Banana is the best food for me

“I love to eat a ripe banana because my father grows so many in our garden and I can eat them anytime.”

Pathana, 9, lives with her parents and five siblings in Xaybouathong district in the central Laos.  Her father, like many locals in her community, are reliant on rice farming as their main source of income and selling poultry, like chickens and ducks.

Her family has not always grown bananas.

“If we only earned more income selling our rice,” said Khamla Somedyxayyasan, Pathana’s 39-year-old father. “In some years, if the weather wasn’t good we would not get a good harvest. We also would not have rice to sell and the income would be low. Even when we did have a good harvest, we couldn’t sell much of it because we had to keep some to feed our family.”

Khamla used to worry about paying for his children’s education.

“I was thinking about finding a way to plant bananas and rattan for long-term income. I wanted to support my children’s education in the future,” he added.

His family’s fortunes recently changed.

“My family was one of 36 families who received a benefit from World Vision,” Khamla said. “I received 146 pineapple seedlings, 93 banana seedlings and 156 rattan seedlings. I was very happy. They give me hope to support my children’s education in the future.”

World Vision food security transformation facilitator Khamsavang Phon-asa said that World Vision worked with famers in the area in 2014 and 2015 to help secure their incomes. 

“To improve farmers knowledge and skills about secondary crop production, the local World Vision program selected 36 model households in five villages and provided 5,350 pineapple seedlings and 3,550 banana seedlings,” he said.

He added that World Vision gave 5,310 rattan seedlings to 34 farmers, who also received training from technical staff on techniques for growing the plants. Another 335 households sold produce from their home gardens. All the farmers were helped with improved access to markets and business development skills.

Pathana’s father learned how to prepare soil, proper care for the seedlings, how to grow mushrooms, bananas, pineapple and rattan, and how to make organic fertilizer.

“Beside those plantations, we also raise animals and grow some of vegetables to give our family more food,” Khamla added.

 Pathana does her part to help out too.

 “On my weekend, I go to the farm with my parents to help them clear the grasses,” she said.