As the population grows steadily, the growing demand for vegetables in Cambodia increases respectively, especially for GAP (Good Agriculture Practices) vegetables whose production techniques are strictly applied. Vegetables are a healthy food that is widely needed in families, restaurants, clubs, hotels, etc. Some of them are exported as well. However, actually, Cambodia is still dependent on vegetable import from Vietnam and Thailand for its domestic supplement.
The continuing import of vegetables from abroad indicates an imbalance between supply and production, meaning that productivity is relatively low in both quantity and quality, development of supply chain does not satisfy market demands, new technologies are not fully accessible by farmers and communities, lack of market linkage mechanism associated with cropping calendar, insufficient ownership and confidence in forming and leading producer group to work collectively on harvesting, conservation, maintenance and sanitation of vegetables the members produce. In addition, producers are facing transportation problems, unsatisfied market information mechanisms, accurate cropping calendar, etc.
To contribute to addressing the farmer’s production and market challenges, the Accelerating Inclusive Markets for Stallholders project (AIMS) has intervened by setting up a vegetable producer group in Ta Kaong village, Amleang commune, Thpong district, Kampong Speu province. With good leadership and management, the group can take better responsibility and ownership of its own accurate cropping based on the market demand and establishes links with value chain actors including traders, input suppliers, and service providers. In order to ensure a consistent quantity and good quality of product with regular supply volume and a good selling price, Ta Kaong Vegetable Producer Group, with strong support from AIMS, has signed a buying-selling agreement between the buyer and the producer group. More important support under AIMS is that some members of the producer group have received a low-interest loan from the Agricultural and Rural Development Bank (ARDB) for supporting the expansion of production volume and marketing of vegetables. Both the producers and the buyer have mutual benefits in terms of increasing the number of mixed vegetables to meet market demand and generating household incomes by 3-4 times after the project intervention. For more information, see the link
