use planning and management. The 24th of June, the participants went to visit three villages where the PLUP was done by the project (Namsoy, Samton and Phonkham), as well as the Technical Service Centre in Muang Mouy. In general, the participants were satisfied by the workshop and the visits. The project received good reviews from PAFO, DAFO and DLMA. Others INGOs, like GIZ, GRET and JVC, were really interesting in the methodology.
During the month of June 2011, the GIZ-NUDP’s project started doing Land Use Planning in Viengkham District, within the village clusters of Se, Sophuang and Samsom. Eleven villages are overlapping with AGRISUD’s target villages: Houay Soy, Had Kor, Vang Heung, Chakkang, Thavanh, Had Gnao (Se village cluster), Nongkham, Namxoy, Toumming (Sophuang village cluster), Houay Ko, Houay Thong (Samsom village cluster). The 13th of July, a meeting was organized in Luang Prabang between the two projects to discuss how the cooperation can be done on the field. The objective of this meeting was to discuss how both teams can benefit of this opportunity. It was decided that the GIZ-NUDP team will follow the AGRISUD’s team in one of the overlapping target village in order to observe the methodology developed with IRD/CIFOR/NAFRI. The 29th of July, both teams met in Viengkham to organize the collaboration on the field. The similarities and differences between the methodologies used by each project were also discussed. The representatives of DAFO and DLMA were present at the discussion. Finally, the sharing experience took place in Had Kor village, between the 2nd and the 10th of August 2011. The 15th of August, a lesson-learned discussion took place, in AGRISUD’s office, between both team, with the participation of DAFO and DLMA representatives, to share everyone’s impressions. The GIZ-NUDP team were particularly interested in the 3-D model map and wished to include it in their own methodology. Unfortunately, the person in charge of PLUP activity for GIZ-NUDP couldn’t attend this meeting, so his team couldn’t take any decision. Afterward, this person never tried to contact the project to work further on this collaboration.
In Had Kor, the GIZ-NUDP team is learning how to build a village 3D map
At the end of the project, PLUPs have been established in 23 target villages of the project, 4 of them in Muang Mouy village cluster by the CIFOR project, 4 villages by the team IRD/CIFOR/NAFRI-AGRISUD and 15 by District staff supported by AGRISUD.
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Because it was too difficult to achieve the PLUP in each target village of Agrisud project during the time of the project while conserving the same standard and quality of work, the team focused on the villages which were not overlapping with the GIZ-NUDP project, and left the villages of Toumming and Nongkham for the GIZ-NUDP team to finish.
Example of link between Village Action Plan and Land Zoning:
Land Use Planned activities Permanent crop Want to fence permanent crop area with barbwires. Want to plant new crops to feed animals Rotational crop or improve the soil. Are not interested in improved fallows because. Wish to plant coffee and castor beans Plantation and increase teak plantations. Improve pasture Want to create an improved pasture area. Paddy Improved irrigation for the existing paddy area; Build new paddy areas up to 9.6 ha. Would like to increase and improve Garden home gardening.
Activity 4: Set-up an operational monitoring and evaluation system
1- Baseline survey
The baseline survey was conducted in November 2009 and was done in conjunction with the 2 other similar projects (GAA-Oudomxay and CARE-Phongsaly): same timing, same methodology and same training. 25 surveys at village level and 396 Households surveys were realised. The final report delivered by Juergen Piechotta has revealed the importance of the small livestock raising in comparison with the two other project areas. The recruitment of the agricultural and husbandry technician has been reoriented towards a technician more specialised in livestock than in vegetable production.
2- Economical and technical follow-up of the agricultural activities
An economical and technical follow-up has been set-up for the assessment of the results of the first beneficiaries on the rainy season 2010. At the end of December 2010, 69 economical and technical forms have been filled: 23 concerned families directly supported by the project with equipment (seeds and planting sticks) and technical follow-up; 14 additional families associated to the new practices by receiving seeds, basic knowledge and training on demonstration plots; and 12 families that kept their traditional techniques so as to enable comparison. The forms concerned different cultures: Brachiaria ruziensis, cajanus, corn, traditional rice, vigna.
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In January 2011, these data have been entered in the database and sent to the AGRISUD headquarter in France for analysis, but the results were not as good as expected because of various factors: late planting, rats and insects in the fields, drought, and heavy rain carrying away the seeds down the field. Many of the forms were half filled because some crops haven’t been harvested, which complicated the work of monitoring.
From the 21st to the 25th of March 2011, the project’s staff collected data regarding the market- oriented and home vegetable gardening activities for the dry season 2010-2011. The 18th of March, the 4 DAFO technicians were trained by the administrator of the project about the questionnaire and the way to fill it with the villagers. In every village, sample of beneficiary families have been choose. The 28th of March, all the forms have been filled and given to the administrator for analysis.
During the third quarter 2011, the project administrator in charge of the monitoring system, along with the International Coordinator, kept entering the data collected among the beneficiaries of vegetable gardening in the data entry form designed by Agrisud Headquarters to monitor socio- economical impacts of the project’s activities. However, at some point, they realized that the economical impact of this activity on family incomes was very low and not really relevant. Indeed, most of the beneficiary families opted for small garden for their own consumption. The percentage of sale is low and the prices are irregular, depending on the buyer. In the villages, the sale prices were very low compared to the prices in Viengkham market. This fact can be explained by the distance of the villages from the District centre and the irregularity of the production. The family members collected only a few vegetables a day for their own consumption and a little sale to their neighbours. As for the inputs for the garden, they also didn’t cost a thing, as the manure is collected among their livestock, the labour force is done by family members, the seeds were provided by the project and they didn’t use any chemicals against pests. At this stage, it was decided by the monitoring team that a new data entry form should be elaborate to match the needs of this specific project. It was decided that the project should focus on monitoring the changes occurred on the beneficiaries’ agricultural techniques. The idea was to evaluate, among the beneficiaries, the degree of comprehension and acceptation of the techniques taught by the project during the various trainings. To that extent, the project’s administrator, in charge of the monitoring system, was sent to Cambodia, from the 29th of August to the 4th of September 2011, in order to attend a training organized by AGRISUD project in Siem Reap. This training targeted the staff of both projects. The contents were focused on the utilization of the monitoring system set-up by Agrisud Headquarters, the way to adapt it and then analyze the results. Reinforcement training was also done on computer software like Excel. This mission was also an opportunity for the Lao and Cambodian staff of AGRISUD’s projects to meet up and exchange experience about activities implementation. A presentation of AGRISUD project in Laos was done by the project’s administrator to the Cambodian team and an interesting discussion followed the presentation. The administrator also visited some activities done by AGRISUD in Siem Reap Province and made a presentation of it to the Lao team when he returned to Viengkham. From the 23rd to the 28th of October 2011, Julie LOGEL, International Coordinator of AGRISUD in Cambodia, came to visit the project in Viengkham District, as well as follow-up the progress done on the monitoring system. In July 2011, follow-up forms were elaborated by the agricultural supervisor in order to collect data on the animals given to beneficiaries of chicken and pig farming trainings. During the same month, the technicians of the project were sent in their target villages to collect these data: weight of the pigs, number of piglets borne, number of chicken produced, mortality rate among the chicken... At the beginning of August, all forms were filled and handed over to the evaluation team. After analyze, some incoherencies were found on the pig weight data. After discussion with the technicians of the project, it was revealed that the technique used to calculate the weight by measuring the chest size of the pig was only efficient for cows or buffalos. For pigs, the length from tail to nose as to be add in order to calculate the weight. The technicians were asked to collect again
Food security for Women and Rural Poor in Viengkham District – Final Report 42 these data during the month of October 2011, as well as data about maize and sorghum harvests among the beneficiary households. In November 2011, the project was able to produce quantitative data showing the results obtained by the beneficiary households on pig farming, chicken farming, rain-fed crops for animal feed and vegetable gardening. Evaluations about technical knowledge and practical application were also done among the beneficiaries in November and early December 2011 to determinate which family will be classify as Master-Farmers. As a result, 79 households were selected as Master-Farmers. They were introduced as such during the final workshop of the project, the 20th of December 2011, and received a certificate, additional equipments as well as a T-Shirt of the project. The role of these Master-Farmers is to become a model among their community and to spread the techniques and knowledge to others households whose might be interesting. The project wished that it would have time to train them specifically to become village trainers, but due to the short period of time assigned to the project, this wish was not granted. However, these group of Master-Farmers represent a potential human resources for others projects or for a new Agrisud future project.
3- Regular supervision from Agrisud Headquarters
During the 30 months reported in this document, eight (8) short term missions from AGRISUD Headquarters were done by Sylvain Berton, Head of Operations, to support the project in Viengkham District, one by Didier Gensous, financial advisor and two by Julie Logel, International coordinator in AGRISUD Cambodia, monitoring expert, for a total of 11 short term missions.
The first mission was conducted in August 2009 by Sylvain Berton for the setting and training of the first International Coordinator, Ms Fanny Curunet, in the field. This mission was also the occasion to prepare the documents needed to set-up the partnership with Luang Prabang PAFO and to obtain the Operation Permit and Memorandum of Understanding.
The second mission was done in January 2010 by Sylvain Berton to follow up the progress done to obtain the Operation Permit and MoU, the recruitment of the staff, the set-up of the office, as well as the carrying out of the baseline survey.
The third mission was done in March 2010 by Didier Gensous to strengthen the capacities of the project team (especially the International Coordinator and the administrator) to manage the administrative and financial tools.
The fourth mission was done in April 2010 by Julie Logel in order to set-up the economical and technical monitoring system, as well as to support the surveys done on markets and potential chain values.
The fifth mission was done in May 2010 by Sylvain Berton to support the implementation of the first activities on the field: LANN village trainings, rain-fed crops for animal feed, design of the water supply systems and the partnership with IRD-CIFOR-NAFRI.
The sixth mission was conducted in September 2010 by Sylvain Berton to accompany the ROM mission organized by the EU, to wrap up the progress of the field activities, to meet with Asian Heritage Consultancy in order to discuss the feasibility studies done in the villages and to prepare a financial amendment.
The seventh mission was conducted in November 2010 by Sylvain Berton in order to welcome the new International Coordinator and help the transfer of the activities between the two Coordinators.
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During this mission, activities and results were assessed and activity planning was built for the period December, 2010 to March, 2011.
The eighth mission was conducted from the 27th of January to the 3rd of February 2011 by Sylvain Berton. During this mission, some activities have been supervised on the field in 7 villages: water supply systems, pig and chicken farming, home and market-oriented vegetable gardens and monograph studies. Meetings have been organized with various organizations that collaborated with the project: CIFOR, AHC, GIZ, in order to discuss the project’s activities. Reporting and discussion have been done with government authorities at the District and Province levels: DAFO, Governor Office, DHO and PAFO. Project staff meetings were set-up to discuss project’s activities, as well as the logical framework and the financial budget of the project.
The ninth mission was done from the 19th to the 27th of July 2011 by Sylvain Berton. This mission was an opportunity for Agrisud operation director to meet with France Volontaires representative for Vietnam and Laos, the chief of PAFO and the different representatives of Viengkham District Authorities (DAFO, DLMA, DHO, and Governor Office) in order to discuss the evolution of the project activities. During his mission, Mr Sylvain Berton visited several target villages of the project to supervise the implementation of the activities on the field. He also held meetings with the staff to prepare the final phase of the project and to set-up the calendar of the activities.
The tenth mission was conducted in October 2011 by Julie Logel to follow-up the changes done on the monitoring system after the training in Cambodia, to reinforce the capacities of the administrator to analyse the results and produce graphs and charts, as well as to visit the project’s activities.
The eleventh and last short-term mission was conducted in December 2011 by Sylvain Berton in order to do the final assessment of the activities and results with the project’s team, to support the organization of the final workshop and third Steering Committee meeting and to help the team to be prepared for the closing of the project and the administrative procedures to follow.
4- Mid-term evaluation
At the end of December 2010, the terms of Reference for a mid-term evaluation were elaborated and sent to the UE delegation in order to received agreements. The 15th of January 2011, the ToR were sent to various consultant cabinets and posted on the LaoFAB website. Two consultants answered this offer. After reading the two propositions, the project team decided to hire Mr Juergen Piechotta to do its mid-term evaluation. This choice was made according to the price asked by the consultant, as well as his experience with similar projects.
The consultant and his team were working in Viengkham District from the 18th to the 25th of February 2011, visiting District authorities (Governor, head of DAFO, head of DHO), local partners (president of LWU) and beneficiaries of 6 target villages (Houay Soy, Bouamvanh, Had Lao, Had Hung, Poukeo and Houay Ko villages). These villages have been selected by the consultant team over various factors: accessibility, ethnicity, access to the river, poverty rate, activities launched by the project... in order to obtain a representative sample of the project’s target villages. In the villages, focus group and individuals interviews have been done in order to meet the beneficiary’s point of view of the project: relevance, efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability. Workshop of presentation of the first results and recommendations were done the 24th of February at the District level and the 25th at the Province level.
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The consultant team also interviewed various actors close to the project as the UE delegation in Vientiane, IRD office in Vientiane, Asian Heritage Consultancies, France Volontaires in Hanoi, GIZ, GAA and the Head of PAFO in Luang Prabang. A draft report was delivered to the project the 13th of March and the final report the 27th of March 2011.
5- Endline survey and final evaluation
The discussion with CARE, GAA and the UE regarding the common endline and the final evaluation of our projects started in March 2011, during the steering committee meeting that took place in Phongsaly. Since then, many meetings were held in order to organize these two evaluations. After many discussions, it has been decided that the endline and the final evaluation will be done conjointly with the support of additional fund from the UE. The UE delegation in Vientiane was put in charge of publishing the ToR and hiring the consultancy team. They will also cover all the costs of these two evaluations. As for the original budget of the project for these evaluations, it was relocated to activity budget lines. The 18th of October 2011, the International Coordinator met with the endline/final evaluation consultant (Mrs Anne Pirotte, AETS), the EU representative (Mr Baas Brimer), as well as CARE and GAA NGOs representatives, in GAA office in Vientiane, in order to discuss the programming of the endline and final evaluation in the field and the selection of a sample of villages. The endline evaluation and final evaluation of all three projects was carried out between November 2011 and January 2012. The evaluation of LANN community approach has been taken care of by a second consultant (Mrs Napat Gordon). Because the baseline study was found unreliable for different reasons, it was agreed during the project quick off meeting that there is not point replicating the same exercise at the project end. Time, human and financial resources available do not anyway allow this substantial effort. Therefore, this mission bases the analysis on existing data indicators for a quantitative assessment (no additional quantitative data collected). At the same time, a qualitative analysis is approached through village case studies. In Viengkham, the field visit took place between the 5th to the 9th of December 2011. During this period, visits where made in four villages (Bouamvanh, Thavan, Chakkang, Phonkham) and the Technical Service Centre. In the villages and centre, the consultant was able to meet with the village authorities, some beneficiaries and to see the realizations of the project in several activities: pig and chicken farming, vegetable gardening, water supply system, Participatory Land Use Planning. The consultant also discussed the project with District offices (Governor office, DAFO, DLMA, LWU, DHO), with Luang Prabang PAFO, as well as with the project’s team. The consultant identified several best practices in Agrisud’s project in Viengkham District: - The multi-sectorial strategy to support food security - The positive influence of some activities on the development of others - The promotion of low cost effective techniques adapted to the local context - The participatory approach, flexible to answer expressed needs - The 10 days PLUP (Participatory Land Use Planning) process The main recommendations were: - Extend the project duration or fund an additional phase to sustain current achievements - Integrate PLUP (and its Village Action Plan), LANN and the current approach - Involve human resource whose capacities were strengthened at village level, especially Master-Farmers, to spread technical messages - Diversify the panel of activities in a second phase: sanitation; activities with a longer cycle; cash crops; fish farming; marketing support; seeds conservation
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- Further emphasize the gender approach and gender empowerment - Further adjust training material for extension to illiterate trainees and trainers - Increase PLUP sustainability - Spread AGRISUD valuable know-how on agro-ecology
The evaluation of LANN community approach took place, in Viengkham District, between the 5th to the 7th of November 2011. The consultant visited one village (Ban Chakkang) staying there overnight. She also interviewed two of the District staff (DAFO, DEO) that was sent to the LANN ToTs in Xieng Khouang and performed the sensitization trainings in Agrisud’s target villages. The method of data collecting for LANN evaluation was essentially based on primary sources with emphasis on the qualitative approach. The technique used for obtaining data was the Focus Group Discussion (FGD) with the help of Interview Topic Guidelines as a tool to steer the discussions. The groups targeted for FGD sessions included: the village beneficiaries including their leaders, the TOT trainees from relevant government offices at the District level and the NGO’s Project management at Field/District office, such as project manager or coordinator. To summarize, the findings of the evaluation concluded that the integration of the three component elements by linking Agriculture. Natural Resource Management and Nutrition is very relevant to the Laos context where most of the population are dependent on agriculture and their natural resource base for their livelihood. It is also relevant to the policy directions on nutrition of the GOL, e. g. the national Plan of Action on Nutrition or NPAN 2010-2014, especially the capacity building of government human resources. The consultant recommended investing in capacity buildings for local villagers in order to set-up Village Health Volunteers (VHV) and Village Nutrition Volunteers (VNV) to improve the sustainability of the activity. These VHV and VNV should receive full support like follow-up and coaching facilities, as well as tools and equipment. As well, school children and teachers should be included as another target group for LANN training. A special training package should be developed for this target group or should be integrated into the curriculum or school books. Songs and music could also be developed as a means to communicate and to arouse the interest of the village people of all ages. The household questionnaire for the assessment of the villagers before and after the VRO training should also be conducted separately by a team of specialists. The data collected should be systematically analysed and a report disseminated to relevant agencies and offices. And finally, this kind of approach should be carried away on a long life span project in order to follow-up the progress and the changes.
Activity 5: Project management
1- The project team
The operational team has been set up with the recruitment of the International Coordinator, the Provincial Coordinator, the Administrator and the Agriculture and livestock Technician, at the end of the year 2009 and the beginning of the year 2010. The office has been fit out and furnished by the same time. The four DAFO technicians in charge of the agricultural activities were assigned to the project in February 2010. In November 2010, the project acquired its vehicles (car and motorbikes). In November 2010, four new staff joined the project team. A Water supply Supervisor, as well as one Foreman arrived the 2nd of November to launch the implementation of the water supply systems. A new Agriculture and livestock Supervisor was hired, the 16th of November, after the resignation of his predecessor in July 2010. And a hand over between the International Coordinators
Food security for Women and Rural Poor in Viengkham District – Final Report 46 took place from November 9th to November 30th 2010. The 29th of March 2011, a second foreman was hired to help on the water supply system and irrigation construction sites. The 30th of April 2011, the Agricultural activities Supervisor, Mr Xaysavath Keodouangvichit, resigned from his post, for family reasons. In June 2011, Mr Saykham Phimmasone was selected among three candidatures to fulfill this post. His background on GAA projects in Oudomxay enables him to offer competences required to work with this project. The new supervisor started working with the project, the 4th of July. In May 2011, three technicians from DAFO and one from DLMA were assigned to the project to implement Participatory Land Use Planning in the target villages of the project.
The 30th of June 2011, with the end of the water supply implementation activity, the Water supply Supervisor, as well as one foreman arrived to the end of their contract. The project decided to keep one foreman for one additional month in order to perform some improvements requested by the villagers and the District Authorities.
Flowchart n° 1: Composition of the project team
International Provincial Coordinator Coordinator PAFO
Agricultural and Water supply DLMA technician Administrator livestock DAFO Advisor Supervisor PLUP Supervisor
DAFO technician 1st foreman DAFO technician PLUP
DAFO technician 2nd foreman DAFO technician PLUP
DAFO technician DHO technician DAFO technician PLUP
DHO technician DAFO technician
Project staff Project associated staff
The position of DAFO advisor was not appointed in the management unit. But given the high influence of this person in the district, the project had to promote him as project advisor so as to allow a good implementation of the project in cooperation with the DAFO.
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2- Coordination meeting
Project’s staff coordination meetings are realized every month in order to discuss the evolution of the activities, the results for the past month as well as the priorities for the following month. Each member of the team prepared his monthly calendar and posted it on the wall for everyone to see. Each month, a monthly report compiled all the activities done during the month, as well as the activities plan for the following month. However, some important meetings are also organized on specific topics when the time is needed.
A coordination meeting was held the 26th of November 2010 during Agrisud headquarters mission, with Sylvain Berton, Head of Operations. This meeting was the occasion to review all the activities done the past few months and to prepare the continuation of these. All members of the staff attended this meeting.
One coordination meeting was organized the 30th of December 2010 with all the project staff. During this meeting, the project team reviewed the activities done these past three months and tried to analyze the results. They also planned the activities to do the next months. The content of this meeting were summarized on a quarterly report.
The 31st of January 2011, during Agrisud headquarters mission, with Sylvain Berton, Head of Operations, a coordination meeting was organized to review the logical framework, the budget and the results of the activities so far. This meeting has also the purpose to discuss the mid-term evaluation coming in February.
The 14th of February 2011, the project held a coordination meeting about the assessment of the activities in the first 14 villages. Each activity in each village was detailed by the technician in charge in order to detect the strength and the weakness depending of the village’s situation. Indeed, the project’s target villages faced different issues and the activities should be adapted according to the context. After analyzing together the weakness of the activities in some villages, the project’s team proposed solutions to improve the results of these activities in these villages. The results of this meeting are recommendations that were also used for the implementation of the activities in the 11 new villages of the year 2011.
The 26th of July 2011, a coordination meeting was organized, during Agrisud headquarters mission, with Sylvain Berton, Head of Operations. The purpose of this meeting was to review the activities and results of these last three months, to program the activities for the next months, as well as to propose a revised logical framework and budget to the UE delegation.
The 6th of October 2011, a coordination meeting was held with the agricultural team to summarize the outcome of the trainings in vegetable gardening in the 11 new villages, the set-up of the veterinary village pharmacies in the 25 target villages as well as the monitoring of the livestock activities among the beneficiaries that have already received animals from the project. This meeting was also a good opportunity to discuss the evaluations of the beneficiaries for each agricultural activity and the selection of the Master farmers.
3- Provincial workshops
The 12th of November 2010, a provincial workshop was set-up at the PAFO office in Luang Prabang. Nineteen persons from Viengkham District (DAFO, DHO, Lao Women Union, Governor), Luang Prabang PAFO as well as others organizations working in the district (GIZ) attended this workshop. The provincial coordinator of the project presented the objectives of the project and the first results of the rainy season activities. A presentation of the planned activities for the dry season
Food security for Women and Rural Poor in Viengkham District – Final Report 48 was made as well. Then the team answered the questions and concerns of the participants about the project. Questions were made about the monitoring system of the activities, the problems encountered by the project and the nature of the support to the beneficiaries. The district staff asked more specify questions about the support in Muang Mouy technical centre, the problem that occurred for the implementation of some water supply systems in some villages that don’t own sand and gravels… Some activities have been requested by the district, like support for intensive rice growing system or exchange visits to exemplary villages. The project team tried to give an answer to everyone and took every comment in account.
The workshop held in Luang Prabang PAFO office, the 25th of February 2011, to present the results and recommendations of the mid-term evaluation, as well as the workshop organized in Viengkham District, the 23rd and 24th of June, for the presentation of the Participatory Land Use Planning activities and results are considered as provincial workshops in that they regrouped both representatives of the Province and the District.
The 20th and 21st of December 2011, a workshop was organized in Viengkham District to present the final results and assessments as well as to close the project. The District offices that worked closely with the project during these two years (Governor Office, DAFO, DHO, DLMA, LWU) were involved, as well as the Luang Prabang PAFO and the 79 Master-Farmers. This workshop was the occasion for the District representatives and the Master-Farmers to give their opinions about the project and to make recommendations for the future.
4- Steering committee meetings
The First steering committee meeting between Agrisud (Luang Prabang Province), CARE ( Phongsaly Province) and GAA (Oudomxay Province) projects was organized in Oudomxay from the 9th to the 11th of May 2010. Were present to this meeting the representatives of the 3 NGOs, the representatives of the Provinces and Districts offices involved in the projects, as well as representative from the EU delegation in Vientiane. Field visits were organized and discussions around the relevance of such projects in the respective Provinces were held. The 2nd steering committee meeting between Agrisud, CARE and GAA projects was organized the 16th of March 2011, in Muang Khua District, Phongsaly Province. CARE hosted this meeting where numerous partners and government officers were invited. During the meeting, each of the three projects proposed a presentation of their activities and their results to date, and then the participants were invited to react and ask their questions. A quick presentation of the Northern Upland Development Programme (NUDP) was done by Helene Quentrec, from the UE delegation in Vientiane, as well as a presentation of the nutrition national strategy and action plan for 2010-2015 by the representative of the Ministry of Health. This meeting was also the occasion for the three coordinators of the projects, as well as the representative of the UE, to talk about the endline of the projects that will be done in common before the end of the year. The 3rd steering committee meeting took place in Viengkham District, the 20th and 21st of December 2011, at the same time as the final workshop of the project. Representatives from Luang Prabang, Oudomxay and Phongsaly Provinces were present, as well as representatives from the EU delegation in Vientiane, CARE and GAA projects in Oudomxay and Phongsaly. Sylvain Berton was there to represent Agrisud Headquarters and Thanh Hang Nguyen for FRANCE Volontaires in Laos/Vietnam.
During the first day, a workshop was held in the Governor Meeting Room, in Vang Heung Village, District of Viengkham. This workshop was an occasion for the three projects financed by the EU in Northern Lao to present their project and their assessments at the end of the Program. Several
Food security for Women and Rural Poor in Viengkham District – Final Report 49 discussions and debates were organized around specific topics like Participatory Land Use Planning and more general topics like the future and needs for local development in LAO P.D.R.
The second day was a field visit to the Technical Service Centre of Viengkham DAFO supported by the project as a model farm.
This meeting between different stakeholders enabled the participants to know more about the implemented activities and to share the lessons learnt. It was also the occasion to discuss about the future of local development projects in rural area in Northern LAO P.D.R.
5- Reporting
The reporting of the project’s activities is done every month with monthly reports, every quarter of the year with quarterly reports, as well as annually with annual reports. In total, during the 30 months of the project, 25 monthly reports, 7 quarterly reports (3 are in fact only meeting reports) and 2 annual reports have been written. The monthly reports, written in French, are only sent to Agrisud Headquarters, when the quarterly reports, written in English, are also sent to partners like Luang Prabang PAFO and FRANCE Volontaires. The annual reports are sent to the EU delegation in Vientiane for approval before to be diffused to local and international partners. Every month, a financial report is sent to AGRISUD Headquarters in the form of budget follow-up file, cash box report and bank statement.
6- Visibility actions
The communication activities are done during various meetings at village, District, Provincial or National levels. Each meeting is the occasion to review with the audience the different activities set- up by the project, as well as to remind the financial contribution of the European Union to the Action. Each training session with the beneficiaries is also used as a communication platform for the general objectives of the project’s communication plan. The infrastructures built by the project are labeled with the EU logo, as well as AGRISUD logo. The communication tools developed by the project are:
- 250 Flyers in Lao and English showing the project activities, the origin of the funding and the different partners. - 60 Polos shirts and 80 T-shirts with the name of the project printed in the back and EU and AGRISUD logos in the front for project team members, District and province officials, NGO partners, as well as Master-Farmers. - 3 project identification boards with the name of the project in English and Lao, AGRISUD and UE logos, implemented as follow: one in front of the District offices, one in AGRISUD office and one in the Technical Service Centre supported by the project. - Subscription to INGO network for 2 years - Project’s stickers to stick on every material bought by the project: computers, printers, motorbikes, car… and equipment donated to the beneficiaries. - Identification plates for infrastructures supported by the project, with the name of the project, the logos of EU and AGRISUD. - Quarterly reports on activities sent to AGRISUD headquarters and Luang Prabang PAFO with the UE and AGRISUD logos on the cover page.
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- Annual reports sent to UE Delegation in Vientiane, AGRISUD headquarters and Luang Prabang PAFO with the UE and AGRISUD logos on the cover page. - Training posters and manuals with the logos of EU and AGRISUD on the first page. - PLUP Boards in 19 villages - PLUP Methodological booklet and tools box
The indicators of results of this visibility and communication plan are listed below:
- 250 flyers distributed to beneficiaries, local authorities, INGO and others. - 140 polo shirts and T-Shirts distributed to local partners, beneficiaries and local authorities. - 3 project identification boards implemented in strategic places - 150 project stickers - 67 Small identification plates: 10 water tanks and 50 water tapes for water supply systems, 6 water storage tanks for irrigation, 1 granary for the Technical Service Centre - 4 quarterly reports and 1 annual report - 13 sets of training posters (vegetable gardening, biopesticides, rain-fed crops for animal feeds, chicken farming and pig farming, liquid compost and water supply maintenance committee and fund set-up) - 931 training manuals distributed to the beneficiaries during the different trainings (vegetable gardening, biopesticides, rain-fed crops for animal feeds, chicken farming and pig farming) - 2 provincial workshops organized in Luang Prabang PAFO office - 2 district workshops organized in Viengkham - 25 village meetings organized in each target villages before the beginning of the project activities - 19 PLUP wood boards + 1 PLUP booklet and tools - 13 lessons from AGRISUD’s agro-ecological practices guide translated in lao language
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2.3. Please list activities that were planned and that you were not able to implement, explaining the reasons for these
- Activity 1.3. “Facilitate the access to irrigation in order to reduce seasonal constraints and to enhance a stable production throughout the year” In this stage of the project’s implementation, only 3 out of the 10 irrigations systems built or rehabilitated planned in the project design document have been done. Given the scarcity of water, the lack of low land and gold research on main of the rivers, it is quite difficult to find suitable sites. Regarding this matter, only 24 families have received access to irrigation facilities in order to grow vegetables out of the 100 families originally planned.
- Activity 1.4. “Training, advice and follow-up of farmers for the adoption of production factors and better knowledge of marketing channels” and, - Activity 1.6. “Facilitate the access to markets for a better and more sustainable valorisation of the diversification of products” As explained previously in this report, the access to markets from Viengkham District is quite difficult. The markets in Luang Prabang are too far and the transportation costs too high to be interesting for the farmers. In Viengkham, the local market is unable to absorb a high quantity of products due to the lack of customers. The local collectors collect mainly NTFP and are not interested in vegetable products as potatoes or onions. The farmers with a high potential for marketing production are quite rare, most of the beneficiary families producing for their own consumption. As for livestock farming activities, the length of the project is too short to be talking about marketing channels when the beneficiaries are still trying to manage the raising techniques, the animals’ health and the process of reproduction.
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2.4. What is your assessment of the results of the Action so far? Include observations on the performance and the achievement of outputs, outcomes and impact in relation to specific and overall objectives, and whether the Action has had any unforeseen positive or negative results (please quantify where possible; refer to Logframe Indicators).
Chart n°10: Assessment of the results of the Action, on the 31st of December 2011
Expecte Indicators Unit Done d Gap % 31.12.11 results
Result 1 : Food availability and accessibility increased, additional food sources are available and food sources are more diversified
Number of target villages Village 25 25 0 100% Number of village monographs Document 25 23 -2 92% Number of environmental survey Document 1 0.5 -0.5 50% Number of Village Action Plans Document 25 23 -2 92% Small irrigation systems Number of irrigation systems System 10 3 -7 30% Number of families with access to irrigation facilities Family 100 24 -76 24% Average irrigate area per family m2 500 500 0 100% Trained households - Total number of households Participant 1100 931 169 85% Rain-fed crops for animal feed Participant 375 329 -46 88% Pig farming Participant 125 112 -13 90% Chicken farming Participant 250 213 -37 85% Market-oriented vegetable gardening Participant 100 31 -69 31% Home gardening Participant 250 246 -4 98% Support and area of activities Number of farmers trained and supported Beneficiary 508 566 58 111% Number of Master-farmers selected Beneficiary 70 79 9 113% Pig farming Beneficiary 20 27 7 135% Chicken farming Beneficiary 20 23 3 115% Market-oriented vegetable gardening Beneficiary 5 5 0 100% Home gardening Beneficiary 25 25 0 100% Number of Veterinary Village Workers VVW 50 49 -1 98% Professional structuring Number of villages with producer associations created Village 25 25 0 100% Total number of farmers' groups created Group 100 103 3 103% Pig farming (planting stick, revolving stock, studboar…) Group 25 25 0 100% Chicken farming (planting stick, revolving stock) Group 25 25 0 100% Veterinary village pharmacies Pharmacy 25 25 0 100% Spray for biopesticides use Group 25 28 3 112% Number of market and value chains survey conducted Survey 1 1 0.0 100% Number of Inter-professional workshops realized Workshop 4 0 -4 0%
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Result 2 : villages are water supplied and population trained in hygiene, food safety and nutrition basic principles Number of target villages Village 10 10 0 100% Number of feasibility studies realized Document 10 11 1 110% Number of water supply system built or improved System 10 13 3 130% Number of families concerned Family 918 1,026 108 112% Number of H&N trainings realized (LANN) Training 10 10 0 100% Number of H&N, women rights, family planning training realized (UFL) Training 25 25 0 100% Number of families trained (LANN) Family 580 953 373 164% - Number of families trained (UFL) Family 1796 1,611 185 90% Number of Water Committees Commitee 10 13 3 130% Number of village technicians trained for maintenance Beneficiary 20 26 6 130% Number of maintenance funds created Fund 10 13 3 130% Number of contracts signed between provincial services and villages Contrat 10 13 3 130% Result 3 : Villages and Viengkham District institutions are strengthened Number of villages with PLUP implemented Village 25 23 -2 92% Total number of persons in village committees Person 300 276 -24 92% Number of women in village committees Woman 50 42 -8 84% Result 4 : An effective and well-functioning Monitoring & Evaluation system is applied to measure the achievements and sustainability of the actions
Baseline survey (data collection) Survey 1 1 0 100% Baseline Survey (analysis / report) Document 1 1 0 100% Endline survey (data collection) Survey 1 1 0 100% Endline Survey (analysis / report) Document 1 1 0 100% Monitoring system set-up and functional M&E syst. 1 1 0 100% Number of trained staff Beneficiary 9 9 0 100% Number of annual M&E reports done Document 2 2 0 100% Number of external evaluation realized (mid-term and final) Document 2 2 0 100% Result 5 : The project is well managed Number of coordination meetings realized Meeting 7 7 0 100% Number of monthly reports Document 27 25 -2 93% Number of provincial workshop with partners Workshop 2 4 2 200% Number of steering committees conducted (ASI/GAA/CARE) Meeting 3 3 0 100% Number of quarterly reports written up Document 7 4 -3 57% Number of annual reports written up Document 2 2 0 100% Number of short-term mission realized Mission 8 11 3 138% Number of short-term mission reports written up Document 8 10 2 125%
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Graph n°6: Percent of achievement of the Action, on the 31st of October 2011 Assessment of main results - End of project Target villages Maintenance funds for water supply 100% PLUP system
50% Number of families Number of with water access beneficiaries facilities 0% supported for…
Water supply Number of Master- systems farmers selected
Number of Number of farmers' Veterinary Village groups created Workers
Graph n°7: Percent of beneficiaries trained per activity
Number of beneficiaries per activity 329
246 213
112
31
The chart and two graphs above summarize the assessment of the results of the Action on the 31st of December 2011. They show that on most of the activities, the project has achieved the objectives fixed in the logical framework (even further more for some), except for the activity relative to market-oriented vegetable gardening through improved irrigation systems. However, if it’s easy to quantify the realizations of the project in term of number of beneficiaries or infrastructures, this is more difficult to evaluate the real impact of these activities in term of food access, coverage of rice gap or saving capacity. Without a good baseline survey followed by an endline, these kind of general and overall indicators are hard to monitor. The short duration of the project is also a restraint to measure the real impact of the activities on a long-term period.
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2.5. What has been the outcome on both the final beneficiaries &/or target group (if different) and the situation in the target country or target region which the Action addressed?
The project aimed to support the population of these 25 villages with various activities: - 508 vulnerable households with direct support from the project with priority to women heading households, and poor farmers with very limited access to land - Population of 10 villages without water supply - 25 Villages Committees
The final beneficiaries were the whole village communities in the 25 target villages, as well as women in need of capacity building and financial empowerment, Village Committees, local government and organisations, in particular the DAFO.
To summarize the outcome on both the final beneficiaries and target households, we can assume they benefited of the Action as follow:
- In the 25 target villages, 566 households were directly supported in agricultural activities, such as chicken farming, pig farming, vegetable gardening and rain-fed crops for animal fed and improved fallow. By joining these activities, these households benefited of trainings, as well as equipments and tools as to start their production. Some activities, like pig farming or market-oriented vegetable gardening, had direct impacts on the household incomes, when others, like home-gardening, impacted on the nutrition and health of the family. - The population of 25 villages benefited of the implementation of two VVW and a village pharmacy (per village) which provide them local veterinary service. - In 13 villages, 1019 households (total population of these villages) benefited of a new water supply system or the improvement of their old one. This activity has a direct impact on the health and hygiene of these populations, as well as on the workload of women and young girls who used to collect water sometimes far away from the village. According to the beneficiary households and the District offices, this activity had a huge impact on the improvement of the living conditions of the villagers. - In 10 villages, 953 persons benefited of awareness raising training about nutrition linked to agriculture and natural resources management, with the LANN village training sessions. The impact of this activity is difficult to assess because no specific survey was done and the time framework was very short, but some interviewees said that they changed some of their alimentation habits, such as using condiments (coriander, dill, garlic) instead of monosodium glutamate. - In the 25 target villages, 1611 persons benefited of awareness raising training about nutrition linked to vegetable gardening, hygiene, women’s rights and family planning, with the LWU village training sessions. 48 persons benefited of specific trainings as to become Village Sensitization Agent. As for the LANN approach, it is too early to assess the impact of these trainings which took place in a very short period of time. However, some interviewees said that they really appreciated to be informed on Women’s rights and Family planning. Some of them have started to take birth control pills bought in the District (3000 kip per month), when others said that their husbands are now more willing to help them and take over some of their work. - The population of 23 target villages of the project benefited of the implementation of Participatory Land Use Planning and the set-up of the Village Development Committees. As a result of this activity, the villagers have now developed Action plans and activities to set- up for the development of their villages. They have now definite and clear village borders, as well as protect areas for their future. They are more aware of the potential of their lands,
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as well as their values, which will enable them to discuss fairly with every contractor that might offer them to rent or sell their land. - At the District level, 10 technicians from DAFO, DLMA and DHO have benefited of Agrisud’s team, Luang Prabang PAFO and IRD-CIFOR-NAFRI’s experience to strengthen their capacities on agricultural activities, GFS water supply systems and Participatory Land Use Planning. - The members of LWU at the District Office (3 women), as well as one DHO technician benefited of the support of Agrisud’s project to strengthen their capacities in awareness arising about nutrition, hygiene, women’s right and family planning. - Four technicians from the District Offices (DAFO, DEO, DHO, LWU) benefited of the LANN trainings of trainers that enabled them to perform village awareness training on nutrition, hygiene and natural resources management.
2.6. Please list all materials (and no. of copies) produced during the Action on whatever format (please enclose a copy of each item, except if you have already done so in the past)
- 250 Flyers in Lao and English showing the project activities, the origin of the funding and the different partners, distributed during Provincial workshops - 60 Polos shirts and 80 T-shirts with the name of the project printed in the back and EU and AGRISUD logos in the front for project team members, District and province officials, NGO partners, as well as Master-Farmers - 25 monthly activity reports sent to AGRISUD headquarters - 30 monthly financial reports sent to AGRISUD headquarters - 4 quarterly reports on activities sent to AGRISUD headquarters and Luang Prabang PAFO - 2 annual reports sent to UE Delegation in Vientiane, AGRISUD headquarters and Luang Prabang PAFO - 13 sets of training posters on vegetable gardening, biopesticides, rain-fed crops for animal feeds, chicken farming and pig farming, liquid compost and water supply maintenance committee and fund set-up - 931 manuals distributed to the beneficiaries during the different trainings (vegetable gardening, biopesticides, rain-fed crops for animal feeds, chicken farming and pig farming) - 19 Monographs, 19 Village Action Plans and 19 PLUP reports - 13 lessons from AGRISUD’s agro-ecological practices guide translated in lao language
2.7. Please list all contracts (works, supplies, services) above 10.000€ awarded for the implementation of the action during the reporting period, giving for each contract the amount, the award procedure followed and the name of the contractor
o Purchase of one 4WD pick-up truck. Amount of the contract: USD 20000 (USD 19,500.00 + USD 500.00 for custom clearance fees) eq. € 15,314.15 Award procedure: negotiated procedure without publication with four quotations, best offer was selected Contractor: LAO FORD CITY The budget line (BL 3.11) was € 12,000.00 but it was not possible to obtain an offer in accordance with.
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o Contract for Water supply system construction materials
Amount of the contract: USD 65,000 eq. € 46 783.83 Award procedure: negotiated procedure without publication with three quotations, best offer was selected Contractor: MITTHAPOUM The budget line (BL 6.3) was € 60,000.00
2.8. Describe if the Action will continue after the support from the European Community has ended. Are there any follow-up activities envisaged? What will ensure the sustainability of the Action? After the support from the European Community has ended, the Action will continue for two months, from the 1st of January to the 29th of February 2012 in order to produce capitalisation documents of the Action. The International Coordinator will be put in charge of the production. In the target villages, the Master-Farmers, the others villagers trained by the project in various activities, the farmers’ groups and the village committees will ensure the sustainability of the Action. When the occasion is presented, the technicians who were formerly working on the project will do follow-up in the villages to keep giving advices to the beneficiary households. As for the water supply systems, the DHO and its technicians will be in charge of following-up the maintenance, with the help of the maintenance committees and funds. The PLUP committees will be in charge of organizing the implementation of the activities decided on the Village Action Plans and the respect of the regulations set-up.
2.9. Explain how the Action has mainstreamed cross-cutting issues such as promotion of human rights, gender equality, democracy, good governance, children’s rights and indigenous peoples, environmental sustainability and combating HIV/AIDS (if there is a strong prevalence in the target country/region)
The Action has mainstreamed cross-cutting issues such as gender equality and environmental sustainability. By promoting agro-ecological and environmental friendly practices, Agrisud aimed to enable the target population to produce more without indebting themselves, degrading their environment and endangering their future. The idea of Agrisud NGO itself is that each household should be able to live honourably with enough resources using their own strength without pressuring their natural environment. To do so, many techniques have been developed, collected and promoted by Agrisud within its projects. In Viengkham, Agrisud’s project was no exception, and several techniques, like the preparation and use of bio-pesticides and liquid compost, were diffused to the beneficiary households.
As for the gender equality, Agrisud’s project aimed to target more women, but the context was a little difficult to that extend. In order to promote the participation of the women, Agrisud involved the District office of Lao Women Union, and encouraged the women to be part of the activities, especially in Participatory Land Use Planning.
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2.10. How and by whom have the activities been monitored/evaluated? Please summarize the results of the feedback received, including from the beneficiaries
Type of monitoring/evaluation By who? Number Period Results and recommendations Monthly meetings and reports Project’s team 25 From November The monthly meetings are a time to share what have been done 2009 to November on the field and to learn from it, as to prepare the next month 2011 more efficiently. The monthly reports listed the activities set- up during the month with comments. Quarterly meetings and reports Project’s team 4 From October 2010 Quaterly meetings and reports are the occasion to reflect on the to September 2011 project’s progress and to discuss the results. Monitoring System Administrator Set-up in April 2010 The monitoring system was set-up to collect quantitative results about the agricultural activities. Short-term missions Sylvain Berton 8 From August 2009 to Sylvain Berton’s short term missions were the occasion to December 2011 reflect on the project’s progress with an exterior eye, to discuss results and make recommendations. ROM missions John Vijghen 1 September 2010 - The project should focus on essential activities for the remained lifetime, with an exit strategy. - An advisory body with key actors should be formed. - The targeting of the families should depend on the type of activities, not only the poor. Jan Douwe Meindertsma 1 November 2011 - The results were too ambitious for a short lifetime project. Agriculture project should have a time span from for 4 to 5 years. - A relatively large share of the budget was allocated to the activities. This is strength of the project and an example to follow. - An economic analysis of the impact of the activities on the families’ incomes should have been done. Mid-term evaluation Juergen Piechotta 1 February 2011 - It would have been useful to take into account the results of PLUP and Village Action Plans to decide the activities to set- up in the target villages. However the activities implemented seem to cover the needs and potentials of the village, except for market-oriented vegetable gardening. - The fact that the project’s office and staff are based in Viengkham and are often on the field explained how the activities can be readjusted when needed. The approach of the
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project was very context sensitive. - Many indicators in the logical framework were not realistic or not well formulated. - The DHO should have been involved in the selection of the target villages. - The project should focus on essential activities for the remained lifetime of the project. The budget should be modified to allow the project to hire more staff. Endline/final evaluation Anne Pirotte 1 December 2011 - Training location has an impact on attendance and gender. - Great autonomy for decision-making was left to population by Agrisud. - Agro-ecology techniques have been promoted successfully. - PLUP raised villagers’ awareness and contributed to empower them. - Sustainable link was created between farmers and extension workers. - Agrisud insisted on the importance of capacity building over high financial support. LANN evaluation Napat Gordon 1 November 2011 - The LANN approach should invest more in capacity building at village level, created Village Health and Nutrition Volunteers. - School children and teachers should be included as another target group and received special trainings. - Others tools can be developed like songs and music. - Assessment of the impact on households should have been done differently. - Refreshment trainings should be done for trainers. Follow-up of the activities on the Project’s team and - Pig farming: Beneficiaries of pig farming said they need field: worlds of beneficiaries evaluation teams more follow-up about alimentation and vaccination. - Chicken farming: To keep the chicken in a pen helps to prevent diseases and it’s also cleaner for the house. - Vegetable gardening: Beneficiaries reported a roughly 3-5 times higher production in vegetable gardening. Beneficiaries of market-oriented vegetable gardening said that they have now more income to buy rice and pay for school. Other people said that they will use the money to buy medicine. In 2010, one of them earned 2 million of kips by selling vegetables. About
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irrigation, they said that it’s allowed them to save a lot of time when watering their vegetables. Vegetable production also saved them some time because they don’t need to pick vegetables in the forest anymore. However, many families think that selling their vegetables in Viengkham market is not worth the travel and time. They preferred to sell to neighbours and others villages. - Rain-fed crops: Some families started eating the rice beans planted with the project and liked it. - Water supply system: Now, water is accessible near the houses which decrease the workload of women and help bring up good hygiene practices. - LWU trainings: Awareness training about family planning was particularly appreciated by the villagers, especially women. Some of them started buying birth control pills at the District centre. They said that the price (3000 kip/month) is affordable for them. The women also appreciated the lesson about gender equity and the fair share of work between men and women that has been promoted. - PLUP: Boundaries were made clear between villages which solved land conflicts.
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2.11. What has your organization/partner learned from the Action and how has this learning been utilised and disseminated?
Several lessons were learned by Agrisud during the time of the project. These lessons learned have been presented during the third Steering Committee and listed as below: * To insure improvement of farming systems, it is necessary to support farmers for at least 2 or 3 production cycles. Project duration was too short to be sure of sustainability and technical support should go on after project enclosure (conducted by DAFO technicians associated to the project) * Trainings in the fields and villages are more efficient and practical demonstrations are necessary. These demonstrations can be done by Technical services (like Technical center or Mouang Mouay) and/or Master-farmers * Working at village level is better to associate women in project activities. Women have not enough time to spend out of their village and family * One shot support (subsidies in kind: seeds, specific tools, animals) is a good way to promote new farming activities and share risk between farmers and project. This support must be only focused on a “starter” effect. * Complementarities between activities at village and family level are necessary to guarantee local sustainable development. To build PLUP and villages Action Plans allow a participatory development management
As for the local partner, the technical staff from Viengkham DAFO and DLMA learned a lot while working with the project. The technicians in charge of the agricultural activities strengthened their technical capacities on pig and chicken farming, vegetable gardening and rain-fed crop production for animal-feed (especially direct seeding much-based cropping systems). They learned how to prepare a work plan, to organize trainings preparing budget and materials, as well as to pass on their knowledge to illiterate people with pedagogy and tolerance. During monthly staff meeting, they learned to summarize their results and present their activities. At the beginning of the project, they didn’t dare to express their own comments, but when the time came by and they understood that their opinions matters and were very important, they were very keen to share the knowledge they learned on the field and to make recommendations for the activities to go smoother. The technicians in charge of the Participatory Land Use Planning process shared the same experience. Every month, they had to prepare themselves their work plan, as well as the budget and materials they needed. The more they acquired experience and the more they felt confident about themselves. All of them were very young (average age of 25 years old) and were working with a development project for the first time, but they did well and the villagers in the target villages recognized their capacities and respected them for that.
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3. Partners and other Co-operation
3.1. How do you assess the relationship between the formal partners of this Action (i.e. those partners which have signed a partnership statement)? Please provide specific information for each partner organisation. The formal partner of the project is FRANCE Volontaires, the French volunteers’ agency which is in charge of the assignment and the follow-up of the International Coordinator. The partnership is positive given the long cooperation of AGRISUD with FRANCE Volontaires for many years on other projects. A contract was signed between AGRISUD and FRANCE Volontaires for the assignment of the International Coordinator on the project. Contact: FRANCE Volontaires, 6 rue Truillot – BP 220, 94203 Ivry-sur-Seine Cedex, France Tel : +33 1 54 14 20 30 ; Fax : +33 1 54 14 20 50 ; www.france-volontaires.org
3.2. Is the partnership to continue? If so, how? If not, why? The partnership between AGRISUD and FRANCE Volontaires was settled 10 years ago and will continue on the occasion of others projects, in LAO P.D.R. or others countries.
3.3. How would you assess the relationship between your organisation and State authorities in the Action countries? How has this relationship affected the Action? The relationships between the project and the State authorities are positive. During this project duration, the bonds between the project and the Province and District authorities, as the PAFO, DAFO, DLMA, DHO and LWU, have been strengthened. This good relationship enabled the project to move forward and achieved its activities with the cooperation of everyone. Both counterparts have benefited from this relationship.
3.4. Where applicable, describe your relationship with any other organisations involved in implementing the Action Associate(s):
The Luang Prabang PAFO has been fully associated since the beginning of the project. The MoU was worked out in close cooperation and the request of the Head of PAFO, the assignment of a PAFO manager as Provincial Project Coordinator, has been taken into account. The PAFO is fully involved in the implementation of the project through this coordinator. Regularly, the PAFO was kept informed of the progress of the project’s activities on the field. In 2011, the Head of PAFO and his staff came two times to visit the project’s activities. They were also involved in the Provincial Workshops. The PAFO technicians were requested various times to perform trainings in the District with the DAFO staff, especially for Veterinary Village Worker trainings.
The Provincial Coordinator sent weekly reports as well as quarterly reports to Luang Prabang PAFO. The quarterly reports were also sent to Viengkham DAFO and Viengkham Governor Office. The International Coordinator sent quarterly reports in English to the Head of PAFO, when the DAFO technicians sent monthly reports to Viengkham DAFO.
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Final Beneficiaries and Target groups:
The relationship with the final beneficiaries and target groups was strengthened a lot during the second year of the project operation. With a regular presence in the villages, the DAFO technicians were well-known and respected by the villagers. The number of beneficiaries per training session increased, especially in the 11 new villages of 2011 where the villagers were disappointed that the project didn’t allowed as much as beneficiaries as they wanted. Most of the beneficiaries expressed the feeling that the project’s duration was too short and that they still need capacity reinforcement on the activities proposed by the project.
Other third parties involved :
IRD (Institut de Recherche pour le développement): This partnership was particularly interesting for AGRISUD project since it gave experience on participatory approach and knowledge on the district. The experience of the IRD in the participatory approach is huge and enabled to implement this component with more efficiency. The PLUP methodology developed by IRD (and its partners CIFOR/NAFRI) as well as the staff trainings they provided to the project enabled the implementation of the component three of the activities.
3.5. Where applicable, outline any links and synergies you have developed with other actions In 2011, the project has developed links and synergies with two others development agencies, the GRET and GIZ-NUDP, especially around the activity of Participatory Land Use Planning. The GRET project based in Hua Phan Province has been particularly interested to follow the Viengkham District PLUP team set-up by the project during one village PLUP implementation. They joined the PLUP Agrisud’s team in the end of November 2011 to observe PLUP implementation in Viengkham village. As for GIZ-NUDP, their own Viengkham District PLUP team has followed the project’s team in one of their village in order to observe the methodology developed by IRD/CIFOR/NAFRI and set- up by AGRISUD. The original idea was to use this experience to propose some changes in their own methodology if needed.
3.6. If your organization has received previous EC grants in view of strengthening the same target group, in how far has this Action been able to build upon/complement the previous one(s)? Agrisud hasn’t received any previous EC grants in view of strengthening the same target group.
3.7. How do you evaluate co-operation with the services of the Contracting Authority? The co-operation with the services of the Contracting Authority was good and productive. The EU Delegation in Vientiane was fully involved in the project. Reports were sent and meetings were organized in order to keep the Delegation informed. The EU representatives in charge of the project were easily reachable and answered every questions or demands the project had.
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4. Visibility
The visibility of the EU contribution is mentioned during each intervention in the target villages, as well as during meetings at village, District, Provincial or National levels. Each training session with the beneficiaries is also used at a visibility platform for the EU contribution. The infrastructures built by the project are labeled with the EU logo.
Flyers (250) diffused during provincial workshops, polos (60) for the team and partners, T-shirts (80) for the Master-Farmers, as well as project identification boards (installed in Agrisud office, the Technical Service Centre and in front of the District offices) are all labeled with the EU logo and used as tools for the visibility of the European Union in the Action. All the training tools are also labeled with the EU logo.
Name of the contact person for the Action: Yvonnick HUET
Signature: ………………………………………
Location: Libourne, France
Date report due: June, 30th, 2012
Date report sent:
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