Since the population is growing, the demand for vegetables in Cambodia is also constantly increasing, especially the safe vegetables that are grown properly. At the same time as the spread of Covid-19 in Cambodia has been under control, extensive daily needs in the family, restaurants, nightclubs, hotels, etc. and higher export demand in the regions as well. Growing vegetables is not quite easy for smallholder Cambodian farmers. It requires diligent planting techniques. After joining the project, farmers have gained useful knowledge and market connection between farmers so that project farmers have been able to increase their productivities as well as market expansion.
Ms. Tat Pen, 53 years old, and her husband Khorn Kha, 61 years old, live in Trapeang Thmor village, Trapeang Russey commune, Kampong Svay district, Kampong Thom province. They have three daughters. Ms. Tat Pen is a model farmer in Trapeang Thmor vegetable producer organization and a member of the Kmom Srakar Thlock Russey Farm Community Committee. Ms. Tat Pen’s family always goes into the nearby forest to pick mushrooms, fruits and other vegetables in order to sell and support their family, and also grow a few vegetables at home. In lump sum, they can earn only between 250,000 Riel to 350,000 Riel per month that is very difficult to support their whole family because they have to spend a lot on buying food and grocery daily.
After the project dissemination on its objectives and benefits to the farmers attended the group meeting, Ms. Tat Pen and her husband volunteered to become members of the project in anticipation of gaining new knowledge and project support. Since then, she has participated in many technical assistance events and gained knowledge on know-how to grow vegetables that are resistant to climate change. In 2021, she also received grant of the Value Chain Innovation Fund (VCIF) from the project amounted $ 614 to buy some vegetable seeds and materials to expand her growing vegetable capacity.
After purchasing the stuff, she started to grow vegetables according to the techniques provided and eventually the vegetable production has been increased and so has her income. She said, “Now my family can earn more money from growing vegetables that we can sell it in the village markets and sell to local traders who come to village. Now, we can earn from 500,000 Riel to 600,000 Riel per month. My family is not so worried about money shortage as before since we can sell our growing higher yield vegetables and look for food/fruits from the nearby forest.
Weeding and hanging vegetables, she added, “The facilitation and encouragement from the project has helped me to work harder, be stronger, be better decision making to continue and expand my vegetables farming for a better living condition than before. On the other hand, I have been elected by the villagers to be the Kmom Srakar Thlock Russey ecosystems management Community Committee.” She added, “However, I am still looking for other market opportunities and farming or agricultural knowledge from the AIMS project, as well as other projects supporting our Cambodian farmers.”
She happily said, “I have had ample opportunity to contribute to the producer organization and lead community work with the men’s committee more than ever, and to increase this courage for women in the community to be as brave as I am”.
Under good coordination from Project team of Kampong Thom Provincial Department of Commerce, the project has been working with local organizations and NGOs in the province such as Caritas Cambodia, Action for Development (AFD), Farmers and Nature Network (FNN), Home Organization, Kampong Thom Provincial Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, and other partners in order to ease in market access for the project smallholders farmers and support local agricultural products through selling in weekend market supported by the project. In addition, the AIMS project of Kampong Thom Provincial Department of Commerce and SAAMBAT project, implemented by the Department of Rural Development, are in good cooperation under the same umbrella of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) in Kampong Svay, Prasat Balong and Baray districts to define Polar Economic Region and build a road connecting the production site to the market.
Mr. Hieu Vanna, Director of Kampong Thom Provincial Department of Commerce said, “The Kampong Thom AIMS project team has done a lot of work for smallholders, especially the collaboration with the Agricultural and Rural Development Bank (ARDB) and AMK Microfinance in order to facilitate producer organization of chicken, vegetable, rice and cassava to access additional capital through loans to expand their business and production level with reasonable interest.
The cooperation and support from the local authorities clearly shows the great achievements that have been made, especially reflecting the willingness to cooperate in the implementation of programs and projects to work together to produce safe and hygienic vegetables for market supply and safe for the buyers, increased household income, increased productivity, and distributed markets that meet project objectives to promote market growth and for high value agricultural products and basic clusters development that producers are the poor smallholders, especially women beneficiaries.
The Royal Government of Cambodia and Development Partners under the umbrella of the IFAD have been encouraging farmers to produce safe vegetables to meet the growing market demand that is an increasing trend of domestic vegetarianism with high quality, clean and safe. At the same time, presently there are some farmers, traders and private companies have been participating in improving the vegetable value chain that grown by our Cambodian farmers using new technology that are resistant to the weather and can take the opportunity to expand the production to potential domestic, international, and Phnom Penh markets.
The project should facilitate the project farmers to receive trainings from technical partners aiming to support the expansion of their vegetable cultivation in the coming years to grow better. The value chain team, departments, institutions and related partners should coordinate to further support the production as well as help find a better and more sustainable market, especially to find more good traders and buy-and-sell contracts between the production organizations and traders to build strongly trust between the two parties. At the same time, the value chain team should cooperate in coordinating production plans with other members to produce to meet the high demand of the production organization and the markets. [Download]
