“Learning through the agriculture innovation system for more skills and knowledge”

Hello, who are you?

Hello, I am Khanthanou, 29 years old, and a graduate from the National University of Laos in livestock and fisheries and have worked with government departments since 2011. My main responsibilities have been to promote more efficient livestock production including machinery use to reduce labour costs through training to government staff and local farmers in Lao PDR.

What are your role and responsibilities as Country Project Manager?

I was involved as a national innovation facilitator for Thongmang organic vegetables partnership, and helped to support the implementation of their group action plan, building of a marketing network, contacting experts who required new agriculture techniques for organic produce and new skills. In my daily work, I provide technical training to field workers, local staff and farmers.

What has CDAIS changed for you?

After being involved in the CDAIS project, I have seen a change in my behaviour and in how I work, in particular involving how to finding core issues and solutions togethers, with farmers, by encouraging them to try to identify a clear cause of each issue, and then to finding better solutions. This CDAIS working method also changes farmers thinking, I see, because normally they are waiting for support, this is a shift to helping them to seek support and learning from others.

To me, CDAIS is interesting but also challenging, due to how the project uses new approaches to working with farmers. It pushes farmers to identify their own objectives, goals, problems and weaknesses, then pushes them to find solutions among themselves to strengthen their own capacities.