The project is targeted at Wa Special District in the North-east Myanmar,
an autonomous region within the Shan Sate, bordered with Thailand,
Laos and China covers about 40,000 square kilometers of mountainous
lands with some 600,000 people belong to 25 ethnic groups. It was
reported that 50% of illegal drugs sold in North America was from
this region. Although we do not have reliable statistics, so far,
it is generally perceived that this region produces most of the opium
for the entire world consumption of heroine and other opium products,
toped the northern Pakistan and South American. The Wa authority is
now facing a completely new challenge: poverty and political isolation.
They realized that the poppy cultivation and opium production, which
may be traced back to more than a hundred years ago during the colonial
era, are the main causes of the problems.
The Objectives
of the project is: to carry out training programs on technology
of rice cultivation and integrated utilization of biogas and promoting
high quality and high yield rice cultivation in the Wa Special District
of Myanmar so as to help anti-drug-cultivation action in this area.
The project will transfer environmentally sound agriculture technologies
to a group of selected Wa's villagers and students as future technicians
and guides for a large population of ethnic groups in the region.
The project will build basic capacity of the locals for sustainable
agriculture practice.
The project will be carried out through the following steps:
‘€ A qualitative or semi-quantitative survey of the local environment
including the population and distribution, current economics, general
environmental situation, soil/land, forestry and water resources,
health/nutrition, culture and basic political environment.
‘€ Studying on the basic need of training, level of intellectual
bases, scope of the training;
‘€ Designing the training courses; curriculum development;
‘€ Delivering training;
‘€ Trainees' survey, monitoring and revision of curriculum;
The South-North
Institute for Sustainable Development started to implement the project
in this January.
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