Transforming technical knowledge into practice

Background

Mr. Manoj Khatiwada, resident of Mai Jogmai R.M., Ilam, is a tea farmer by profession. Mr. Khatiwada, a young and passionate tea grower has been working in his own tea garden since his childhood. He had adopted conventional methods of tea farming as practiced by his parents from the past. Mr. Khatiwada, 25, always dreamt for the sustainability of tea business and had a professional spirit to be a successful tea farmer and entrepreneur. With the dedication to pursue his dream, he chose Assistant Tea Technician (Level-1) training organized by Central Tea Cooperative Federation in support of Dakchyata: TVET practical Partnership, financial support by The European Union and managed by The British Council.

Participation in Assistant Tea Technician (Level-1) Training

Residing in a remote part of Ilam district, he had no enough access to newspapers and other source of information and had limited scope of technological adoption in his farming practice. Fortunately, a tea Cooperative of his village informed him about the Assistant Tea Technician training. He consulted about the importance of training and finally filled the form as an aspirant of the training. Later, he was selected equitably as the participant of the training with his commitment to participate in the training program.

Before participating in Assistant Tea Technician Training, Mr. Khatiwada had very limited knowledge and skills on tea sector. He used to work in the tea garden with very limited and traditional knowledge. Mr. Khatiwada even didn't know the origin of Tea, its types and the way of plantation. He was not satisfied with his work as he derived a very low return from his garden which was difficult to cover the cost of production.

During a course of three months long Assistant Tea Technician Training, he got a chance to blend his traditional knowledge with the technology to improve his garden management and advance his production.

The training enriched with the theoretical and practical knowledge of tea plantation, soil management, nursery management, pruning, drain management, pest and disease management, organic farming and entrepreneurship development.

Transforming knowledge into practice

As soon as he completed the three months long Assistant Tea Technician training, prohibition order has been issued by district Administration office due to rapid increasing of COVID 19. During the prohibition order Mr. Khatiwada spent most of his time in Tea Garden. He was busy in Tea Nursery Management, Tea Plucking, drain management, tea weeding and Manuring. Mr. Khatiwada applied theoretical knowledge that he had acquired during training period into practice while working in Tea Garden. He realized that the training had brought a lot of change in his attitude towards tea farming and fortified him with improved methods of cultivation.

Mr. Khatiwada said, I have applied all the knowledge and skills acquired from the training into practice, as a result of which tea production in my tea garden is higher this year than the previous years. Last year Mr. Khatiwada produced 500 kg of green leaves from his garden in the second flush, but this year he produced 750 kg from the same garden. Similarly, Mr. Khatiwada himself managed pest and disease problems in tea gardens and had kept them in check during the monsoon season. Mr. Khatiwada has prepared a Tea production plan and maintained a regular farm diary.

Suggestion

He suggested to all policy makers "Assistant Tea Technician Level 1 is mostly concentrated in the part of Tea Cultivation but demand of 2nd phase that is focused on Tea processing and Marketing is high. So, all the tea stakeholders should prepare the curriculum of Tea Marketing and processing and provide trainings to farmers, cooperative members and owners on Tea Processing and Marketing." He also requested all the policy makers to provide Soft loan to the tea farmers so that they could start-up their own enterprises.

During lock down period, Mr. Khatiwada felt Technological knowledge on Marketing and entrepreneurship is most important. So , organization working in Tea sector, if possible, can organize workshop / training on Technology marketing and entrepreneurship through which capacity of tea workers, farmers and cooperative members can be enhanced which ultimately contributes in economic growth of the country.