On March 22, 2013 a big fire has burned more than half of Ban Mae Surin Camp (over 400 houses) including COERR Agricultural Center. 37 lives were lost and more than 2,300 homeless and have to start a new life with the assistance from all parts concerned. Food production is one of the activities proper for the refugees’ sufficiency living. Prior to the incident, COERR Mae Hong Son had organized a one-day capacity building training for Agricultural Refugee Staff on March 14, 2013 on “Small Plot Gardening” which is a know-how to simply improve the soil with organic nutrients in order to grow various plants for higher yields. This training is expected to equip the refugees with skills to grow vegetables in the small space inside their camp. The big fire has burned down the buildings and materials but the skills and knowledge they acquired should remain and enable them to produce their veggie for food.

This training had been held on March 14, 2013 in which 5 COERR Agricultural staff had learned how to do small plot gardening, focusing on how to prepare soil in good mixture proper for growing plants, how to make use of the leftover material and containers into vegetable plots, and eventually to enable them to transfer this skills to other refugees.

This training is considered appropriate due to the fact that Ban Mae Surin Camp is located on the limited space and unfertile land. Therefore, any leftover materials can be a proper container for growing plants. To produce fertile soil for planting vegetable in a small space, first we choose a plot of land for 1 square meter inside a bamboo-frame. Tips are mixture of 2 portions of loose soil with 1 portion of compost and 1 portion of leaf or rice straw. This mixture nutrient will make fertile soil proper for further planting.