The agricultural training project in Sanzhiyang village was completed earlier in the year. Overall 200 women attended a week long course in chicken production and another 200 in growing vegetables, organized by the County Women’s Federation with agronomists and a vet from the local Agriculture Ministry taking the courses.
The Women’s Federation in the final report list achievements from the project.
Skill mastery – The topics covered included prevention and management of disease, reproduction, and feed management for chickens and for vegetables organic production, fertilizer use, and out of season planting for higher market prices.
Increased income – Overall 70% of the women who attended had an average income increase of 250Yuan, with some large individual increases. The average annual income is 1000 Yuan (NZ$208) so this extra income is significant for the families. In Keli Hamlet in January Shi Meiqiu said, “we raised chook every year, but the survival rate is low. We can only get about 100 chooks if we raised 200 chooks and only get a little money. That means nearly 50 percent of them died. But I knew how to cure the pestilence of the chook after I was trained, and I raised 250 chooks, only 2 percent of them died. I sold all of the chooks, and our income increased 771Yuan than that of 2001.
Effect on local government – usually training is for men, but after local government saw the motivation of these women they have strengthened skill training of poor women in other local villages.
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