Shan, Catholic activists and missionaries launch food safety program
Yangon (AsiaNews) - A specific program to strengthen "food safety" in Shan State in Myanmar, which focuses on five activities: agricultural schools, rural services, training of pig farming, irrigation projects and drinking water supplies. It is a new initiative promoted by experts and volunteers of New Humanity, with the cooperation and active support of the Canadian Scalabrini Missionaries. The project area includes the city of Taunggyi, in the area south of the state, and intends to "improve the daily life" of the population and to promote "the development of rural communities."
The first step was to launch
three agricultural schools in the villages of Kon Lon, a rural area made up of
17 different clusters near Taunggyi. Catholic
volunteers explain that there will be "twenty farmers attending each
school." New
Humanity will provide training support to boost "agricultural skills
and management."
Among
the topics covered during the training courses the choice of land and seeds for
cultivation, the proper use of fertilizers, the recognition and management of
harmful plants and control of the ground during the harvest season. The
project basically aims at a "participatory approach" and the creation
of "a group of experienced farmers" who in the future will "continue
developing on their own." From
May to July, three training courses were held under the banner "learning
by doing". The
farmers were able to deepen their knowledge and put it into practice working on
crops. To
address the chronic shortage of fertilizers, because of exponentially high
transport costs, the members of New
Humanity also set up a third center for agricultural services, which opened
on July 16 in the village of Nahit. The
community will thus have a fertilizers market value, also taking advantage of
the rental of agricultural equipment including threshing machines and plows.
In Myanmar over 60% of the population
rely on agriculture, it occupies about 17% of the total territory and is still
half of the Gross Domestic Product. Rice
is the most widely grown food and the former Burma is one of the leading
manufacturers in the world with over 22 million tonnes (2005 figures). Then
there are crops of cereals, potato, pulses and sugar cane.
New
Humanity is a volunteer organization - non-political and non-profit
organization, founded in 1992 - which operates in Cambodia and Myanmar, to
promote access to education, inclusion of the disabled and agricultural
development. The
activities in Cambodia began on 23 October 1992, with the signing of a
Memorandum of Understanding with the Ministry of Education for the development
of rural areas. Since
2002, the volunteers are also present in Myanmar, where it signed a Memorandum
of Understanding with the Ministry of Agriculture for the development of an
integrated project that touches the fields of agriculture, health and society. To
date the organization has a central office in Yangon and two in Shan state, to
the east of Myanmar and bordering with Thailand.
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13/03/2023 18:13
