Hello, who are you?

I am Nikhom Chanphava. I have a MSc degree from the the Faculty of Agriculture, NUOL, with major in Sustainable Agriculture Resources Management and have worked for the Rice Research Center, NAFRI since 1991. My main responsibilities are on rice seed research, rice seed production, promoting rice cultivation techniques in Lao PDR, and also provide training for provincial and district staff and farmers. I then became a national innovation facilitator for CDAIS to facilitate the Rice Quality Association niche in Savannakhet province.

What are your role and responsibilities as National Innovation Facilitator?

My main task is to support and facilitate the niche in order to strengthen the associations’ capacity for rice production for both local markets and export. The main focus of facilitation is to increase the capacity of association members on effective collaboration with other stakeholders, contacting experts for consultation meetings, training on issues related to increasing production and knowledge regarding quantity and quality, providing training on cost analysis, and support to accessing finance.

What has CDAIS changed for you?

The CDAIS project is both very interesting and challenging for me. There are tools and methods used to find the most concrete problems and solutions together. This project is not the same as existing projects I used to know, as it does not provide financial support to farmers, but considers capacity development to partnerships in order that they support each other and build a good working system. The project build capacity through organizing training, developing a new way of thinking, planning and participation.

Since becoming involved in the CDAIS project, I have had the opportunity of increasing my skills from training on: how to carry out the capacity need assessment of niches members, through the lower Mekong initiative professional communication skills for leaders project, using simulation games for problem analysis, training on production cost analysis in value chains, and new knowledge on financial education and business plan writing.