Poor students from remote areas face the problem that they cannot afford to enroll in the education at the Northern Agriculture and Forestry College, even the overall costs are not too high – they amount to about 2.225 US$ for a full 3 years high-diploma course. Thus the NAFC is looking for support from private persons, companies, donors or projects to provide scholarships to those vulnerable students.

NAFC has set up a selection scheme based on criteria for gender, family situation, poverty, motivation and social competency. If you are willing to support a student, please read more in the attached document and the leaflet or contact us for more detailed information.

On 17th September 2011 a big inauguration ceremony of the infrastructure development at the Northern Agriculture and Forestry College took place. High-ranking participants, like the H.E. Vilayvanh Phomke, Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, H.E Christoph Burgener, Swiss Ambassador to Lao PDR and H.E. Dr. Khampheng Xaysompheng, Governor of Luang Prabang Province joined the ceremony. The overall costs of construction related activities provided by the Swiss Government so far amount to 1.527.853 CHF, respectively 1.655.312 US $ and was used for the establishment of 1 Classroom building, 1 Laboratory, 2 Dormitories, 1 Canteen, 2 Kitchen houses, 1 guardhouse, 8 farmhouses, 3 farm units, a sports-compound, a new electricity system, a new water supply system, a Decentralized Water Treatment System (DEWATS) and a water purification unit.

All those infrastructure-improvements will contribute to set up the Northern Agriculture and Forestry College to become the center of excellence for upland agricultural development by interlinking the infrastructure measures with the establishment of a new skills-based curriculum, a modern management system and related capacity building.

Between May and August all NAFC teachers worked on the establishment of farm management concepts. Those concepts will help to improve the farm operations which focus on a) teaching and production, b) income generation and c) research. SURAFCO launched a related operational revolving fund for each of the 20 farms and activities and further supported the purchase of related farm equipment.
As a first step to develop educational material for applied teaching, posters for each farm has been developed to introduce the objective of the farm and related main farm activities.

During July and August 2011 a maintenance-strategy for effectively operating infrastructure and equipment has been finalized and a related maintenance manual has been developed. The strategy includes the establishment of a technical and maintenance operation team, the development of related task, the preparation of a maintenance operation budget and the preparation of an inventory of all college infrastructure, equipment and assets.
Technical training on operations in waste water treatment, electrical applicants, water purification, IT security, alarm-systems for solar panels, GPS and mapping have been conducted.

From 22 to 31 August 2011 the Northern Agriculture and Forestry College organized the 10th workshop on Curriculum Development. Mr. Thongsamouth Phoummasone, Deputy Director of the Northern Agriculture and Forestry College opened the training. The Chief Technical Advisor of SURAFCO, Experts for curriculum development from the Swiss College for Agriculture and all teachers from NAFC participated. The objectives of the meeting concentrated on teaching material development and the planning of the academic year 2011-2012. Three days have been dedicated to improve the management of the college. The director of the Swiss College for Agriculture, Dr. Alfred Buess, visited the college especially for this input and provided valuable inputs.

On 8th August 2011 the Ministry of Education and related INGOs organized a National Forum for Education at the ICTC in Vientiane Capital. The meeting focused on exchanging experiences among related stakeholders for improving education strategies in formal, non-formal and vocational training. An exhibition from all organizations and projects outside the meeting hall informed on activities and approaches done so far.

Between 1st and 5th August the defense of the final thesis took place for the third year students of batch 20. The opening meeting took place on 1st August with the opening remarks provided by Mr. Somphong Pradichith, the Head of Luang Prabang Provincial Agriculture and Forestry Office. A lot of representatives from another organizations, from the various northern Provincial Agriculture and Forestry Offices as well as all students and teachers participated.

Between 26th and 30th June 2011 the Northern Agriculture and Forestry College visited Vietnam to sign a Memory of Understanding (MoU) with the Thai Nguyen University of Agriculture and Forestry. The focus of the MoU concentrates on setting up a cooperation, which creates mutual benefits for both institutions. The activities include teachers’ capacity building on short and long term base, joint research, information exchange and vis-versa study tours.

On Monday 20th June 2011 the Northern Agriculture and Forestry College organized a review meeting with all divisions and units to discuss the progress of the last months. Achievements, short comings and improvements have been discussed and agreed.

In the morning of 15th June 2011 the Northern Agriculture and Forestry College organized a meeting to discuss the further cooperation between the college and the ACIAR project. The preparation and content development of a Memorandum of Understanding was part of the meeting.

On the 1st June 2011 Laos celebrated the International Children’s Day and the National Planting Day. The Northern Agriculture and Forestry College organized a cermony to celebrate this important day. All staffs, teachers and students participated in planting trees and ornamental flowers at the college campus. The planting activitites were combined with awareness raising on environmental protection and climate change.

From 27th to 28th April the Northern Agriculture and Forestry College organized a training on cassava planting techniques for farmers from Phonesay district and Pakseng district. The objective was to provide basic background information on cassava and practical demonstrations on planting techniques to the farmers.

On the 26th May a meeting was organized with representatives from the Nippon Foundation, CIAT, Zamorano University and the staff of the Northern Agriculture and Forestry College. At present three Zamorano students conduct their practical year at the NAFC. The meeting was launched to coach the students’ work and discuss future collaboration.

Between the 9th – 21st of May 2011 the leadership’s team from the Northern Agriculture and Forestry College conducted a study tour to Switzerland for exchanging knowledge about agricultural education, teaching and learning methodology, applied practice in learning and farm management. The Lao team had the chance to visit all Swiss collaborators, like HELVETAS Swiss Intercooperation, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), the Swiss College for Agriculture (SCA), the Swiss Resources Center for Consultancies (SKAT) and many other agriculture and vocational schools as well as private companies and producer groups.

On the 5th of May 2011 a sport contest between Northern Agriculture and Forestry College and the military department of the Luang Prabang province took place in the newly established college stadium. The football competition ended with an equal score 1-1 and the volleyball competition was a win for the military team scoring 2-1.

From 25th April to 3rd May 2011 a sport contest for students took place in the Northern Agriculture and Forestry College in the disciplines of football and volleyball. In football the male team of the first year 1A and the female team of Year two 2B were the winners. In the volleyball competition both the female and male team of class 2A got the best scores. Those sport competitions help to increase the student’s motivation and create a special team spirit among the students. This event took place on the newly established sport facilities on the college compound.

In the afternoon of the 8th April 2011 a big Handing Over Ceremony for the main construction buildings took place. Involved were 5 different companies, 4 from Luang Prabang and one from Vientiane, who constructed in total two dormitories, a canteen, a guard house, a school building, a laboratory, eight farm houses, a sports compound, internal roads, a water purification system and a new electricity and water supply system. The total support of all those infrastructure improvements financed by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation amount to about 1.300.000 US $.

On April 8th the third steering committee meeting of SURAFCO took place at the NAFC. Next to the 6 months report and the next 6 months planning, the financial report for the calendar year 2010 has been approved. Further issues discussed include the maintenance operations of the buildings, additional staff requirements and improved enrolment of female and remote area students.

Related documents can be assessed in the section Steering Committee Meetings.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed on 27th March with 5 faculties of MAEJO University in Chiang Mai, including Faculty of Agricultural Production, Animal Science and Technology, Business Administration, Fisheries Technology and Aquatic Resources and Faculty of Science. The existing overall MoU with the University has been extended for another 5 years. Cooperation focuses on joint research, students’ exchange and upgrading training for NAFC staff.

A gender workshop took place from 22 to 24 March 2011 with the support of the MAF women advancement committee. To increase the cooperation and agree on joint activities participants from ethnic minority school, Orphanage School, provincial education and agriculture offices have been invited.

The 9th Curriculum Development Workshop took place during 28th February and 9th March 2011 with the support of the Swiss College for Agriculture. This workshop focused on the review of the implementation of the first semester of the high level diploma. Final adjustments have been made on the content for the 2nd semester modules. Furthermore inputs were given to support the module planning and content of the 3rd and 4th semester modules.

More detailed information on the workshop and the specific activities can be assessed in the minutes of the workshop.

The development of a fourth major for a high-level diploma course in Forestry has been started. An assessment to establish job profiles in forestry has been conducted in the northern provinces. A first workshop to agree on the outline took place on 24th and 25th February involving all other four MAF colleges and other educational institutions. The curriculum will be developed in line with the other 3 majors.

All 5 colleges under MAF signed a MoU on 4th February after a coordination workshop, which identified core areas of cooperation and concrete activities to be performed.

Two lecturing staff from NAFC attended a two-week training course delivered by the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE) at the Queen Sirikit Botanic Garden in Chiang Mai, Thailand, from Sunday 23rd January until Saturday 5th February 2011. The RBGE Certificate in Practical Horticulture (CPH) 'Train the Trainers' program was delivered by Leigh Morris and Laura Cohen from RBGE and Steve Burrell and Mark Paterson from the Eden Project. The two-week course taught the students how to teach the fundamental practical skills of a horticulturist and the potential is that NAFC staff could collaborate with RBGE and Pha Tad Ke in the subsequent delivery of the CPH in Laos.