01
2016
From 1-6th February 2016, two marketing trainings with 50 participants were undertaken in 6 villages in Southern Shan state with both men and women attending. The training was led by Thirimay Women’s Development Cooperative Society with MIID and focused on products grown in the village including groundnut, bamboo and ginger. The training looked at how to improve the value chain of these products to ensure better outcomes for villagers.
A Groundnut and Bamboo researcher began working with the MIID team from 8th of Feb on a short term research project which will guide future trainings and activities. The presentation of the research findings was conducted at the MIID office in Heho on the 18th March 2016. The presentation was attended by staff from the Forest Department and the Department of Agriculture, representatives from the private sector and communities from the project villages.
Research outcomes
The research assessed the market for groundnut and what how farmers could be selling and marketing their products. To date farmers in the project villages have been growing groundnut just for their own consumption and also to sell to groundnut oil factories in Aungban. However, groundnut can be easily processed to making snack foods such as groundnut brittle, fried groundnut and toasted groundnut without using any electricity. There is currently no groundnut brittle producer in project villages. It is one of the high demand snacks according to the interview results with retailers and producers in Taunggyi Myoma market.
Another product is bamboo. The price and demand for bamboo handy-crafts are often determined by the hotels in Inlay. Bamboo handy- crafts have been sold to the existing hotels in Inlay Lake and Karaweik hotels in Yangon based on the volumes ordered by the individual hotels.
Recommendations and future work
The research found that enhanced agricultural practices for groundnut should be transferred to the farmers through provision of basic concept and demonstration plots, TOT trainings on groundnut and establishing demonstration plots with Farmer Field School sessions. Groundnut brittle making technique could be introduced for income generation for households. Bamboo cultivation and management of bamboo training should also be introduced to increase the production of bamboo in the project villages while assuring to revegetate the existing degraded landscape.
This project is part of the USAID-funded Value Chains for Rural Development project which is promoting farmers in Southern Shan state to increase incomes through the improvement of agricultural practices, products, and marketing.