Keep those Seeds!

My site mate and I decided to do a training in her village on seed storage. We did it in January. It was a little late to do give the talk, as they had all harvested between October and December. The need to keep their seed until next rainy season was none the less a very important topic to discuss. We discussed multiple technologies and pesticides that are generally used here. We also taught new and safer technologies that they can adapt if they so choose. Some of the methods we taught will not only be safer but are cheaper as well. This allows the farmers in the community to protect themselves and have a higher amount of usable seed for the next year. The village was very interested and asked a lot of questions. It felt great to be discussing  topic that the community felt was of importance. It went very well over all, and I think the community got a lot of information out of it. This is definately a training session that I would do again. I hope to do a pre-harvest talk in my own village next year before I head back to America.

It felt great to share our knowledge. It was particularly satisfying to correct misconceptions attendees had about pesticides. This was one of the few trainings where we combined community interest, a need for information, and we felt satisfied at the end of the day. Nothing is quite as nice as feeling like you're doing your job, and doing it well.