Thursday, February 9, 2012

now. 2012

So another year has come. I am more than a month late in blogging about it here. It's just that I have been deep into project and research work since I returned from UoS. With travels for project meetings and for field research with stakeholders.

I have been busy working on the research protocols for action research specifically on the impact of posters and the off-flavour of tilapia.

For the poster impact, the posters had been pre-tested, revised and distributed to relevant stakeholders. Distribution is on-going for the shrimp value chain poster and some initial feedback on immediate impact have been collected during the Shrimp fair in Chanthaburi. This coming weekend we are going down to Surat Thani for a similar activity. Other stakeholders not reached during these events will be contacted face to face or by post to send the posters and obtain feedback.

As for the tilapia value chain poster, I am still planning the schedule to coincide with the team's field work so I can join them.

For the off-flavour tilapia, I and the team have visited one of the main sites for the field trials, i.e. Namsai Farm in Prachinburi. I have to come up with the research design in discussion with action research manager based at KU (Doug Waley) and also with the rest of the team and UoS supervisors.

Of course, in addition to all these, I have also been involved with the running of the project itself. We are recruiting more staff to assist us specifically in field surveys for livelihood and chemical use in farms, LCA through the value chains, ethical framework workshop, and other relevant field work.

Shrimp feed of various sizes
Grill your own shrimp at the fair