Bring it into Focus - Citrus on Film

"When you go abroad to give an on-the-spot course, you have to know the type of people you will be meeting and working with. You must realize that you will be dealing with people who have a different cultural background and different frames of reference. Without some clue as to who they are, your work may be all that more difficult." The speaker is Dov (Duby) Rabber, a veteran agronomist who was in Vietnam last year, 1996, in March where, together with Shmuel Gross, he gave an on-the-spot course in citrus nursery practices and orchard irrigation management. While in Vietnam he also prepared a video film detailing how the course was presented.

Rabber feels that his film can serve as a valuable preparatory tool for young instructors going abroad for the first time. Seeing the film, Shalom's reporter could only agree. Not only did it bring into focus the techniques of teaching that were employed and the ways that contact and rapport were established, but it was also a graphic presentation of how the Vietnamese live. Captured on film were pictures of their homes, villages, open-air markets, fields, plantations, schools and restaurants, along with lovely closeups of the people themselves. When Rabber, for example, tells how conscientious the people are, one can practically sense this behaviour as the scenes in the classroom and out in the field show.

Getting to Know the People

"The Vietnamese," he notes, "have endured so much war and there is still much economic suffering. Yet this doesn't haunt or interfere with their search for ways to improve their lives. They are open and honest in their desire, for instance, to improve their economy. Yes, they want our investments and money, especially to help them develop stronger export lines, but more than money they are eager for knowledge, for the expertise and experience we can bring them.

"These are people who are ambitious. Take, for example, the fact that in the last ten years they have so expanded their production of rice that they have managed to go from having to import it for their own needs to now selling it as an export crop.

Hardworking as are the Vietnamese, life is not all work and no play - as the film vividly depicts. Rabber and Gross attended a three-hour long wedding where, after the ceremony, all the guests were taken by boat up a canal to the groom's home for a wedding feast for almost 150 guests. More than just a glimpse into Vietnamese life, these scenes of the wedding sent forth a significant message. They showed how important it is for an instructor to establish personal contacts, to be a friend as well as a teacher. As Israeli trainers know, the entire training process is enhanced when a close relationship of mutual trust and respect is established.

"Actually in Vietnam this was not difficult to achieve," recalls Rabber. "The people we met were very friendly and sociable. In the one and a half hour ride from the airport, where we were met by Dr. Nguyen Minh Chau, Director of the Long Dingh Fruit Tree Research Centre, after only 15 minutes we were already exchanging stories and cracking jokes. Rarely has the ice been broken so quickly. Never have I experienced such instant rapport and meeting of minds."

Long Dinh Research Centre - Partner

The Long Dinh Research Centre was the local partner for CINADCO (Centre for International Agricultural Development Cooperation of the Israeli Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development), under whose aegis the course was given in conjunction with MASHAV. The Research Centre is located in the Mekong Delta, about 70 km. south of the city of Ho Chi Minh. It is a new government-funded and run agency, established in 1994, whose mandate requires it to conduct research, training and transfer of new fruit technology in the southern part of Vietnam.

"We had excellent cooperation from Dr. Chau and his staff," reports Rabber, who has been working for Israel's Ministry of Agriculture for 20 years, with citrus as his main field of expertise. Currently he is also in charge of research projects for the Ministry in the area of plant nutrition.

In several weeks it is not easy to establish a close relationship, especially where, as in Vietnam, practically all conversation - in and outside of the classroom - had to be conducted through a translator. Nevertheless, as the film shows, such contact is a vital ingredient for assuring success of a course. It involves, among other things, sharing as fully as possible in the lives of the participants.

Socializing

The scenes in the restaurant as Rabber tried, and finally succeeded, to eat with chopsticks were not only amusing, but also educational. They showed how chains of friendship can be forged, even at a simple meal.

"Food in Vietnam is plentiful," states Rabber. "A lot of fish is served plus, of course, some meat - even snake meat which I was persuaded to taste." Looking at the film, he pointed out how food is served communally from large bowls into which everyone dips. "Again, an example of how close ties can evolve, naturally and effortlessly. You share more than food when you eat together."

The Israeli team enjoyed their socializing activities. In addition to the wedding they also attended a ceremony marking Women's Day in Vietnam. Rabber was impressed by the way women in Vietnam appear to have full equality and status.

In Classroom and Field

Eight of the 40 participants in the course were women, "who," comments Rabber, "along with the men knew how to ask significant questions, so much so that it was a pleasure for us as teachers to teach them."

In the short time at its disposal, the Israeli team managed to cover a great deal of ground. "We built the course according to requests made by the Vietnamese. They wanted help in establishing high-quality citrus production, preventing viral diseases that affect citrus fruit trees and using modern techniques of irrigation to boost citrus output to export levels.

"Although Vietnam's citrus industry is advancing, it includes only two or three varieties. In order to be one of the big exporters, the industry needs to vary its production and to expand its knowledge regarding citrus production."

To meet the needs as defined by the Vietnamese, Rabber and Gross divided the course into two sections. Gross concentrated on integrated pest management (IPM). "The Vietnam area," reports Rabber, "has a major problem with insects which spread a unique viral disease from plant to plant." Rabber himself was responsible for presentations on rootstocks and cropping systems, nutrition and irrigation systems, some of it entirely new material in a country which, on the whole, "irrigates using traditional methods, drawing water with buckets, for example, from canals that dot the countryside."

Before coming to Vietnam, the Israeli team had sent ahead a dozen boxes of equipment, donated by commercial Israeli companies - fertilization tanks, mini-sprinklers, drip irrigation systems, filters, an electric valve and a new net for protection against insects, equipment which was left behind after the course ended. "Part of our job," explains Rabber, "is to show how Israeli equipment works. Rabber and Gross themselves brought magnifying glasses for all the participants so they could recognize and identify disease-bearing insects.

In this particular course, as in many on-the-spot courses, the bulk of the time was not devoted to theoretical frontal lectures, but rather to extensive hands-on practice. This approach is captured clearly and concretely in the film. There is, for example, the scene where Rabber is shown teaching trainees how to graft in order to obtain a new variety. He shows them how to hold the knife and where to cut, take out the eye and tie it with a special piece of plastic. Following his demonstration, one observes the trainees themselves grafting, according to his instructions and under his watchful eye.

Model Nursery, Demonstration Day

Exciting as it was to see on film how all course participants were absorbing the material, it was even more fascinating to watch how the Israeli team, together with trainees, constructed a model nursery - 10 metres by 4. It was left at the Research Centre, "proof," says Rabber, "of how one can begin with nothing and end with a practical nursery, equipped with new plants and with a modern irrigation system which the trainees learned how to use."

The highlight of the course was Demonstration Day, a kind of mini agrotechnological fair, complete with booths describing and displaying the equipment sent by the Israeli companies. The trainees had been divided into groups of six, each group responsible for a different aspect of the program. "The group of trainees did everything that goes into setting up and running a Demonstration Day - from preparing the banner at the entrance to making up the signs, placards and pictures for the stands where the equipment was located. This a good way to get information to the local population."

Place of honour at Demonstration Day went to the model nursery. Of all the displays it was undoubtedly the most important one. "It showed how the equipment works, how the whole business operates," says Rabber succinctly.

Over 200 people, many local farmers, attended Demonstration Day. "For practically everyone, it was the first time they had seen sprinklers, drip irrigation systems, and, of course, fertigation systems (in which fertilizer is mixed with irrigation water and deposited through water pipes)." Eighty of the 200 visitors also participated in a joint seminar at which Shmuel Gross taught integrated pest management (IPM) and Duby Rabber covered irrigation systems.

At the end of the course the participants filled out a detailed evaluation sheet. "Results were very positive," reports Rabber. "We saw how positive they were about their exposure to irrigation systems. As more than one wrote, 'It was very important for us to see for the first time how modern irrigation systems work. We need them very badly for we do not use our water resources efficiently enough.' Others commented on the model nursery, with its modern irrigation system 'which was put to use right in front of our eyes.'"

The evaluation sheets confirmed what Rabber and Gross had sensed throughout the course - the thirst for knowledge, the enthusiasm of the trainees and their warmth and affection. "We'd established such rapport," says Rabber, "that parting was actually difficult. It was just hard to leave."

Rabber is not a professional filmmaker. Yet his video captured so well a course in progress. The reason: If, as Confucious claimed, a picture is worth a thousand words, than a film is worth a million.