From June 2nd to 5th 2010, the Sheep Disease Preventive Control and Productive Management training course was held in Antu in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture. Mr. Liu Guiqiu, the leader of the Animal Husbandry Bureau of Yanbian Autonomous Prefecture, Sun Tongshun, Mr. Li Baogen Assistant Manager of LHESP and some MTOT members prepared and participated in the training. There were 140 participants including 38 females, and 28 from ethnic minorities. Sheep farmers, vets and AHWs from different counties participated in this training.

Mr. Javier Burchard, Manager of Beijing LHESP Office offered great support and paid close attention to the training. Mr.Li Baogen, Assistant Manager of the project, gave some brief introductions of the activities of the LHESP in the months to come during the opening ceremony, and encouraged the participants to study and search for the useful and updated information related with animal health and husbandry through the internet. This inspired the vets and farmers to keep learning with the advanced tools. According to the different educational backgrounds of the trainees in terms of the knowledge of sheep disease prevention, the training was divided into two courses. To those participants from the grassroots, Ms. Shi Hongli and Mr. Wang Gongming, MTOT members from Antu, played the main role. They modified the training material, successfully developed by Gansu team, in order to suit the local needs. Once again, they were using the participative training method. Professor Lu Cheng, expert in zoonoses, Professor Xu Yingtian, expert in animal parasitology and Mr. Li Deyun, expert on sheep nutrition were invited by our Chinese partners to deliver lectures and answer the questions to solve the farmers’ problems in the sheep production. The two professors also participated in delivering more detailed information to the higher level participants in the second course where the participants were mainly veterinarians working with the AHB and AEPCC of Yanbian prefecture and the counties.

The features of this successful training are as follows;
1. Attention from leaders and support from various aspects. Liu Guiqiu, Deputy Head of AHB of Yanbian, paid great attention to the training and closely coordinated with the relevant departments to ensure better preparation for the training. The LHESP Beijing Project Office gave substantial support with careful preparation and review of the planner in order to obtain the best training results. The Animal Husbandry Bureau of Antu County which carried out the training course also played a key role for the success of the training course. Mr. Zhang Qinghui, Deputy Head of the bureau not only participated in both of the trainings, but also attended the preparation workshop and contributed his professional opinion to the PPT and to the design of the lectures.

2. Meeting the demands of the participants and using hierarchical training. The training was organized based on the needs and demands from trainees after careful analysis and screening. It was carefully targeted to solve many practical problems. The participants came from various levels; farmers, AHWs and vets from township, counties and prefectures. Therefore, the hierarchical training method was applied and the trainees were divided into two parts which not only saved the time of the participants but also distributed teacher resources well.

3. Proper contents and flexible methods. For different levels of participants, we selected different teaching methods. The training material which was successfully developed by Gansu MTOT team was easy to understand and very practical and this was mainly used for the training of the farmers and village AHWs. The material was delivered by the MTOT members who used the participatory method of asking questions, answering needs and much discussion. For the higher level participants the professors and experts gave detailed explanation and the lectures contain much multi-media courseware. Furthermore, they participated in question and answer sessions with all the trainees and tried to satisfy the needs of each and all of the participants and helped them remember all the important points.

4. Qualified teachers and active participants. The teachers of the training consisted of MTOT members and the professors from Agricultural College of Yanbian University. MTOT members in the whole prefecture have been growing in their knowledge and experience after years of training practice and have now become qualified trainers that can undertake teaching tasks independently. In the training, the presentations of the MTOT members Ms. Shi Hongli and Mr. Wang Gongming achieved good results. The lectures made by professors also advanced the knowledge of the participants about common sheep diseases. The participants showed their enthusiasm by asking many questions during the class. Many MTOT members helped a lot to prepare the training and provided a lot of service and assistance to the trainers during the courses.

The training course took into account the various needs of participants so that quite a few of the problems of farmers in their sheep production were solved through the training. The training benefited all participants who now have a deeper understanding of sheep raising. Furthermore, it also improved the awareness of the AHWs about the importance of providing good services to the farmers and improve their capabilities on sheep disease prevention and treatment. The Sheep Disease Preventive Control and Productive Management Training course has provided many successful outcomes for the farmers in Yanbian prefecture.
 

Mr Li BaoGen assistant manager of the Project giving the speech in the opening ceremony	Lu Cheng, professor of The Yanbian University Agricultural College delivering the lecture	Wang GongMing, MTOT member, answering questions together with professor Li DeYun

Listening to the lectures carefully	A lady farmer asking a question to the trainers	Ms. Shi Hongli, MTOT member, in a group discussion with other participants