In Mongolia, the prompt border measures starting in late January paid off, and the Coronavirus infection has been kept low. As of August 14, the total number of infected persons is 298 (death 0), all the infected persons are returnees from foreign countries, and no domestic infection has been confirmed. Due to the restrictions over a long-term, however, economic and mental exhaustion has accumulated all over the country. Under this situation, as part of Corona emergency assistance, OISCA, as reported previously, provided support for home gardens to secure a stable supply of food. We would like to make a follow-up report.
40 households of a village in Orhon Province and another village in Bulgan Province received in early June vegetable seedlings, after undergoing cultivation training, planted and conducted nursery work in each household. From the families who only grow vegetables for the first time, questions and consultations were received. In this situation, it was SNS which played an active role.
While not being able to give guidance or exchange face-to-face, they created a group on Facebook as a place for exchanging information with the idea of local staff. Each household posts state of the field every day and how to cook the harvested vegetables. If there are any problems or worries, they consult with the staff and other participants on the group to solve them, and they are doing activities by taking communication in a way that has never existed before.
Comment by Ms. Tumen, a staff of OISCA Mongolia
“In the face of the problem of Coronavirus, which we have never experienced before, we needed to carry out activities in an entirely new way. We are pleased to be able to undertake such a new initiative. Above all, we were happy to be able to teach the Mongolian people who had little knowledge about vegetables on vegetable cultivation. In Mongolia, there is no OISCA training center, and we have few opportunities to teach local people about agriculture. But taking advantage of what we learned in Japan, we were able to convey the joy of making vegetables.”
“Surprisingly, all the participants were very interested in the activities and actively tackled the new initiative. On the group page of the Facebook, the participants are actively exchanging information every day. They seems to get confident and feel rewarding through this project”
Due to the Coronavirus pandemic, they had to take a different approach from usual, but it seems that there were many things that the staff leaned. In September, the participants will report on the results of their efforts and plan to hold a presentation session by bringing harvested vegetables and processed products.
CFP Photo Gallery
Support CFP
