M&E team at Kompot and Takeo Provinces

From 23-27 November 2009 a group of CEDAC M&E team, included Yim Sok Sophors, Meas Somica, Pheng Chandy, Vang Sean, Chhin Chhunhoir, went to Chhouk district, Kompot province in order to conduct the field research on rice value chain in 3 districts (Chumkiri, Dong Tong, and Kompong Trach). The team members had conducted 7 group discussion meeting in the studied villages.

Generally, it was able to find that rice farming families in the studied villages can produce paddy for selling. The amount of paddy sold from the village is gradually increased from year to year according to the improvement of rice farming practices. Additionally, the rice yield in the studied village is around 3 t/ha that is higher than the national average--2.58 t/ha. It is able to know that the farmers have gained their skill in producing more rice yield to meet the family's consumption and supply for markets after family's surplus. On the other hand, based on the interview with the representatives of community based rice mills they have understood well about the rice market situation in their districts. They want to expand their roles in supplying rice product in the markets. Currently, some rice cooperatives have been formed under the facilitation and support from CEDAC and Provincial Department of Agriculture (PDA). The cooperatives have tried to mobilize resources so that they can have enough capital to invest in rice business.

Particularly, it is able to know that most of rice farming families conduct dry season rice production in the districts close to Vietnam Border. Huge amount of external agricultural inputs are used. However the farmers are still able to make profit meanwhile they can harvest a good result. Even they can make profit from dry season rice production, but they are at high risk because the knowledge of using chemical pesticide and fertilizer is really low. It can damage their health, environmental contamination, etc. The selling price of paddy is determined by Vietnamese traders, the farmers have no any bargaining power to fix the selling price of their product. At the present time, it is able to observe that the farmers have tried to produce more rice for selling. They consume wet season rice and they sell dry season rice because the dry season rice is contained much chemicals that is not good for human health.

Field mission to IFWP

IFWP stands for Improving Livelihood for Women and Rural Poor in Mundulkiri province, Cambodia. It is to show that from 15-19 November 2009, Mr. Yim Sok Sophors who is the project coordinator of IFWP-MP went to Mundulkiri province with Mr. Sim Samoeun, senior program director of CEDAC in order to provide mission support for the project staff of IFWP-MP. During these field missions, 2 district workshops were organized with around 50 participants of each workshop, field visit as well as staff training were additionally organized during the mission. Click here to read in detail...

Rice Value Chain Study in Kompot Province

09-12 November 2009, Mr. Yim Sok Sophors conducted a field mission to Kompot province in order to conduct a field research on rice value chain study in Chumkiri, Kompong Trach and Dong Tong districts, in Kompot province. A research team was set up for implementing this research project in Kompot.

The former trainees of YAE (Young Agri-Enterpreneur) and the project's staff of Saving for Self-Reliance participated in this value chain study. At the same time, they also learned from and know how to conduct this study as well. Based on the research proposal, the team will select 25 villages in 6 communes in 3 districts for the study. There will be 200 farmers will be interviewed.

It is expected that we will be able to know the amount of paddy annually produced by the farmers in the studied districts as well as to know about the volume of rice imported from Vietnam for domestic supply. The impact of community-led rice mills will also be studied in detail in order to know its impacts to food availability in the areas as well as to know the main challenges of the operation and management.

Training on Cooperative

On 5-6 November 2009, there was a training on cooperative provided by Mr. Carl from Cooperative in German. He came and shared general concept of cooperative in German and the progress of cooperative in German. Around 25 CEDAC staff participated in this 2-day training, included Mr. Yim Sok Sophors acting as the participants and the translator of the course.

2 German trainers  presented and explained about the history of cooperatives in Germany. Additionally, a program officer of Buddish for Development also presented his experiences in supporting farmer cooperatives in Cambodia for years. According to the result of the training, the participants could learn more about cooperative especially they have opportunities to learn practical experiences from other NGOs that is valuable for them to improve their work in relation to cooperatives and other related fields.

Monthly meeting of IFWP-MP in October 2009

A monthly meeting among project staff of IFWP-MP was conducted in October 30, 2009 at CEDAC office in Phnom Penh. Totally, 6 staffs participated in the meeting with the following agenda:

- Sharing attractive information
- Sharing activities and results in October 2009
- Preparing activity work plan for November 2009
- Presenting the project concept of IFWP-MP to participants, especially new recruited staff
- Others

The meeting lasted for a half morning. According to the result of the meeting, the participants impressed that they are sure about project’s activities to be accomplished in November 2009. Additionally, the project staffs have received more understanding about the project, but they need to learn more to ensure that they are qualified enough to explain the other correctly. Click here for more detail...