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This report is from Kyaw Soe - owner of Arcadia Travels in Rangoon

21 July 2008
We have invited two boys who are sons of farmers from Taw Kyaung to come to Yangon for joining a week-long course on integrated farming at Hmawbi a township located north of Yangon proper. Rice expert has donated 15 sacs of rice seeds (Bay Gyar type) delivered from the capital of the Delta. Those are for the farmers at Kan-wet village whose seeds failed to germinate after sowing. One teammate had delivered 15 sacs to Kyaung-zu for those to sow and seedlings will be transferred to Kan-went at 25th day.

23 July 2008
We received a call from Gwa Gyi village this morning. It is a village located near Pyapon where our medical team had been once on our trip. The monk from the village explained how the seeds sown failed to germinated in most of the farms in their village. They heard about us through word of mouth that we are distributing different and systematic way of rice cultivation to villagers. The monk requested us to come and share at their village too. Since reflooring my wagon was finished on 21 July we can go there early morning tomorrow.

24 Jul 2008
Three other teammates and I met at appointed time at 4:00 a.m. and headed for Pyapon. On the way at Kun-gyan-gon we had our breakfast and picked up expert farmer's assistant. We have a packet of 40 portable radios for farmers and monks there. We arrived at Pyapon around 8:30 a.m. and our contact went out to arrange the boat for us. Soon we were boarding the hired local boat and sailed downstream south of Pyapon river towards Gwa-gyi village. This village is no stranger to us but me because our medical team had been there once on 31 May. I wasn't there with them then. After half hour boat trip we arrived at the village monastery around 9:30 and the monk urge one of the farmers to go and organize other farmers. They didn't expect us to be there earlier than 11 p.m. The farmers here are facing a problem of massive number of saltwater snails brought be the storm. In one foot step area alone there can be no less than 100 snails which devoured their tender seedlings. Other areas have similar problem of small crabs destroying their seedlings. So the farmers got the remedy to crush all these snails from the others. The crab killing liquid which actually could be a chemical. We found no license and registration on the bottle nor address of the company but some prints of crabs and direction how to use it.

We later got the remedy for it which is to scatter some tobacco on the farm which could kill snails but the cost is pretty high for farmers. All 2000 acres of farms are suffering from this in this group of 9 villages. Afterwards we tried to explain them how to separate good and bad seeds by dipping in salt water. All of them were very interested how we got the best seeds. About 50% of seeds we dipped in salt water are useless. They bought those from the other areas of the delta. Then we tried to convince them the yield can be much higher by using transplant method rather than seed scattering method until they harvest. The use of bio-fertilizer is also very important to treat their land for much better quality rice instead of using fertilizer like T-super (Triple Super Phosphate) and Urea indiscriminately. In the end we counted there were 19 farmers present and all of them were given a radio. The rest were given to some other villagers and monks. Several farmers who are very much interested were invited to come with us back to Kungyangon by granting them a free transport until they get back to their village in the evening. One monk and three farmers came with us back to Pyapon by boat after lunch. My wagon now is loaded with 9 people: 3 up front including me, 4 in the middle and 2 in the back in the cargo compartment. When we arrived at our nursery farm before Kya-khat by boat from Kun-gyan-gon the invitees were really surprised to see the strongly grown seedlings of two different types of rice we grew. Ayar-min was sown on 5 July and Bay-gyar on 10 July. The former is now 20 days old and 14 inches high and the latter 14 days, 12 inches.

Those are fantastic. We use only two sacs of bio fertilizer at each of three plots (0.75, 0.6 & 0.5 acre) the night before we sowed. Normally farmers would use 1 sac of urea per acre after they sowed the seeds which cost 35000 Kyats a piece. Instead they can use these two sacs which cost only 17400 kyats which is just half of the regular cost. Urea is good for the plant which gives the plant the immediate growth which is not the real work and strength of the plant itself but its just oomph pumped up from the fertilizer. I would soon learn more about fertilizers on 26 July. After a while observing the seedlings we went on to Kya-khat and walked over to Kyaung-zu to our base. We so far have plowed and prepared over 400 acres of lands but I didn't have time to copy names of the land owners. It really is something we could have done for the farmers in this area with all of your help. Thanks to all of you.

We soon have to leave our base for the time is ticking towards 6 p.m. We need to find a way of transport for 4 invitees to get back to Pyapon where the motor boat we hired will be waiting for. All of us caught in the heavy rain on the boat without roof from Kya-khat to Kun-gyan-gon. At the center of this little town there usually are old Willy's jeeps parked for hiring but we saw only one this evening for the night time is not the preferred choice for travelers and businessman in the pitch black darkness and rain. The jeep is not for hiring so we found out two scooters for the monk and three farmers at a cost of 15000 Kyats. We have given the cost and the scooters engine revved. The monk straddle in the back end after the cabbie and one farmer and scooters roared and lurched forward. I had to go inside nearby café and change my dress with dried cloth which we always have to keep in our knapsacks. I got back home at 10:15 p.m. after I dropped all teammates.

26 July 2008
Today is the day we invited 9 farmers from 4 different villages (Kyaung-zu and Man-galeik from Kun-gyan-gon Township and Ka-wet and Gwa-gyi from De-da-ye` Township) where we have 100 acres of lands for intruding our way of wet-land rice cultivation under our sponsorship. They were welcomed at different places and given good treat with lunch at local restaurant. The transportation charges are on us too. At 1 p.m. at the building of Traders Association there is a seminar on "the use of organic fertilizer" sponsored by Bio Supreme company. They have prepared all the crops, vegetables and rice in comparison before and after the use of their bio-fertilizer. The farmers were very happy to get a chance to be part of this big seminar with invitees of traders and officials in air-conditioned hall with slide shows of four different experts of organic farming including the president Bio Supreme Company and our rice expert.
Bio-fertilizer called Bio-supreme brand had been created and circulated in agriculture sector in Myanmar by using the technique from Australia. They have created those in mass production for getting the right C=N ratio (Carbon and Nitrogen) and sent their product to labs in Malaysia for the approval. The compost they have created included Effective Microorganism which can secrete Amino Acid which can encourage the plant to have better absorbtion of soil nourishment and cause better growth of roots.
It was started since 1 p.m. and finshed at 7 p.m. We hosted the farmers with dinner a small local restaurant and I transferred them to the monastery of the monk who started sponsoring the project.

28 July 2008
I received a call from other group the day before to join them for going to Kun-nai village. They have been in contact with me since mid-July for the construction of houses at a small village called Kon-nai. This village is no stranger to us. We had been there on 29 May and distributed quite a good number of supplies for them including rice, oil, tarp and blankets. My friends went back to that village on 16 July. They brought some of our group photos taken when we distributed supplies. Those were laminated greatly. When they arrived my friends tried to show photos tell the villagers the intention of their visit. Suddenly some of them started to scream about "the entertainer" in the photo and started giggling. They definitely remember me as a joker. The village is very small. They have 48 households altogether. Most houses are still in debris since the storm without much help from any organization surprisingly. They have a lager village called Ah-se` with 300 houses at upstream of Than-deik River 15 minute boat ride away. That village got helps but not this one. Village folks explained that they have three main groups of able people relying on fishing accounted for 40%, on odd jobs 35% and rice farming 25% on rice farming. Our friends gladly found a carpenter in the village. A group of young folks who can be able to assist us for that project of building houses are invited to come down to Yangon for further details with my friend have raised funds. So they came down with the carpenter on 18 July and met at my friends' place. They have come up with the list of families who have no houses yet. There are altogether 27 of them. The decision was made after the meeting to start as soon as possible by making inquiries for wood and bamboo prices with the calculation of the sizes and the transportation charges. The bamboo is cheaper at Kun-gyan-gon but wood is cheaper at Dedaye`. Kun-nai is in the middle. It can be accessed only by water from both towns. After talks my friend has informed me if I am of any interest for the project. The village needs to rebuild their primary school (from Kindergarten to 4th grade). They now have only a makeshift one. The school is not an official state-run school but a self-run one but associated with the middle school (from Kindergarten to 8th grade) at Ah-se` village which means students can sit the final exam at Ah-se` middle school in the end of the semester. Since it is an associate school and self-run one they don't have appointed teachers with salary paid by Education Department. They have a school teacher who lives in the village. 15 kids have to give 1200 Kyats a month as tuition fee to the teacher. They have 3 more kids who can't afford to pay the fee. So there are altogether 18 students at that village primary school. They are from the poorest families whose parents can't have time or afford to send their kids to Ah-se` school on foot (half hour) or by boat (15 min upstream boat ride). I was intrigued by the situation of the primary school and promised my friend to contribute the cost for school building.

Now I have a chance to go there with my friends to talk with the carpenter for the school building. They have finished 18 houses roughly and they need to build 9 more houses. Since I envisioned meeting farmers there at the village, I purchased a couple of bio fertilizer to introduce at least one farmer to start using it. After a stop at Kun-gyan-gon for purchasing more bamboo needed for 9 more houses and hiring a boat to carry those off to the village with some villagers we headed on to Dedaye`. On the way one of the villagers who came with us happened to be a farmer. His father owns 22 acres and they still have 8 acres to farm yet. I have told him our story of seedlings and nursery at Kyaung-zu. He is very enthusiastic about our way of rice cultivation. Before we got to De-da-ye` town I already gave two sets of bio fertilizer in the trunk because I believe that he will try with these and spread the way to others after positive result. His father also promised to donate any land of 22 acres to build a drinking-water tank because the village doesn't own a single hand pump for good water. They have to rely only rain water to drink. In the summer they have to boat to Ah'se` to get good water from their tank. When we got to De-da-ye` we went to the river bank where the commercial district of the town is located with fishery, wood and bamboo products and rice mills are located along Toe River with their own wooden jetties. There were a bit of haggling between the wooden businessman and our friend who is in charge of this project. After a while they got to agree on price for purchasing the wood they needed of 9 more houses. He inquired more rates for the wood we would need for the school roughly. What we wanted to do is to sit down with the carpenter at the village and calculated along with the dimension of wood and others we might need for school. We could have hired a good size boat for going to the village a cross two big river Toe and Than-deik but only a small one was available. It seems to be perfect but later a tarp with wooden frame was blown away when the monsoon wind blows and the waves shook our boat. It was a pretty dangerous situation for all four of us with the village guy and the boat man. Only two life-jackets we brought with us. I had to bale the water out while the village guy and the boat man managed to retrieve the blown-away roof. Thank God our tiny boat didn't capsize. Later at the village the villagers told us that is quite a spot with whirpool of waves usually. We were given a huge treat of lunch by the village at the house of the man whom I gave two sacs of fertilizer. They have hung our group photo from 29 May at one of the columns of the house.

Project-in-charge suggested to carpenters to add the concrete reinforcement at the base of the wooden columns for making it last longer from the weather. He also tried to calculate the cost not to be out of range from the amount of my contribution. The dimension of each house is 10 ft x15 ft. The houses are built of Kanazo wood (local term) columns, areca (beetle nut) palm-trunk floor, bamboo walls and tarp roofs. The school (12 ft x19 ft) would be built of In wood (local term) columns with concrete base on the ground, areca (beetle nut) palm-trunk floor, bamboo walls and thatch roofs. In addition we will have for 8 long tables each covering (6ft x 1.5 ft) and 2 black boards made to order.
We have haggled and negotiated at the timber business man and paid in advance for all materials for the school except nails. Tomorrow the villagers will come and pick those up with their own boat from the village. The labor charge is free-of-charge as donation from the timber business man. We drove out at 8:30 p.m. from De-da-ye` (the village folks boat back at the same time to their village in the darkness with small flash lights) and got back home at 11:15.

This is page 14. To read earlier emails, click here.
There are now multiple pages of reports from Burma.
Click below to go to other pages.Page 1, Page 2, Page 3, Page 4, Page 5, Page 6, Page 7, Page 8, Page 9, Page 10, Page 11, Page 12, Page 13.
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