Mrs. Sam, was born in 1959, and lives in a village on the outskirts of Hanoi, Vietnam. As a traditional farmer, her methods were based on her past experience. She never wrote anything down and was struggling to make ends meet.
In 2015, she decided to actively take part in farming development activities funded by YWAM Mercy Vietnam in her community. This Family Business Training made her more proactive and allowed her to quickly respond to the current market situation.
She owns about 720 square meters of cultivation land which she uses to grow vegetables and fruit trees, and to raise pigs, all on her own. After learning how to do family business from YWAM Mercy’s training courses, she decided to farm more professionally. She is now growing long-term fruit trees such as longan, pomelo, and avocado alongside other short-term vegetables such as peas, peanuts, corn and other varieties.
Inter-cropping helps me take full advantage of my cultivation land. It also limits weed growth and gives me a better income every month.
Through YWAM’s training course on “Safe and effective cultivation techniques”, Mrs. Sam now selects the golden time for planting and harvesting each kind of vegetables using safe farming methods so she can sell her farming products at the highest price.
Doing safe farming first saves my health and then my consumers’ health. Besides this, I plant according to the market need because when the supply exceeds the demand, the farming products will be wasted and money lost.
Participating in YWAM Mercy’s Family Business Training, and the Communication Night on new ways to think about generating an income she discovered that selling her farming products to the city market as she had been doing was too time consuming. She now sells directly to the local dealers from her farm. She also uses her resources to sell breakfast to the local people. This way, she still has quality time with her children and a higher income. For years, she has been trying to build up a reserve fund. In 2017, she was able to save $2,200 USD, more that she could ever imagine.
Mrs. Sam keeps a positive attitude and tries to apply what she is learning from YWAM Mercy’s consultants on cultivation techniques. She also is trying to encourage others to use biological fertilizers and effectively irrigate, to have safe agricultural products.
Taking part in YWAM Mercy’s training sessions has helped me relax. I have more knowledge and it has relieved my stress.
Supporting the self-learning movement to help develop creativity is my priority.
Since attending the training courses organized by YWAM Mercy Vietnam, Mrs. Sam has become very active in other community development activities that promote a healthy lifestyle. She has actively promoted the activities of the Farmer’s Association and the Elderly Club. In addition, she also shares her experiences in planting that she has accumulated as a result of the successful application of what she learned.
I hope YWAM Mercy will organize more training courses for farmers because we want to have updated information, change the way we think, and do income generation in keeping with new trends.