Progress report of climate change negotiation in Bon

Click here to download the document on climate change...

The document is very useful and helpful to learn about the negative effect of climate change to the human being... I think that it is really good that CEDAC has been strongly working to promote family ecological agriculture, it is a long term sustainability. As we have recently discussed during the meeting of FNP, there are many agriculture techniques promoted by CEDAC and all of them are significantly contributing to climate change mitigation and adaptation. Additionally, based on the document, I could learn well about the advantages of the ocean to the people livelihood, it is closely connected to the livelihood of the people as the world’s oceans cover over two thirds of the Earth’s surface and contain over 90% of the world’s biomass. Furthermore, I could know that because of the climate change, about 200 million people worldwide could become climate migrants by 2050, etc.

What have farmers prepared for rainy season rice production?

Written by YIM Sok Sophors

It is now the time for the rainy season rice production, started from June to December or January. At the beginning of June, I have visited Tramkak district of Takeo province and I observed that there were some rains in the villages and farmers had prepared seedbeds as well as plowed the rice field. At the same time, I saw that some farmers have already sown the rice seed in the seedbeds. Hopefully, they will transplant the seedling very soon afterward. During the visit, I have discussed with the farmers to pay attention for the selection of good/healthy rice seed as it is very necessary important to harvest a good yield at the end of the season.

Moreover, some farmers have already brought the natural manure to the field. In this year, the amount of natural manure is likely increased than the previous years. Furthermore, the farmers tend to reduce the amount of chemical fertilizer as the selling price is very expensive. At the present, I could note that the majority of farmers have understood well about the use of existing resources or low external input agriculture. Additionally, based on the discussion with some farmers in the villages, there are about 2-4 farmers per village who have totally abandoned chemical fertilizer in the whole size of their rice fields. It is really good that their rice fields are completely converted to organic field. The conversion period for rice production is normally 3 years. Concerning to the rice farmer producers, they hope that they will able to produce more yield for supplying to the local markets.

How is the food security in the villages?

Written by YIM Sok Sophors

I would like to let you know that the situation of food security in the village is still the main issues to be solved even some farmers in the villages are progressing well in terms of the capacity of producing adequate food for family consumption and local market supplies. Based on the study on food security conducted in February 2009, 40.76% of the total families in the village confront shortages of rice for family consumption, including 15.75% lack of rice for less than 3 months per year, 14.72% lack of rice for 3 to 6 months per year and 10.29% lack of rice over than 6 months per year. It is to mention that the study was conducted in Kampong Chhnang, Kampong Speu, Kampot and Takeo provinces. In general, the average number of total families per village is 184 and there are 5 members per family.



At the same time, only 25.67% of the total families in the village are able to produce paddy for selling after enough supply for family consumption. However, the amount of paddy sold is still low which is less than 1 ton per family throughout the whole year. To me, I noted that most of the families that confront shortage for rice are the families that have cultivated rice field less than 0.5 ha. The poorest families often say that they have no enough rice field for rice cultivation that is why they cannot produce adequate rice to meet for family's demand. By this reason, they alternatively migrate to work as the migrant workers outside the villages. Although, the income from off-farm activities are still not able to improve the livelihood of the families and actually cannot overcome the extreme poverty of the families.

On the other hand, in case of some families that have adopted/adapted the System of Rice Intensification (SRI), they are definitely able to produce enough food for the family even they have smaller rice fields. Through the practicing of SRI, farmers could harvest double yield if compare to the conventional practices. The SRI experienced farmers said that they could harvest the same volume of rice even they had already provided some pieces of rice fields to their sons and daughters. Therefore, it is able to conclude that the knowledge and skill for improving the agricultural productivity is the key point to get rid of food insecurity. Farmers themselves especially the poorest farmers need to practice new ideas in order to improve their current situation for a better lives.

Presenation of a new proposal in the office of Winrock

On June 09, I (Yim Sok Sophors) went to participate in the presentation of the project “Children’s Empowerment through Education Services (CHES): Eliminating the Worst Forms of Child Labor in Prey Veng” in the office of Winrock in Phnom Penh. Mr. Yi Kimthan, the senior program officer of CEDAC Field Program presented the above-mentioned proposed project to the panel committee, Dr Yang Saing Koma, the president of CEDAC also participated in that event. The presentation took time about 1 hour included presentation and question & answer forum from the panel members. The specific objectives and expected outputs of the project are:

1. 2,578 children withdrawn or prevented from the worst forms of labor through the provision of direct education services, and they are able to attend school regularly;
2. Increased awareness of local authority, parent and stakeholders on the importance of education and negative impact of child labor and developed collective action among local stakeholders, school teachers, school principles and local authorities to prevent from the worst form of child labor and promote children education
3. Improved the livelihood of 900 parents to overcome the poverty through application of innovations in ecological agriculture, especially system of rice intensification, animal husbandry, aquaculture, home gardening and participation in saving group.

If this proposal is approved, CEDAC will be able to continue the implementation in 45 villages across 9 villages of 3 districts, Baphnom, Kompong Trabek and Prah Sdach districts. The most vulnerable families will be supported by the project to improve the livelihood and to enable them send the children to primary education and to protect from exploitation of child labor in agricultural sector and so on. The final result will come out during the period of next week!

Written by Yim Sok Sophors

Coordination Team Meeting of FNP

Written by Yim Sok Sophors

CEDAC field program organized coordinating team meeting for a whole day on June 08, 2009 with the participation of all project officers; approximately 20 participants included project officers, zonal coordinators and program officers. Mr. Bao Vuthy who is the zonal coordinator of zone 1 (Takeo and Kompot province) acted as the main facilitator of the meeting. The agenda of the meeting was conducted as follows:

1. Sharing attractive information from the field
2. Sharing progress of the project in the previous month
3. Cooperation among each other, project and project, department and department
4. Review discussion and field work on SRI promotion for the future rainy season
5. Team learning on climate change (Mr. Vann Sarorn who is the project officer of CEDAC field program to be responsible for the project of climate change presented the general overview of the project and Mr. Yi Kimthan who is the senior program officer of CEDAC field program presented about the general concept of climate change specifically the presentation on climate change mitigation and adaptation)
6. Sum up and impression of the meeting

As the result, we could share and know much information relating to each other especially we knew about the specific progress of each project. Importantly, all of the participants have learned more about the project relating to Climate Change that was presented by Mr. Vann Sarorn and Mr. Yi Kimthan. Moreover, we understood about the Kyoto protocol as well. For example, 37 industrialized countries in the annex 1.

Additionally, we could note that all of the agricultural innovations introduced by CEDAC are strongly connected to the mitigation and adaptation to climate change, such as the ecological System of Rice Intensification (SRI), System of Intensification and Diversification (SID), integrated home gardening, improved cook stove, small scale irrigation scheme...etc. Particularly, the staff who have provided both internal and external services need record well the number of man/day conducted. Moreover, the rain is starting and farmers started preparing seedbed so that campaign of SRI promotion need to be conducted on time.

Internal Evaluation of ILFARM-TK

3-5 June 2009, the group discussion with key informants in Dok Vann village and Steung villages were conducted by Mr. Yim Sok Sophors and Miss Pheng Chandy. The topics of the discussion were focused on effect of saving group, farmer producer groups, level of adoption and adaptation of SRI in the village as well as the change of income of the target families after cooperating with CEDAC's project, ILFARM-TK.

Up to now, the team has conducted individual interview in 2 villages, by interviewing with the leaders of village-based farmer association, representatives of collective saving groups, rice farmer producer group, chicken farmer producer group and rice farmer.Generally, the technique of system of rice intensification is well adopted/adapted by the farmers, but most of them are difficult to transplant in row. The quantity of chemical fertilizer is decreased but the expenditure for buying chemical fertilizer is not decreased because of the price of chemical fertilizer is more expensive. Farmer are understood well about the advantages of collective saving group as they can earn their own profit, but the amount of their capital is too small which cannot meet the demand even for their group members. Cash outflow from the village is very, very much. However, the income of the farmers is increased after improving of their agricultural technical practices.

Continue from the previous week, from June 09-12, 2008 Mr. Yim Sok Sophors and Miss Pheng Chandy continued conducting focus group discussion with the key informants in the studied villages. So far, 8 focus group discussion in 8 villages out of 12 villages have been conducted. Relating to the individual interview, the members of ALDA have already completed in 6 villages, there will be 6 other villages to be completed for next week.

Proposal writing on food security and nutrition

Today, June 02, 2009 I myself (Yim Sok Sophors) have started to write up the project proposal on food security for Prey Veng province with Mr. Yi Kimthan who is the senior program officer of CEDAC Field Program. Generally, the project's idea, logical framework, activity work plan and proposed budget have been firstly prepared. Later on, the full proposal will be written based what have been thought and prepared.

For the days after, Mr. Yi Kimthan and Mr. Yim Sok Sophors will write up the results as well as the activities of the project.We hope that we can finish the proposal on time and submit it to Dr. Yang Saing Koma, the president of CEDAC for comment and then the proposal will be submitted to EC. It is to note that this proposed proposal will select the target province in Prey Veng so that CEDAC can continue its intervention in this project if the proposal will be approved.

Meeting to revise the proposal on rice market chain study in Kompot and Takeo provinces

June 02, 2009 Mr. Yim Sok Sophors and Miss Pheng Chandy who are the staff of CEDAC Field Program had a meeting with Dr. Craig A Meisner, Research and Extension Manager of Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) and Mr. Sideth Kang, CAVAC's new Ext & Res Specialist. The meeting was organized in order to discuss about the revise of the proposal on rice market chain study and also discussed about the methodologies of the study.

During the meeting, Mr. Yim Sok Sophors has discussed one by one relating to the comment from the panel members of the proposal evaluation. As a result, it is more clear about what the research team is going to do from July 2009 for the study on rice market chain. Mr. Sideth will help to find the existing document on rice market chain study from MAFF so that this research team will be able to learn from the experiences of previous research projects.
In short, the revise of the proposal was discussed and the official contract will be done immediately after the submission of the revised proposal. The formation of the study team and questionnaires preparation will be started from July 2009.