Greenhouse Program Update

May 28, 2004

by Wu Bangfu and Pamela Logan
Kham Aid Foundation
 

Program participants cultivate vegetables outside, in preparation for transplanting into a greenhouse (2003).

If you've never planted - nor even eaten - a cucumber before in your life, the task of raising cucumbers and marketing them is a bit daunting.  There are so many questions.  When and how do you plant the seeds?  How much water?  How to take care of the growing plants?  When to harvest?  And how do you cook and eat the darn things, anyway?

Sheng Dajun, program advisor and coach.

Guidance from an expert

For our Tibetan greenhouse owners, all women, the questions were multiplied by all of the many kinds of vegetables they are planting for the first time - many of them things they've never even tasted.  That's why, at the beginning of our greenhouse program, Xinlong county government helped the farmers to find an expert, Sheng Dajun up from neighboring Yajiang County, where he had been advising growers there.  Mr. Sheng is from faraway Miyi County, which is a famous place in Sichuan for its vegetables.  The Xinlong (Tibetan: Nyarong) County agricultural bureau recruited him, part of their ongoing support for our program.  He is under two-year contract to assist our greenhouse owners with their vegetables.  At the start, our farmers knew nothing about vegetable planting. But now with the guidance of Mr. Sheng, they are learning a lot.
 
Last year, in accordance with our plan, we selected ten poor families from Wuxi Village.  Originally, we were going to choose five families from each of two villages, but it soon became apparent that the program would be easier to run if it was centralized.   For one thing, the local government put in irrigation canals to bring water to the greenhouses; this would have been prohibitively expensive if we had to do it at  two sites.   Eight greenhouses were built using metal framework covered with transparent plastic.  Ten families share the space.

A bumpy road

There were some serious start-up problems.  For one thing, by mid-summer, the greenhouses were too hot inside.  Fancy corporate-style greenhouses are equipped with gadgetry so that the plastic can be rolled back conveniently to allow cool air to circulate. Ours, however, didn't have this feature - a cost-saving measure that meant each day our women had to unfasten the plastic sides and open them by hand.  Another problem was that planting was a bit late, so the vegetables lagged behind the season.

Behind the season: plants in August 2003 are still tiny.

By autumn, we saw that profits were not going to meet the predictions of the prefecture agriculture bureau.  It became crucial, therefore, that the growing season be extended.  The county recommended we purchase heat-retaining covers for the greenhouses.  First we had to find some extra money for these covers, then order them from a company in Xichang - hundreds of miles away.  The covers had to be custom-made, and that took more time.  Meanwhile, winter cold was on the way. 

Disaster strikes

Ultimately, the covers did get shipped to Xinlong, and the winter crop was saved - barely.  The families started harvesting on March 25, but then disaster struck:  On April 2, a fierce windstorm swept through the valley, damaging the greenhouses and the crops sheltered inside. 

Damaged plastic cover in April, 2004.

The program director, Wu Bangfu, made a trip out to Xinlong to check the situation.  He found that the gale had damaged almost all of the covers, twisted the some of the steel frames, and also damaged the concrete base.  This was a heavy blow for our farmers, who were no doubt longing for the good old easy days of growing barley.  For a while, our women lost confidence, and some thought about giving up.

Everyone pitches in

With the assistance of the Xinlong County government, the county Women's Federation (who is our partner in the program), and Mr. Sheng, the farmers did emergency repairs, mending the covers with tape so that the crops would be protected.  Mr. Sheng also helped them to salvage their vegetables.  Later, when it gets warmer, the women will have to change all of the damaged covers, and rebuild the concrete base.  By the time Wu Bangfu reached Xinlong, the situation was under control, and the farmers had regained confidence.
   
With all of these problems, it was a major cause for celebration when our women farmers were able to make enough money to meet the first scheduled loan repayment.  True, it was not the amount we had hoped to get, but it was enough.  We were able to go forward with our plan for year two: to enlarge our total growing space, and bring new families into the program.

Against all odds, the program grows

Working in our new greenhouses.

With the repaid money of 470 yuan per family, plus 40,000 yuan chipped in by the county government, we added two new green houses.   We had only planned on adding one new greenhouse this year, so this exceeds our target by a factor of two. It is, of course, thanks to the excellent cooperation we have received from Xinlong County that the program is not only surviving, but actually speeding along quite well.

The Women's Federation selected two more families to participate the program, making a total of twelve families. The quality of the two new greenhouses is much better than that of our old ones.  In addition, the local government built a reservoir and channel beside the greenhouses, to make it easier for the farmers to fetch water to the plants. The Women's Federation, county government and Mr. Sheng arranged for all twelve families to pool the space in all the greenhouses, so that all of the families benefit equally from the government funds.

Why the government likes this program

The local government has given a lot of support to this program because it is in excellent alignment with regional policy to encourage Tibetan farmers to evolve away from traditional subsistence agriculture toward modern agriculture.  With a higher income earned from selling vegetables, our twelve families can live and eat much better compared to when they were dependent solely on barley.

Wu Bangfu is director of this program in 2004.  Write him at wubangfu@khamaid.org.  Kudos are also due Linda Griffin, who directed the program in 2003.

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