Script
Save and edit this resource as a Word document.
Presenter: George Atkins
Interviewee: Wung Ing Gen, a farmer, An Yuan Commune, Ninghua County, Fujian Province, People’s Republic of China
Interpreter: Lei Qi Shi, Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, Fuzhou, People’s Republic of China
Suggested introduction
From all over the world, the Developing Countries Farm Radio Network collects ideas that you may be able to use. They’ve all been used successfully by farmers in their own areas—and they can also be used just as successfully by farmers in other areas and countries who are working under similar conditions. Here’s George Atkins.
Now my question for you today is—do you use the soil in the dykes around your paddy field to grow something useful on? Perhaps you haven’t thought of this before, —but that’s good soil that those dykes are made of—and there’s water close by that roots of a crop planted on the dyke could easily reach.
Well, in Fujian Province in China, farmers have been growing soybeans on these dykes for many centuries. Some grow two rows of soybeans, one on each side, and they still have room for a narrow path between these rows.
Wung Ing Gen grows rice in a paddy field that’s 2 mu (just less than 1/7 of a hectare or 1/3 acre) in size. As I stood on one of the dykes at the edge of his paddy field, I asked Mr. Wung about the soybeans he grows around the border of his field. My interpreter, Lei Qi Shi, told me this:
Province in the People’s Republic of China.
Serving Agriculture, the Basic Industry, this is George Atkins.
Information sources
Wung Ing Gen, People’s Republic of China.