Yangon, Myanmar – Kyaw Lin Htay lives in Tha Byay Kone Village, Thanlyin Township, Yangon Region, Myanmar with his family. He enjoys farming and has a very good view of agriculture development. Htay wants to have a healthy environment, a happy family, and a peaceful society. He loves nature thus, he wants to make sure that he does not poison the environment through unsustainable farming practices.
Kyaw Lin Htay is one of the mushroom farmers trained by Ye Htut, a young farmer member of the Agriculture and Farmers’ Federation of Myanmar (AFFM), the national implementing agency of AFOSP-MTCP2 in Myanmar. “I learned a lot of skills and knowledge from Ye Htut. I would like to express my highest gratitude to him and our organization AFFM and the other organizations and people who helped us,” he says.
Currently, mushroom cultivation is the main source of income for Htay’s family. They have 12 mushroom beds measuring 3 by 10 feet. They hope to make at least 900,000 Myanmar kyats (USD 530) out of their mushroom farm in two months. He has been growing straw mushrooms since 2017. During his first time growing mushrooms, he saved MMK 800,000 (USD 560). The residues from growing mushrooms are used as a natural fertilizer in Htay’s farm.
Htay understands the benefits of diversity in farming. He has chickens and ducks and is also breeding fish in a small pond near his house. His rice farm is better than his neighbor’s land because it does not have weeds thanks to the ducks that clean the weeds out. The small pond on his farm is his family’s main source of water for daily uses, growing vegetables, and other crops during winter and summer. He also breeds fish in this pond.
In addition to this, Htay also has cows which are the main source of fertilizer for his farm. Cow manure is used not only in gardening but also in growing mushrooms. “Keeping cows is practical. Farm residues are fed to the cows and cow residues are used on the farm. They are benefiting each other,” he explains. He also gets milk from his cows which he sells for MMK 1000 (USD .70) per liter. Moreover, cows are useful for farm labor. Even if Htay uses a machine for plowing his land, he understands that animals are essential for farming.
“I do not make too much income from any of these but the income I make from all these combined is enough for my family,” he says. Even though he does not make much money, he is content that he is able to provide for his family without harming the environment.
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