You are here

10/05/2011

The first friendly competition on Participatory Technology Development (PTD) knowledge and club management was held in Ba Ria Vung Tau in 2010. After that the other 4 provinces of the PAEX programme followed: Soc Trang, An Giang, Hau Giang, and Binh Phuoc. In 2010, more than 400 farmers, representing 66 farmer clubs, joined these competitions supported by VVOB.

The “clubs” are supported by VVOB as part of the strategy to promote the participatory approach in Agricultura Extension. Extension should take into account farmers needs to be effective. The club is the place where the farmers can voice needs and can help each other to find solutions.

The clubs are trained in participatory methodologies as part of the implementation of the VVOB PAEX programme. Competition is an accepted Vietnamese way to promote new ideas.

As part of their preparation for the training farmer clubs were provided with a book named “Question and Answer – PTD and club management”. This book, a joint work of programme officers and extension officers of Ba Ria-Vung Tau, introduces questions and problems that are useful for club management and it shares experiences from the first competition in Ba Ria-Vung Tau.

In the competition the farmer clubs introduce themselves with a poem, a drama or, a folk song. Afterwards there was a session to probe the knowledge of the participants related to participatory rural appraisal (PRA), PTD, and club management. The excellent clubs were proud to show their competences and the inexperienced clubs happy to gain new experiences.The winners of the competion were clubs that were also in real life performing very well.

In his opening speech, Mr. Dang Ngoc Giao, Vice-Director of Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Hau Giang province stressed the value of the participatory approach in general and the competition in particular: “Through PAEX, participatory extension methods help extension workers and farmers work more closely. Farmers are more involved into extension activities: that is a two-way communication, no top-down working approach. This competition allows farmers to learn from each other and exchange experiences on club management.”

Ms. Pham Thi Nhu, an extension worker of Chau Thanh district, An Giang province, said: “Farmers are very diligent in revising and preparing for the competition. Especially, for An Loi club in Tri Ton district, all farmers are from the Khmer minority group, and their Vietnamese language skills are limited, they make big efforts to complete their competition part well.”

Mr. Tran Hoang Minh, head of a farmer club in An Giang province was happy to say that “This is a well-organised competition and farmers can meet in a comfortable, safe and helpful environment.”

This way very practical and useful knowledge is shared in a cost effective way with those who need it most. We hope this will be taken up by the partners and will be remembered as one of the legacies of the VVOB programme.