Life as a farmer in the mountainous north of Thailand is not easy. The land can be steep, soil quality is poor and water for irrigation is largely unavailable. Markets are also far away and inputs are hard to get by. Yet, modern life requires cash for nearly everything. Against the backdrop, government extension introduced feed maize as a cash crop in the early 1980s. The crop is ideal for poor farmers as it requires little care, traders come to supply inputs and buy the output, and the government guarantees a minimum selling price. Maize has become an important source of income for many … [Read more...]
Introducing Tomatoes to Hmong Women in Northwest Vietnam
Spanish conquerors encountering tomato in Central America in the 15th century thought the suspicious-looking berries must be poisonous. Five centuries later, a Hmong woman in the northern uplands of Vietnam was equally suspicious of the tomato plants in her backyard garden. Never having eaten tomato before, she thought the fruit was sour and malodorous at first. The plants were introduced as part of a pilot to test improved home gardens for isolated communities of ethnic minorities in the northern uplands of Vietnam. Hmong ethnic people typically live in remote areas with limited market … [Read more...]
Creating Socially Inclusive Agricultural R4D in Central Mekong
The six countries that compose Humidtropics' Central Mekong Action Area are characterized by considerable ethnic diversity. They include southwestern China, northern Thailand, Laos, northeast Cambodia, Vietnam, and Myanmar. Ethnic minorities in Central Mekong have been marginalized socially, culturally, economically, politically, and geographically, although the extent of such marginalization varies among the six countries. Such realities are also reflected in agricultural development: in northwest Vietnam, ethnic minority farmers predominantly occupy agricultural production, and play a … [Read more...]
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