A 41-year-old Japanese woman has spent 19 years immersing herself in the rural lifestyle of Vietnamese farmers and helping transform their lives through organic farming.

Ino Mayu, who was a history undergraduate in Tokyo when she first visited Vietnam back in 1995, said, “I first came to Saigon in 1995. The city sill bore some old features then despite the war having been over for 20 years. It was nice. I departed for Hanoi afterwards, and I didn’t think I would ever forget the sight of farmers returning home from their days of working in the freezing weather, after I saw it from the window of my bus."

She said it was those first observations that brought her closer to Vietnam.

Mayu returned to Vietnam in March 1997 after graduating to enroll in the Center for Vietnamese Studies and Cultural Exchange at the Vietnam National University-Hanoi.

Based on her determination to master the language, Mayu was able to speak Vietnamese after a short time, and applied to be a correspondent for non-governmental organizations, the work of which involved regular contact with rural residents and farmers in the provinces of Son La, Hoa Binh, Hai Phong, Nghe An in northern Vietnam.

“I’m grateful to the locals for showing me the good features of Vietnam’s agriculture. My mother also came from a farming family, but my short childhood trips to my maternal hometown weren’t enough for me to fully grasp what it’s like to be a farmer,” Mayu confessed.

Mayu then spent a year living with locals in Vietnam’s northern Cao Bang Province for her master’s thesis in Southeast Asian Studies on “Management of Public Forests by the Nung People” at Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo.

In her memory, the farmers in Cao Bang Province were loving and hospitable despite their financial hardship.

“I thought I would do something for them in return some day,” Mayu said.

In 2003, Mayu became a coordinator of the Japan International Volunteer Center (JIVC), and later its representative in Vietnam.

Mayu and her team helped train veterinarians, build public libraries and water dams, and plant trees to prevent soil erosion in Tan Lac District, Hoa Binh Province.

“The period helped me understand the lives of people in rural areas and their hard-working spirit. Vietnamese people are very affectionate towards others, though sometimes they don’t express it on the outside,” Mayu said.

Seed to Table

Mayu was at the crossroads in September 2009 when JIVC closed its office in Vietnam, leaving her with a decision to make of whether to return to Japan or stay in the Southeast Asian country.

She eventually opted for the latter, establishing her own organization ‘Seed to Table’ aiming to help Vietnamese farmers take up organic farming and animal husbandry, with sponsorship from the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

With the initial personnel consisting of only her and two Vietnamese correspondents, Mayu has had to work hard to keep the organization going, surveying the land, doing paperwork, and training farmers to inspect farming methods and manage sponsorships.

Seeing that farmers in Hoa Binh had been abusing chemicals in their farming, Mayu showed them how to produce compost to be used as an alternative to synthetic fertilizer, as well as how to put aside a portion of each harvest as seeds for the next crop.

Mayu’s methods produced positive results, as the farmers’ produce was later certified as organic and bought by chefs at restaurants in Hanoi.

Since 2012, Seed to Table has been loaning cows and ducks to farmers in Binh Dai District, Ben Tre Province in the Mekong Delta region.

“My project isn’t just focused on large, intensive farming areas. Wherever there are farmers who wish to earn a living, we will be there for them,” Mayu said when explaining her decision to initiate the project in Ben Tre.

Mayu’s organization has now loaned over 70 cows and tens of thousands of ducks to 600 households in Binh Dai.

“I’m most delighted that we’ve been able to change farmers' mindsets. When the project first started out, many farmers were skeptical about making money from a flock of 20 to 30 ducks, but after only three months using the correct methods, they have actually turned a profit from these ducks,” Mayu said.

Tran Minh Thong, 54, whose family has been taking part in Mayu’s project since August 2013 on 300 square meters of land, said he had been successful in applying her farming methods.

“Our produce is sold at double the price it used to be, while we have saved a lot of money on fertilizer and pesticides and are protecting the environment in the process,” Thong said.

Despite the initial success providing farmers with sustainable farming methods, Mayu is still concerned.

“I want farmers to be able to sell their produce directly to consumers, as it is only them who can fully understand their own products,” Mayu said.

Mayu’s project will conclude in 2019, and she is leaving her options open, saying she did not want to think too much about what she would be doing in the future.

“I might return to Tokyo to teach, but still carry out other projects and travel between Japan and Vietnam,” she said.

Mayu’s efforts were rewarded with a certificate of compliments from the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs in June 2015 for her “Legacy in Connecting Japan’s Community Culture with Foreign Nations."