U THEIN THAR, 36 Farmer in Taunggyi Township, Southern Shan State, Myanmar
U Thein Thar lives in a household of six, with his wife, two kids, and his parents. He has been farming for the past ten years, growing mainly potato and cauliflower. He also runs a small business making rockets for the rocket festival, a centuries-old tradition honouring the rain god.
He has been using Impact Terra’s Golden Paddy mobile app for close to a year, gleaning useful farming information and techniques to try out and implement. For example, he was able to learn about specific diseases related to potatoes, such as late blight, and how to prevent and address it.
“The app is very useful to me when I am in the field since I can access farming knowledge that is specific to the crops that I am growing without having to wait on (advice from) someone else.”
Before using the app, he relied on his friends, field promoters of input suppliers, or workshops conducted by the Department of Agriculture for information. This was ineffective as the information he typically required was crop-specific, and there was no guarantee that the agronomic advice he received from these sources were relevant.
KO SAI NAW KHAM, 32 Farmer in Taunggyi Township, Southern Shan State, Myanmar
Ko Sai Naw Kham has been farming for the past five years, growing potatoes, garlic, maize, and cauliflower. He is single, and lives with his mother and two siblings.
A regular user of the Golden Paddy mobile app for the past 8 months, Ko Sai Naw Kham primarily uses it to check the market prices of the crops he grows. Tracking the market price fluctuations, he is able to strategise, and increase his income by carefully timing the sale of his crops.
“I use the app to check the market prices before going to the market since it saves me time and money.”
Before he had access to the app, he would go to the market at least once a week during the post-harvest season – each time without prior knowledge of the market prices. This often resulted in wasted trips to the market, as he would decide not to sell and return to the village with his crop whenever the market price for them was too low.