Projects

This project is to buy 42 harvest machines for 42 households in Nor’ ur Village to decrease people’s labor, and save their grain from insect and weather, so the villagers will have more gain to eat. Also with machine helping the parents deal with the harvest, school children can attend school as normal and it will help the students improve the their learning.

Funds needed: $8,744(59,725rmb)

Tshe Skyid Lha Mo is from Nor’ur village, Laojei Township, Luhuo County, Gazi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, and PRChina. She is currently working towards an associated degree in English at the Qinghai Normal Universities Department English Training Program.

Project Location
This project is located in Nor’ ur Village which is in the south of Luhuo County in Ganzi and it is 630 kilometers away from Chengdu City, the capital of Sichuan Province. From Chengdu to Xining, there are about 1388 kilometers.

Population
There are 42 households with 202 people in Nor’ ur Village. There are 60 women, 72 men, and 70 children. All of them are Tibetans, except two Chinese people who married with two Tibetan women.

Education
In Nor ‘ur Village fifty percent of the people are literate. Forty percent of the villagers are adults. These adults attended primary school when they were young but three people have government jobs now in the village. In the village there is one University student, but no high school students. There are three reasons that there are so few college and high school students in No’ur Village. First, many children think it is better to earn money than to study. Second, some children have no chance to attend school, because their families have only one child, and they need to stay at home to help their parents. Third, some families are very poor and do not have money to pay the school fee for their children.

There are 23 school aged children in Nor ‘ur Village. Eleven boys and six girls are attending primary school and another 6 children stay at home because their parents think that their children are too small to attend school. A final reason that some children do not attend primary school, is that their parents are uneducated, and think that their children can survive well without an education. Right now many families think that education is a very useful thing, both in order to get a job and in general for life.

Cash Income
All of the villagers in Nor ‘ur Village are farmers who grow barley, potatoes, beans and rape plants on their land. Families also have one or two domestic livestock. In average the villagers have about 4 mu (one mu=0.006 hectares) of lands. The average crop yield from the land is roughly 1100-1200 jin(one jin=one k) of grain during the harvest season (August to October).  People eat this grain during the year (they usual eat barley flour, but sometimes eat rice, noodles, bread) and also recycle seeds for use during next year’s planting season. Most families only grow enough for them to live off of.  A few families do not own their own land because they lived in another village before moving to No’ur Village. These families borrow other families’ land to plant. These families are only able to grow limited crops and must buy food in order to supplement what they themselves can grow.

Villagers also earn money from livestock, with the exception of a few households. Some families make butter and cheese and sell them for little money rather than eating them themselves. Some families sell livestock to others (not for slaughter, but for work or for produce). Each family can earn 300-400 RMB each year by selling butter and cheese. Families who sell animals can earn 1000-1200 RMB from one yak.

A third source of income, is to do construction work during the summer (from May to August) and during the fall from October to November.  During these periods, all the young men (15-50 years old) and some young women (15-35 years old) go to other places to find construction work and to make money. Only a few women go, because, otherwise, their wouldn’t be anyone to care for their children. Also, although, other men and women do the same construction work and spend the same time. Even though the work performed is the same, the payment is unequal with males earning more than females. When they go to work construction, they are responsible for paying for their food and other things, such as clothes. Through this work, each family can earn about 4000-5000 RMB.

During summer, some people climb mountains and dig for caterpillar fungus (a medical herb) which is very difficult to find. There is no longer any caterpillar fungus to dig around that village, so they need to go other counties. Each caterpillar fungus can sell for around 10 to 30 RMB. People usually dig for the fungus at the beginning of the May and return home in the middle of June. In good years they can earn about 1,000-2,000 RMB for each person including costs for their food, clothes etc. In one month a household needs to spend another 50 RMB on electricity and other essentials such as medicines. In the summer, villagers need to buy fertilizer, a cost of about 200-300 RMB, because the land will not have a high yield without these nutrients.

In total, the average family can earn 7000-8000 RMB in each year. For food they need to spend about 3500 RMB, for clothes they need to pay about 2000 RMB and for electricity they need to pay about 500 RMB. So they have no much money left after they used.

Agriculture
Nor’ ur Village is located at an elevation of about 4834m. At this altitude it is difficult to produce crops. For several years the weather was very dry and resulted in poor agricultural yield. On average the villagers own about 4mu of land. The average yield from the land is roughly 550-600kg of grain. This is used to sustain the family and as seed for next year’s crops. Usually one acre of land can produce around 150-200kg, but there are two types of land; one type of land is fertilized and irrigated, while the other is located high up in the mountains without access to fertilizer or water resulting in poor production.

Herding
Nor ‘ur villagers are farmers and most of the families have two male yaks to plough fields. But many villagers own more; sometimes they also own female cows to produce butter cheese and milk. Some of them also own horses to carry grain from the fields to home. At the summer time they hire a person to herd the livestock. To rent an animal it costs 5 RMB for herding and 25kg of grain. Some of the families don’t own animals because they married Chinese people in Chinese places, and after several years they couldn’t support their life in Chinese places, so they returned to their home towns to spend the rest of their life. On average, each household has two livestock.

Weather
In recent years it has been very dry during the summer, resulting in little produce. In the winter it’s cold and snows a lot, preventing the livestock from getting food for several days. In the spring time it rains, but during that time plowing the seeds in the fields, the land needs rain, unfortunately it is very less rain there and it makes farmers panic a lot. So they have to wait until the rain comes. In the autumn during the harvest time they need to have clear days to harvest but it usually rains a lot causing the grains to get wet and even rot. So people need to harvest as soon as possible.

The project goals
The immediate goal of this project is to buy 42 harvest machines for 42 households in Nor’ ur Village. The overarching goal of this project is to decrease people’s labor, and save their grain from insect and weather.

Project beneficiaries
Around 202 people from Nor ‘ur Village will benefit directly from the project.

Problems
1.        Not enough people to harvest
Autumn time all people are very busy with the harvest and construction work. The construction bosses increase payment for their workers because they are afraid their workers will go home to harvest. The village men would not go home during the harvest time because they can earn more money from their construction work, which has also become their main income. Therefore only the women and older men are able to participate in the harvest. If the men don’t come home to harvest then the women and the older people need to do it even though they are very old. Hiring additional help is also too expensive for the villagers.
2.        Heavy burden 
The harvesting time has changed in the village, and the villagers can not harvest whenever they want without the government’s permission. The government gives permission to harvest when all the barley and wheat is ready to harvest. Therefore all the villagers have to harvest hurriedly at that time. Otherwise the barley will fall on the ground while they are harvesting. If the villagers do it without permission, the government will take 100 RMB from each family as a punishment. Also when the men are not in the home, the wives and the old people suffer a lot, because using their hands to harvest for more 20 days is very difficult, even if it is hot or raining. Harvest time also requires early rising and late sleeping to accomplish all the tasks. The other villagers who use harvest machine easily accomplish the task, and for them it only takes a few days to finish.
3.        Wasting the villagers’ grain
When the barley and wheat are ready to harvest, people need to do it soon. If the time is late the grain will fall on the ground and rot or insects will destroy them.
4.        The weather
When it is time to harvest it rains a lot. When there is a clear day the villagers should try their best to finish works as soon as they can. If it rains a lot then the grain may rot. The villagers also need to be careful to keep the grain dry and if it becomes wet then it is easy to rot.
5.        Waste time
In the village the villagers’ main food is barley, so if the harvest is not good then they will suffer for one year from the lack of food. It is women’s job to help weed and irrigate during the whole summer. Women are relegated to this task and can not go earn money. So they always hope the harvest would be good. If the harvest does give a lot of produce, then the women’s time is lost and wasted.
6.        Waist sickness
When they use hands to harvest, many people get waist sickness because when they harvest they have to bend their waists to harvest without machines. Therefore it is hard for the villagers to bend down to do it for long time and then they get waist pains.
7.        Children are absent from their class
When there are not enough people to harvest, then the parents let their school children take days off from school to harvest for them. If a family can not finish harvesting quickly, then the children need to be absent that much more time from the school, severely impeding their ability to learn.

Benefits
1. If each household has a machine then the women and the old people don’t need to worry about not having enough people and don’t need to suffer as much as before. Also the men are able to earn money for their family.
2. If they have harvest machines then they don’t need to worry about the mandatory harvest time prescribed by the government. They don’t need to suffer in the rain, withstand hot days, and they can rest early in the afternoon and wake up later. Also they will be able to finish the work in a few days.
3. If there are harvesting machines to use then the grain won’t fall to the ground and the insects have no time to destroy the crop because the machines can help people to do it very quickly.
4. If they have harvest machines then they don’t need to harvest in the rain, so they can wait the good weather to do it.
5. The harvest machine can help women a lot; if the grain yield is good then it will not waste their time doing irrigation and weeding.
6. If the villagers have machines then they don’t need to bend their waists to harvest and they don’t need to suffer from waist pain.
7. If there are harvest machines then the parents deal with the harvest with the aid of machines while the school children can attend school as normal. The students’ score on the exams will improve.

Gender equality
Harvest machines equally benefit both men and women and it is both men and women’s work that is reduced. If they have the machines it helps both to decrease their heavy work and decrease their sickness. In the village all the men and the women help with work, so it’s very equal for them to have harvest machine. If once I finish this kind of project in my home town the villagers would think education is very important and they would let their children go to school to get an education. And they will also be impressed that a girl can do this kind of project and will admire me. Also the females will get more confidence from me as a role model and they would think they also can do these kinds of things as I do.

Government Approval
I called the villager leader whose name is Hang Ni and he asked permission from the township government for the project. In the 2008 May 7^th, he said the government leader Jian Ying is very happy about my project. She also thinks that helping people in this manner is very good.

The Steps of Project
1.      Called the village leaders and let them hold a meeting with both men and women to ask about local needs. (Done)
2.      Let the village leaders assess out the price of harvest machine. (Done)
3.      Found out the transportation fee. (Done)
4.      Write proposal. (Done)
5.      Send proposal to donor
6.      Receive Funds
7.      Purchase harvest machines in the Luhuo county, Gazi prefecture, Sichuan province. (In local county)
8.      Hire a truck to transport the harvest machines to Nor ‘ur Village
9.      Distribute the harvest machines to 42 households in the village
10.    Take pictures of the project after completion.
11.    Write final report
12.    Send the final report to donor.

Time frame
This project will take a total 20 days from the time it is funded.
1 day: Call the factory leader and let him prepare the 42 machines.
15 days: Await machine preparation
1 day: Let village leader hold a meeting with villagers to discuss who will transport the machines.
1 day: Transport the machines to village and distribute them.
2 days: Take pictures, write final report, and send it

Note: Each family will contribute 322 Rmb as local contribution to this project.

Donor Contribution: 59,725RMB
Local Contribution: 13,525RMB
Shem Contribution: 500RMB
Total Cost: 73,750RMB

Sustainability
Each family will have one machine and they use it for once each year. After they use it they can put it in a safe place for storage. People in the village skilled with using the machines will operate them. The company will exchange machines within seven days in the case of failure and it guarantees two years of service free of charge. After two years the villagers will pay for the fee if the machines break or have problems. The villagers will never lend their machines to others.

The map of project location