Fieldwork

July 4, 2014

In Interim Presentation of DFW2014, each group introduced their research topic and tentative research design. WG1 showed their interests in the role of education in promoting sustainability in Odai town. WG2 wanted to identify the impact of tea industry on Odai town and their challenges. WG3 focused on the abandoned forests and how forest-related organizations in Odai town are involved in dealing with problems of abondoned forests.

After each presentation, group supervisors and participants of other WGs raised questions and provided comments on each research design. We wish these helped our participants to have clearer ideas regarding their research topics and focuses. The final presentation on research plan will be held on July 25.

July 2, 2014

Farmer Water User Community (FWUC) has become an important association for farmers to ensure a sustainable resources for a well managed irrigation systems and farming. Dr. Naret, as a specialist in community development of Cambodia, provided us an interesting lecture on  FWUC. Besides introducing the history and legal system for irrigation development, he also shared the knowledge of problems and challengaes of FWUC in Cambodia. Dr. Naret finally raised many issues that our Working Group 4 can take into consideration.

June 30 2014

Besides weekly preparatory lectures for OFW and DFW, participants for these two programs also got together for group discussions. Photos below show these group discussions. It is good opportunity for participants to show their own ideas, share with group members and try to figure out the common interests and design their research.

June 27, 2014

In the 7th DFW2014 Preparatory Seminar, Prof. Nishikawa introduced some basic concepts about rurual/community development with special focus on multi-functions and non-economics values of agriculture. By introducing history of Japan’s agriculture and rural/community development, his talk also gave focus on the utilization of local resources of agriculture and environment for rural/community development. He left a question for us to consider the vaule of low-external input agriculture for various stakholders at different levels and in different sides.

June 25, 2014

As the 6th Prepartatory Seminar for OFW2014, we were pleased to invite Prof. Teilee Kuong from Center for Asian Leagal Exchange (CALE) of Nagoya University to introduce contemporary history and adminstration system of Cambodia. In the lecture, participants not only listened to Prof. Teilee’s talk but also joined the discussion to share their own understanding of similarities and differences of administration system in different countries. This lecture reminds us to consider the reform or change of administration system within the various historical changes.

June 20, 2014

In recent years, the terms, such as depopulation, aging society and financial difficulty of local govenrment have been widely heard through various media. They are becoming common social issues in Japan and other countries. Today, Ms. Satoru Nishide, from Odai town office, Mie Prefecture provided us an interesting introduction of the real situation of Odai town through various perspectives. He drew a big picture for us to consider how to make a sustianable development in the rural areas of Japan. Also, he left us some hints for us to make our research plan. Thank you very much for Mr. Nishide’s interesting presentation and helpful answers to our questions. Look forward to seeing you in Odai Town in September.

June 18, 2014

As a continue of last week’s lecture,  Prof. Kobayashi introduced the unique features of village society and culture in Cambodia. In this lecture, he provided detailed explanations about village lives, basic social units (family/household, village and temple), and historical dynamics of the reconstruction of village society. The lecture linked people with culture, religion and history. It also showed the change (development) of the rural areas with globalization and marketization. It also helped us to consider how we can conduct fieldwork in the rural areas of Cambodia.

June 13, 2014

It has been five years since I took lecture by Prof. Yoshiaki Nishikawa last time in 2009. Time flies, but his lecture is as interesting as usual…

Today, as one part of DFW2014 Preparatory lectures, Prof. Yoshiaki Nishikawa, from Ryukoku University, gave us an interesting lecture which introduced alternative approaches to rural / community development and endogenous development perspective in Japan.

A couple of quesitons raised by Prof. Nishikawa led us to reconsider the real meaning of development for ourselves, our daily life, our rural communities…how can different actors be involved in a sustainable agriculture or rural development??? Let’s explore the answers through DFW2014.

June 11, 2014

We invited Prof. Satoru Kobayashi to give us a lecture about rural livelihoods in Cambodia.

He raised a coulple of key questions which are meaningful and helpful for our participants to design their research.

Key quesitons:

1. What kinds of opportunity are emerging, how people approach them and how people adjust their livelihood?

2. What are the possibility and constraints do the present technology and institutions have for further development?

3. What are the crucial mechanism to cope with uncertainty and to sustain rural livelihood?

4. Is rural livelihood simplified or diversified through development and what is the role of diversity in livelihood system?

June 8, 2014, a group of “Urban girls and boys” with Prof. Nishikawa and Prof. Shimada (with his son) visited Seto City to experience rice planting and eggplant spriging. We enjoyed and learned a lot! Look forward to the harvest in October!