In order to help local farmers to improve their sow production effectively, prevent common disease and increase their income, Pengzhou MTOT team successfully completed their 2nd technical practicum on December 10 and 11th with the support from LHESP and coaching from Prof. Zhang Xuemei, Ms. Nicholls and Wu Jie. The training was held in Longfeng Township.

The training made greater progress than the 1st one held in October. The training materials ware much improved and based on the needs assessment discussion held in November. The needs assessment meeting was guided by Director Mr. Liu Chaogang, Ms. Nicholls and Wu Jie and facilitated by MTOT team members. Information was collected on many technical production problems related with training in sow production and disease prevention. MTOT team members compiled such practical needs into good training outlines and presentation contents. Through this interaction with real pig producers, not only was team building improved but also the understanding of the importance of real participatory approach was realized by the MTOT members.

The training was structured into 4 units according to the results of the needs assessment. Three trainers shared presentations. They demonstrated the good use of participatory methods in terms of number and quality of participatory methods. The feedback evaluation showed that 92% of trainees were highly satisfied with the training - which was a 10% improvement over the previous practicum delivery. Meanwhile, the MTOT team did see some improvement areas: how to deal with farmers who can’t read or write well, which means that they don’t provide good comments in group discussion or answer the evaluation feedback.

The training received good comments from Bureau leaders, farmers and project experts’ team. Our MTOT team will keep continuing to improve and to provide more practical technical training to the animal producers.