Resource information
This Handbook is designed for both farmers and students to use in the field and during training. It is divided into eight sections, each one containing several topics and all illustrated with large clear pictures. The Handbook can be read from beginning to end or each topic can be read separately. Space is provided for readers to take notes and to add their own local knowledge...Our people have always been farmers. Farmers of the river lands, of the mountains, and of the forests. Due to civil war in Burma, more and more of us have migrated from our native lands and many now live in refugee camps along the Thai-Burmese border. The Royal Thai Government, its citizens, and non-government organisations have been very generous in their support to us. We have food, shelter, health care and education, and for this we are very thankful. But while we have been living in refugee camps we have slowly been losing our heritage, our wisdom, and our ways. For our children, rice comes from a warehouse, not grown on our own land by our own hands. In 1999, I asked the organisations that were already supporting us if they could help me look for ways to teach our children about agriculture and to help us live more self-sufficiently. The result of this is now called the CAN Project (Community Agriculture and Nutrition). This Handbook is the latest step in its ongoing development over 7 years with refugees and internally displaced people along the Thai-Burma border. There are many good books and resources on sustainable agriculture and we have learnt much from them. However refugees are constrained in their agricultural practices due to limited access to land, water and other resources. This Handbook attempts to present a summary of simple adaptations of ideas found in other books, manuals and resources on sustainable agriculture. This Handbook is not a textbook as such, but a compilation of different subjects for people to pick and choose. We know that it is not complete and I would ask anyone with ideas or suggestions to forward them so we can keep on learning. In the year 2000 I wrote a draft CAN Handbook. Then Jacob Thomson and I wrote the first CAN curriculum in 2001. Since then it has been used in training with nearly 5,000 school children, teachers, villagers, and staff of community-based and non-government organisations. Needless to say, since the first curriculum was drafted, we have had many experiences, learnt many lessons and made many changes.
