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Chen Yingchun never had a chance to make it past middle school, but she’s always loved learning new skills. A dairy farmer in Horinger County, IMAR, she’s now getting a chance to improve her business by using computers for farm management. That’s something she never thought would be possible for farmers in her area – especially women farmers. And it was all made possible thanks to an innovative childcare arrangement.
	Village information station	Last year Chen Yingchun’s village was selected as a dairy pilot site for CIDA’s Small Farmers Adapting to Global Markets Project. The project is helping farmers in Horinger by improving market access, providing technical support to increase milk production, and showing them how to manage all of the data that modern farmers analyze to run their business. The project helped the village set up a dairy information station and trained farmers on basic computer skills.
Yingchun jumped at the chance. “I am lucky!” She laughs. “I learned to play computer games and to chat on-line in secondary school, but now I’m learning lots of new skills such as word processing, spreadsheet and e-mailing. That’s all very useful.” Yingchun did so well in the computer training sessions that she was selected to be the coordinator of the village information station. It became her job to collect basic dairy production data among fellow farmers and enter it in the village computer. Still, her rudimentary skills made the job a big challenge for her. So last April, the Computer Science College of IMAR Agriculture University was contracted by the Small Farmers project to do more training for the two IMAR pilot counties. Yingchun, her son and babysitter in hotel room in Hohhot   At first, Yingchun was thrilled. But on second thought, she worried about her eight-month old baby boy. How could she leave the child at home to attend a course in the capital, Hohhot? It didn’t help that her mother-in-law was set against the plan.   Luckily, project staff visited her family and discussed how the whole family would gain from Yingchun’s improved skills. They pointed out that she would also make a real contribution to the well-being of all families in her dairy village. But what really clinched it was the innovative solution to the childcare problem. Yingchun would bring her boy, along with a young family friend to baby-sit. Problem solved, without sacrificing Yingchun’s opportunity or her son’s well-being. For Yingchun, Yingchun in computer training   this is the best of both worlds. “I really appreciate this opportunity. After I go back to my village, I will do my best to work with project staff and help our dairy farmers.”