The CDAIS project is working with a group of organic vegetable growers in Tongmang village in Vientiane province, who produce for local markets. It has helped them to better identify their needs, and is
supporting their capacity development so that they can improve their functional skills, to help them to better invest,
organise and increase production and sales. “People in Laos know the benefits of organic vegetables: that they taste better, last longer and are more nutritious.
And our members have an unlimited supply of the very best and we make a good profit from our sales” – Khammone
Luanglath of the Tongmang organic vegetable growers group is proud of her achievements. CDAIS became involved in 2017, to help to strengthen the group, and
facilitate them in identifying challenges and solutions, with some immediate successes.

At the beginning, the group built 15 simple shade-house structures from bamboo poles, and covered them with
plastic sheets provided by DAFO. In 2016, they joined a Lao farmers network, which provided training on
strengthening group capacities in management, finance and marketing. The group then expanded to 43 members,
including 16 youth, who together now farm four hectares with shade houses and an adjacent 18-hectare site of
orchards and private plots. The group grows 45 different types of vegetables, along with mushrooms and various
fruits from the orchards such as banana, papaya, dragon fruit, lemon and tamarind.
Group members pay monthly fees which are used to buy tools, seeds and other inputs, and to support the marketing
of produce. But this money is not enough to allow for the much-needed new investment in new shade houses, to
dig boreholes for irrigation or to buy machinery for land preparation, cultivation and mixing organic fertilizers.

Source : https://cdais.net