In June, PPMK held our first practical skill workshop in horticulture with 15 female participants, who are clients that work as farmers. Most of them are rice paddy farmers. As traditional farmers, they do not have the know-how to plant anything other than rice paddies, and these paddies are only harvested about three times a year. Horticulture is more profitable because it decreases the time in-between harvests. Some vegetables can be ready to harvest in a month or less.
Horticulture also does not require a large field; vegetables can grow in such narrow fields that some farmers tend to their products at home. Therefore, horticulture allows women to sell, consume, or cook the vegetables that they grow themselves.
For this workshop, we invited a speaker from the Agriculture Department. There were four meetings, during which the women learned 1) how to make fertilizer using daily waste and animal dirt; 2) how to cultivate seeds from fruits and
vegetables; 3) how to plant vegetables; 4) how to grow vegetables in recycled bottles.
The instructor explained the theory behind each of these lessons, then followed with practical activities. All of the women were very enthusiastic to learn. On the fourth day, all participants received vegetable seeds and farming tools. We have scheduled routine monitoring of their progress.