It is difficult to plant crops without education. This conclusion comes from the farming instructor who works for HPP FC Fengdu. He says:

As new agricultural technologies are promoted for agricultural production, such as new chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides, we realized that it is so difficult to master and use these new methods with a low level of education. Recently, there are two examples which happened in fifth group of Qinggang village:

1. Last year, villager GAO Yonglan accidently used pesticides on her watermelon seedlings instead of herbicides, since she was illiterate.  Due to putting pesticides on her watermelon seedlings, almost all the watermelon seedlings died.

2. This year, villager SONG Wanxue also because of his illiteracy, almost used herbicide instead of insecticide to prevent borer pests on his maize seeds. Fortunately, his family member who is literate realized he was about to use the wrong chemical and avoided the mistake.

As you can see from the above two cases, we need to keep learning and improving, do not make rash decisions; to plant good crops no longer depends on age or experience.

Therefore, to focus on the farmers' needs, the project team organized regular technical trainings on planting. Farmers not only learned how to distinguish between pesticides and herbicides but they also learned how to apply the appropriate amount to plants.

Training on planting technique

This project is supported by Carrefour Foundation