Myanmar: Village-level learning alliance meetings conducted

Learning alliance partners in Maubin plan their next activities for the Summer 2014 harvesting season

by Reianne Quilloy

Two village-level learning alliance (LA) meetings were held in Maubin and Bogale Townships last March 15 and 18, 2014. These meetings aim to support ACIAR and UNOPS funded project activities and use new technologies like new varieties and postharvest technologies.

 For the Maubin Township LA meeting facilitated by Rica Flor, 44 participants ( 13 women) from the Department of Agriculture (DOA), four key project villages, partner NGOs, millers, traders,  private sector stakeholders, and IRRI personnel attended the event. Updates were provided regarding the ongoing participatory varietal selection trials and postharvest issues.
 Meanwhile, a total of 36 participants joined the Bogale LA meeting held in the Bogale Township Library and facilitated by Reianne Quilloy. There were 23 farmers (6 women); 4 from NGO; 2 from DOA; 1 miller; and 6 from IRRI who attended the event. One of the event highlights was the sharing of farmers about the benefits and challenges in piloting the flatbed dryer (FBD). The FBD was installed by the IRRI Postharvest group and funded by the Group for Research and Technology Exchanges (GRET) and village farmers on October 2013, which the farmers’ group has already used in the last postharvest season.  GRET has in the meantime established an inventory storage system for the group which will complement the drying operation, enabling farmers to store high quality rice coming from the dryer until market prices are favorable for selling grains.

Martin Gummert, one the meeting facilitators, asks the Bogale LA group who wants to try using the flat bed dryer

 As a result of the meetings, the farmers identified next learning activities, i.e. farmers will produce good quality grains using postharvest technology, like the FBD, sell it to the miller partners, document how the crop is assessed, and see if the millers will give price incentive for quality.

The Learning Alliance is a platform to engage project stakeholders to share, learn from each other, and collaborate on providing solutions to produce better quality grains and link farmers to better markets in Myanmar.