Projects

This project is to purchase 25 plough machines for 50 households  in Hor Village in order to reduce the local people’s heavy workload and improve the villagers’ poor economic situation.

Funds needed: $1,890(12,904rmb)

G.yang mtso skyid is from Hor Village, Cuozhou Township, Jianzha County, Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province. Currently, she is working towards a BA degree in English and Tibetan at Qinghai Normal University.

Project location
This project is located in Hor Village, Cuozhou Township, Jianzha County, Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province, PR China. Jianzha County is about 112 kilometers south of Xining, the capital city of Qinghai Province.

Population
There are around 51 households of 300 people in Hor Village, and all the villagers are Tibetan. Specifically, among 300 villagers, there are 94 women, 99 men, and 107 children.

Agriculture
In Hor Village most of the villagers are farmers. They grow crops, beans, potatoes and rapeseed on the farming lands. Most families don’t have excess products to sell,. only enough for them to eat. In summer time, when it rains, a flood comes from a valley at the north of Hor village and it carries stones into the some of families’fields which are below the valley and they have to abandon their fields. In summer time, there are also a lot of insects on the fields. The insects are very harmful for crops, but Hor villagers have no money to buy the pesticide. So, the crops don’t grow very well. Some rich families own 12 mu (one mu=0.067 hectares) and they also never sell out their grain, because they want to save the grain for next year in order to prevent some disasters like fire and drought. In Hor village, most of the families have at least 5 mu of land. On average, each mu of the land can produce 600~700 jin (one jin=0.5kg) wheat per year.

Herding
Most of the villagers in Hor village are farmers. Only eight families have cows and goats,because most villagers are busy earning money and they have no extra people to take care of the livestock..

Cash income
In Hor Village most of the villagers（except old people）usually dig caterpillar fungus which is a medicinal herb found at high altitudes and it is the basic way people earn money in this village. People must climb high mountains where horn bushes grow, and usually it is snowing and raining. People go there from the end of April and come back in the middle of June. Each caterpillar fungus can sell for12-15 RMB. On average, each household can earn 2,000-3,000 RMB. The other source of income is that both women and men leave their home to do road work and go to Xining City to do construction work. On average, each woman can earn about 40 RMB per day and each man can earn about 50 RMB per day. Usually, they stay one month and earn 1200-1500 RMB in one month. On average, each household earns about 4,000 RMB in a year. Money earned is spent on children’s school tuition. A student in university usually costs 10,000 RMB for two semesters, including the student’s tuition, food fee and other essentials in a year. The students from middle school and high school usually need 500 RMB for the yearly school tuition. Also, money is spent on New Year festivities, fertilizer, and electricity, building houses, water fees, food, clothes, and hiring cultivator machines and other essentials. In total, each family spends more than 4,000 RMB in a year. Most of the time there is no surplus from their income. If the family has students attending university, they have to borrow money from the bank and other families to pay the tuition.

Education
In Hor Village, there are 18 university students (8 girls and 10 boys); 23 middle school students (12 girls and 21 boys); 15 primary school students (8 boys and 7 girls). On average, two children from each family are receiving an education. Generally, the families’workload is heavy and the way of farming is traditional. For example, people weed by hand and use their livestock to plough the fields. Approximately 90 percent of the village people are illiterate.

The project goals
The immediate goal of this project is to purchase 25 plough machines for 50 households (not including the project manager’s family because her family has one) in Hor Village.
The overarching goal of this project is to reduce the local people’s heavy workload and improve the villagers’ poor economic situation.

The problems
1) Cost money
In Hor Village, there are no livestock and no plough machines to plough their fields, so they have to hire Hui people to plough their fields. It cost 60 RMB per mu to hire people to plough the fields. If the villagers don’t plough their fields, the crop will not grow very well and most families will not have food to eat. Because, people in Hor Village depend on farming。Usually, one family has to spend 300 RMB, because each household has at least five mu. If a family has 12 mu, they have to spend 720 RMB to hire a cultivator.

2) Heavy workload for the villagers
Hor Village is relatively a warm area compared to other areas in Qinghai Province. Thus some fruits and crops are ripe for harvesting earlier than in other places, so the weeds also grow quickly during the harvesting time, which is=usually around July and October. Right after the harvest, the villagers have to plough their fields in order to prevent a lot of weeds for the next year. But the villagers don’t have plough machines, so the villager’s women need to crawl on the fields to weed by hand for three and four days. They don’t want the weeds ripe seeds fall into the fields because it will mean more weeds in the next harvest year.

3) Reduce the production
In Hor Village, most families have no plough machines; only two or three families have machines. Those families who have machines will not receive the machines during the project implementation. The machines will be given to the poorest families in Hor Village and they will get their own machines while other families share one machine with two families. When the villagers begin to plough the fields, they have to hire Hui (both cultivator and owner) people to do plough their fields. They only can plough one time, because of the high cost, . which doesn’t make the soil very soft, and crops don’t grow well in hard soil… Usually, farmers get get around 230~270 jin lessgrain from each mu if they don’t plough twice.

4) Waste time
In the past, Hor villagers used their spades to plough the fields, which took more than five or six days. Now, all the Hor villagers usually hire the cultivator machine. They need one or two days to finish their fields. But, it is also hard to find Hui people to plough the fields. There are always delays, and sometimes they will not come if you have small fields. This wastes time for people who are ready to go do construction in other places, and it also creates a chance for weeds to ripen.

Project benefits
1) Save money
If this project is approved, Hor Villagers won’t need to spend money on hiring Hui people to plough their fields, and the villagers can use their money to buy pesticide and other essential things they need for farming. If this project is funded, Hor villagers can earn money hiring out the ploughs. They can earn 250-300 RMB in one day, although it is a heavy work. If most of the villagers use their own plough machines to plough fields for other people, each family can get 1,000 RMB (this number is based on an interview with a Hui person).

2) Reduce the villagers’ workload
If this project is funded, Hor villagers don’t need to crawl on their fields to weed by hand, and also it can prevent weeds from growing. If they have the cultivator machine to plough the fields, then they can save lots of time that they used to spend on weeding the fields, and the villagers can go outside to do construction work and earn some money for their families.

3) Increase the production
If this project is funded, Hor villagers can plough their fields twice, which will improve the crops next spring time. Usually, they will get an extra 230~270 jin of grain from each mu.

4) Save time
Once the villagers have the plough machinesthey won’t need to spend much time ploughing the fields. The cultivator takes only two days to plough the fields, even if a family has 12 mu of land. Also they won’t need to delay ploughing their fields, and instead they can plough their fields on time. Furthermore, the village women can do other things while their husbands and their sons are ploughing their fields. For example, they can do construction work or house work.

Project beneficiary
By implementing this project in Hor Village, around 300 local villagers will directly benefit.

Gender equality
Hor Village is like most rural villages in Qinghai: most villagers have traditional ideas towards women, and they think men are always better than women. The local women do not have much position in their community or their family. For example, women don’t have a chance to keep their own money and women don’t have a chance to talk when an important event is discussed in the family. But at the same time,the village women are the ones who have the heaviest workload on their shoulders. For example, most of work is done by women, such as weeding fields, doing housework, cooking, cleaning house, washing clothes, fetching water, collecting fire wood, reaping crops, taking care of children, feeding animals, and sewing clothes. So, if this project is funded, it will be good for local village women. They won’t need to weed in the fields and they can go do construction work in Xining or other places to earn some money and broaden their views about the outside world. Also, if this project is funded, it also can directly benefit the project manager, Gyang mtso skyid. It helps her to collect many experiences like how to write a proposal, how to interview the local villagers and how to communicate with people like village leaders or officers in the county town. And also it will give her a chance to show her ability to others, and show that she is able to contribute to her home village.

Governmental approve
The project manager, Gyang mtso skyid, called Hor village’s leader, Da zhou, and he contacted the government officer Zhuo guo in the county town and asked their permission to conduct this project. The government officer said they really appreciate this project and said they will support the project manger fully.

Time frame
This project will take around 12 days to complete.
1 day: Inform the villagers that the project is funded.
4 days: Purchase the plough machines in Jian Zha County.
3 days: Look for a truck to transport the plough machines to Hor Village.
1 day: Hold a meeting with the villagers to discuss how to take care of the plough machines.
3 days: To interview the villagers and take some photos.

Project Steps
1 Interviewed the villagers and discussed what they really need. (Done)
2. Decided to buy the plough machines. (Done)
3. Collected the information of the village for the project.
4. Got the government’s permission. (Done)
5 Find out the price of the plough machine
6. Wrote a proposal. (Done)
7. Received funds.
8. Inform villagers that project is funded and discuss how to implement the project.
9. Purchase high quality machines
10. Distribute the machines
11. Hold a meeting with some villagers to discuss how to use the plough machines and how to take care their machines.
12. Interview the local beneficiaries and take photos
13. Write a final report and send the report to the donor with all receipts

Project Budget

Project Sustainability
This plough machine project is sustainable. Firstly, the village leader and project manager chose a government factory that is considered the best factory in Jianzha County. And also the village leader and project manager compared many types of plough machines in the factory, and chose the best one with the highest quality.

Secondly, that factory manager guarantees that if the plough machine breaks it, Hor villagers can change it for a new plough machine within one year of their first time using it.

Thirdly, the villagers agreed to contribute 2,720 RMB to this project. And they also guaranteed they will use the new machines properly. Two families will share one machine and they will be responsible for any future costs, like repairing and purchasing the broken parts of the machine. Also the villager leader and project manager guaranteed that after each year, the villager leader will go to the families and check the plough machines to see if they are broken. If a family’s plough machine is broken, that family will be responsible for it and will repair it.

Map of the project location