Workshop on the project's results

On December 16, 2009 Mr. San Sorn, Farmer Community Facilitator of CEDAC's project, namely "Improvement of the most Vulnerable Families for Prevention of Human Trafficking and Unsafe Migration" participated in a workshop organized by IOM and Ministry of Women's Affairs.

The workshop was organized in order to present the results of the project under implementation of IOM in collaboration with the Ministry of Women's Affairs. CEDAC is a part of the project that is responsible to improve the livelihood of the poorest families through promotion of ecological agriculture such as system of rice intensification, ecological chicken raising, vegetable growing, etc.

Project Eevaluation in Svay Rieng and Prey Veng

I (Yim Sok Sophors) was participating in an external evaluation of the project, entitled “Improving Livelihood of the most Vulnerable Families for Protection of Human Trafficking and Unsafe Migration) in Svay Rieng and Prey Veng provinces from 23 to 26 September 2009 with Mr. San Sorn, Mr. Yi Sok San (IOM), Mrs.Tevy (an official of Ministry of Women’s Affairs) and other 2 external evaluators from CDRI. This external evaluation was conducted in purpose to measure the achievements and impacts of the project. It is to remind this project is funded by IOM (International Organization for Migration) for a period of 18 months from June 2008 to December 2009. The specific objective of this project is to improve the livelihood of vulnerable farmers through dissemination of agricultural technical innovations.

This evaluation was conducted in various methods, including individual interview with key stakeholders of the project such as officials of Department of Women’s Affairs at the provincial level, local authorities (village chief), target families, CEDAC staff who involved in implementing this project, IOM staff, etc. Additionally, the Focus Group Discussion (FGD) with the project’s target groups(cooperating farmers and key farmers, saving groups, sugar palm producer groups) were also organized in the project’s target villages.

According to my observation, in general, I see that the project has achieved good results in improving the livelihood of the target groups (migrant workers, the poorest families...) as the target groups have hugely gained the knowledge and skills of agricultural innovations (ecological chicken raising, system of rice intensification, solid compost, liquid compost, vegetable growing, sugar palm production…) very well. For example, the project has strengthened key farmers (3-5 key farmers per village) who are the main resource persons in agricultural extension in the villages. It is able to highlight that a cooperating farmer in Thom village, Thnot commune of Kompong Ror district, Svay Rieng province, could earn about 200,000 riels from vegetable selling per month that he had never ever made any incomes from vegetables before the intervention of the project. Many other cooperating farmer families have improved their incomes from innovations introduced by the project (like collective selling of sugar palm, know-how to produce powder sugar palm…). However, the reduction of chemical pesticide for dry season rice production is still limited and need to be taken into account.

In addition to this evaluation, Mr. Yi Sok San, IOM staff, has impressed that “CEDAC has achieved a very good result”. Moreover, the official of Ministry of Women’s Affairs also highly appreciated to our effort and commitment to accomplish a very good result of this project. They all considered that the livelihood component implemented by CEDAC is a good case to be widely disseminated as it is an effective way for prevention of human trafficking and unsafe migration. They believe that income instability is the main root of cause of migration. The evaluation report will be produced by the evaluators as soon as possible.

What I have learned from this evaluation:

1.The evaluator did not select the target families by themselves but they allowed the project staff to select for them, it is purposively selected.
2.It is good that stakeholder interview was conducted before the farmer interview and group discussion in the village because the evaluators could gain basic understanding and overview of the project before conducted in-depth study in the field.
3.The detail program of the evaluation should be prepared firstly and distributed to relevant people in order to make easier for arrangements.
4.Questionnaires should be developed separately for stakeholder interview, cooperating and key farmer interview, etc because different actors involved in different activities of the project.
5.At the next time, the project should also recruit a field community to help farmer community facilitator so that the project would be able to carry out more activities and achievements in the field.
6.Thematic workshops on the topic of chemical pesticide should be organized more often in order to raise awareness among the rice farming families who conducted dry season rice production as they use much chemical pesticide.
7.More external study tours should be organized for the potential farmers in order to speed up the progress of innovation dissemination.

Field visit by IOM-Cambodia

On 05-06 March 2006, there was a field visit conducted by a team from IOM organization included the representative from Ministry of Women's Affairs of Cambodia to the project's target area of the project "Improvement of the most Vulnerable Families for Protection of Human Trafficking and unsafe Migration" in Svay Rieng and Prey Veng provinces.



This team was seeking to understand about the situation and progress of the project implementation by CEDAC. During the the field visit, the visit team met with key farmers in order to interview with them relating to the progress in term of agricultural adoption/adaption and livelihood improvement under the intervention of this project. It was to note that there were many farmers had grown vegetables and most of the farmers in Prey Veng provinces were working on sugar palm production. The visit team suggested that it is good if the project can like those farmer producer groups to the local market especially the markets which is located nearby the Cambodia-Vietnam border, Bavet. It is good market opportunity thanks to there is big demand.

THE PROJECT’S ACTIVITIES AND RESULTS FROM 16 TO 23 FEBRUARY 2009

1.Facilitating the commune workshop with sugar palm producers

On 17-18 Feb 2009, the project staff has facilitated one 2-day communal workshop on the topic of formation of sugar palm producer groups. 26 participants (5 women) attended the workshop. It is to note that representatives of provincial department of women’s affairs, district office of women’s affairs, women affairs at the commune level as well as village chief have also participated. It is to mention that the project staff has presented about the strategy of forming the sugar palm producer groups at the village level as well as the federation of sugar palm producer groups at the commune level. The groups are empowered if they formed into federation/network.



Additionally, it is to remind that 159 families in 5 villages of Prey Tung commune are interested in sugar palm producer groups, and now 2 sugar palm producer groups with 29 members have already formed in the commune. Furthermore, the governmental officials especially the local authorities are also interested in the idea of forming sugar palm producer groups because they want sugar palm producers to be formed together for collective business activity.

2.Organizing group training for key farmers in Prey Tung commune

One training session for 16 key farmers (2 women) at the commune level was facilitated by the project staff. The main topic of the training focused on ecological chicken raising. As the result of the training, the key farmers are interested in how to provide mix-feed to chicken especially the chicks, improved sanitation and to improve the method of designing the chicken house.

3.Progress of agricultural innovations practices in Prey Tung commune

Vegetable Growing

Based on the data information from the village chief and key farmers, 36 farmers have applied the technique of vegetable growing. Several kinds of vegetables have been grown by the cooperating farmers such as cucumber, water convolvulus, bottle gourd, wax gourd, egg plant, green petiole, etc. the average arable land for vegetable growing is 0.04 ha for each family. But there are some families cultivated in the bigger size as they grow water melon and string bean in the rice field.

It is to note that there are some positive changes in term of technical practices under the project intervention, those are mentioned as follows:

- The cooperating farmers conducted poly culture (integrated vegetable growing): farmers grow many kinds of vegetables in their vegetable gardens which previously they practiced monoculture;
- The cooperating farmers have adopted the technique of making liquid compost and solid compost. They are likely pay more attention to produce natural manure instead of using chemical fertilizer especially for family consumption;
- Farmers have improved the designation of vegetable garden and rows as well as fencing method;
- It is to note that the farmers are able to prolong the period of supplying vegetable for family consumption. Furthermore, 20 out of 36 families who have grown vegetables are able to sell their vegetables for generating further family income;

Ecological Chicken Raising (ECR)

23 families have adapted the technique of ecological chicken raising, they have applied some of 13 principles of ECR. Only 2 families have built the chicken fences, but the rest of the cooperating families have renovated the chicken house for hatching and other technical practices such as:

- Farmers have provided regularly the clean water to chicken especially they use medicinal plants soak into the water;
- Farmers have conducted de-worming by using herbal medicine;
- Additionally, farmers have also improved the sanitation especially they regularly clean feed container and water container;

Based on the impression from farmers, the number of farmers who will improve the technique of chicken raising will be increased simultaneously.

4. Further remarks

It is to note that during this period from February to May 2009, the sugar palm producers are busy in producing sugar palm so that it is difficult for the project staff to make appointment with them for the training or meeting. The convenient time for them is between 11 am and 2pm.

5. Concluding Remarks

In conclusion, the sugar palm producers are interested in the formation of sugar palm producer groups because it is easier for them to conduct collective selling of the sugar, they can learn knowledge and skill of producing good quality sugar as well as other agricultural techniques from each other, they want to improve negotiation power with the middlemen/merchants for a better price. Furthermore, the local authorizes especially the commune chief and village chief are active in providing support to the formation of sugar palm producer groups.

Moreover, it is able to conclude that the number of farmers who apply agricultural innovations promoted by the project will be increased gradually. From now on, the application of chicken raising will be enhanced, because during the individual follow up advice conducted by the project staff, farmers promised that they will practice it especially among the sugar palm producers.

Progress of IOM project

In this month, January 2009, there is a good progress in term of vegetable growing adopting/adapting by the cooperating farmers. The number of farmers have significantly increased if compare to the previous months. Additionally, we note that they are applying the technique of vegetable growing very well such as seedbed preparation, seed selection, pest control based on the principle of ecological agriculture, ordinarily, farmers use botanical pesticide and other mechanical method to control pest in their farms.



According to the result of vegetable growing, farmers can increase agricultural production especially the supply of healthy vegetable for family consumption and to generate further income for the family. It is able to mitigate the dependency of vegetable import from Vietnam as well so the domestic family agricultural product is increased.

In this month, Mr. Chhin Saray who is the YCL (Young Community Leader) also have been working involved in awareness raising on negative impact of chemical pesticide to human health and environment. It is really that he works in that area, Thnot commune in Kompong Ror district, and another one commune called Chantrea which is located in Chantrea district, Svay Rieng province. Most of the farmers in that area are using huge quantity of chemical pesticide and fertilizer for rice cultivation and they lack of knowledge on prevention method and the negative impact of those chemical to human being and environment as well as the economy. With our work in that area, the project staff have cooperated actively with the village chief to arrange some main events to raise the understanding of local farmers on chemical pesticide. Currently, key farmers have gained more understanding on chemical pesticide and they are playing critical role in disseminating the message of negative impact of pesticide to the other farmers in the village.

On the other hand, the project has also conducted individual follow up visit to sugar palm farmer producer in Sithor Kandal district, Prey Veng province. They have understood more and more about the collective selling of their products in order to increase the negotiation power with middlemen for their collective benefit. It is to note that the activity relating to supporting to form sugar palm producer groups should be formed in the dry season because it is a good time for farmers to produce sugar palm and it is able to organize collective selling among the group member as well.

Finally, the conclusion is that the number of farmers who applied agricultural innovations especially vegetable growing have gradually increased to meet their family need and supply for local market. The number of key farmers who can play important role in disseminating agricultural innovations in the community is also increased as they have learned well from the project. The local authority is good cooperation with the project and they support and participate in the activity of the project.

Monitoring Mission to Svay Rieng Province

On 09-10 December 2008, Mr. Kin Mengse (Program officer of CEDAC), Mr. San Sorn (the project staff of the Improvement of the most Vulnerable Families for Protection of Human Trafficking and Unsafe Migration), and Mr. Yim Sok Sophors (Project Manager) have conductd a internal monitoring for this project in purpose of understanding the general progress of the proejct especially to seek for strategies in progressing the project.

7 cooperating farmers were interviewed individually in 2 villages of 2 communes. It is to note most of them have applied the technique they have learned from the project, that is vegetable growing technique. Currently, they have prepared the vegetable garden and have grown some local varieties inside their homestead area. Remarkably, some farmers have not only use for family consumption, but also sell vegetable to neigboring farmilies to get further income for the families. One family that we have met during the monitoring raised that they have used money for selling of vegetable for their daily life, such as expense for children tuition, foods, etc.

Now, it is a good time for vegetable growing, so there will more farmers grow vegetable after they have completed rice harvesting in December.

Mission to Prey Veng

26-27 November 2008: I went to Svay Rieng and Prey Veng provinces to work for the project IOM. During working there, I also went to Sithor Kandal district to see the general progress of the project. generally we could see that cooperating farmers have been preparing and applying the technique of vegetable growing they have learned from the project's staff.

Duringt the visit, Mr. San Sorn also distributed some vegetable seeds to farmers who have already prepared the vegetable garden so that they can use it for diversifying their crops as they have some own seeds. In addition to vegetable growing, it is expected that the number of cooperating farmers who grow vegetable will be increased significantly after rice harvesting, farmers will have sufficient time to involve in growing vegetable.

My visit to Svay Rieng

On October 16, 2008 I was in Svay Rieng province to provide the support to Mr. San Sorn, the farmer community facilitator of the project “Improvement of the most Vulnerable Families for protection of human trafficking and unsafe migration”.

1. Review the activity work plan of October 2008

The monthly work plan was reviewed during my presence in Svay Rieng, normally we discussed to determine which activities have being done on tract and which activities are not being implemented yet and which reasons.

-It is to note that the number of interested farmers is only 335, so the project needs to select other 465 farmers to fulfill 800 total beneficiaries.
-So far, the project has organized 5 group training for the experimented farmers with the participation of 141 (97 women).
-24 key farmers were selected, the total expected key farmers will be selected is 42, in other word, 3 key farmers per village.

In total, 45% of the monthly activity plan has achieved starting from 01-16 October 2008. Therefore, we hopefully the rest of the activities will be completed on time as we have other 2 weeks for operation.

2. Individual interview and group training for experimented farmers

At the same day, I have interviewed 2 farmers, in Thom village, Thnot commune, Kompong Ror district, Svay Rieng province, who are suitable to select as key farmers. Generally, we have interviewed them about their understanding on the project, the agricultural techniques and their commitment to work as key farmers.

Additionally, we have visited the farms developed by those farmers in order to see their practice recently. We could observe that one of them is conducting a good practice in term of preparing vegetable garden and the farm of another one is not good due to the effect of flood.
Later on, we have organized one-group training for approximately 20 experimented farmers on the topic of introduction to vegetable production. The main topics of the training are illustrated as below:

-Advantages of growing vegetable and economic analysis
-Reading the case studied from farmer magazine related to vegetable production of a good farmer
-Method of producing solid compost and liquid compost
-The next training will be in-detail

The project staff will more often to conduct individual follow-up advice to those above interested farmers to improve their innovations practice. A few among them are the potential farmers who are able to play role as key farmers.

3. Preparation of agricultural output-based

Finally, we have discussed together with Mr. San Sorn about the expected output of the project in term of adoption of technical innovations. (Please see the annex table)
By doing so, we could know clear what do we expect to achieve in which timeframe.

4. General Conclusion

Generally, we could conclude that around 45% of the project’s activities are achieved during a half month of October. Hopefully, the project staff will be able to complete all the expected activities on time. Additionally, we could note that the project activity is moving forward, for instance we have organized 5 group training sessions for the experimented farmers so that the number of farmers who apply innovations will be accelerated simultaneously.

At the present, we could see that some farmers have improved their agricultural practice after the exposure visit to Prey Veng. In reality, some farmers have improved the vegetable seedbed and how to select a good seed.

3. Recommendation

Come up from the result of the visit, the following recommendations are taken into account:

-The project staff should allocate more time for the individual follow-up and one-to-one conversation with the cooperating farmers in order to increase their attention to agricultural practice.
-The project staff should invite representatives from department of women’s affairs to join the project planning and quarterly monitoring as it is time to do that.

-The learning materials especially the leaflets and posters of pesticide should be widely distributed to farmers in the project’s targeted area of Svay Rieng province as they use much amount of chemical pesticide for the IR rice variety. It will help to raise their understanding on negative impact of chemical pesticide to health, environment and economy.

-The project staff should copy VCD relating to technical innovations such as SRI, vegetable growing, ECR, etc to distribute to at least key farmers and other main farmers in order to disseminate the message of agricultural innovations. Majority of farmers are interested in watching and the VCD player is accessible in the villages.
-The exposure visit for the interested farmers in Prey Veng province should be organized soon so that those farmers can learn and apply at the same time as farmers in Svay Rieng.

Rice transplanting in Kompong Ror district, Svay Rieng province

From 10-12 September 2008, I went to Chantrea and Kompong Ror districts of svay rieng provicne, i observed that there are much raining water in the rice field and farmers are busy for rice transplanting. In this year, farmers in Svay Rieng seemed to be late in transplanting the rice due to have no enough raining water at the beginning of the season. Along the road within the villages of Thnot commune, some farmers asked me to borrow some money because they considered as the MFI staff, they just wanted to borrow some money to spend for the payment of chemical fertilizer and pesticide. It is to note farmers in the area use much chemical pesticide and fertilizer for the rice production, so the production cost is so high and the benefit is less and they confront to disease effected by chemical pesticide to their health and environment contamination.

Project Introduction Workshop

From 22-25 August 2008, I went to organize to Svay Rieng for organizing 2 introduction workshops on the project, namely "Improvement of the most vulnerable Families for protection of human trafficking and unsafe migration". The commune chief, village chief, villagers and some representatives of IOM were invited to join the workshop. The workshop aimed to present the project's goal and objectives, expected output, strategy and activity...etc. especially, I have mainly concentrated on how to cooperate well among the project's stakeholders in order to ensure that the project will be able to achieve its main output effectively. We have totally achieved some main activities as follows:

- 120 families have been met for one-to-one conversation both Prey Veng and Svay Rieng provinces,
- 3 project introduction workshops were organized

For the last week of August, we will organize village general meetings and there will be a video show on SRI during that time as well, it is to note that most of farmers have not yet transplanted their rice seedling in the project's target area of Svay Rieng province,

Field Mission to Prey Veng and Svay Rieng Provinces,

From 12-15 August 2008, I had been working for the project, namely "Improvement of Livelihood of the most Vulnerable Families for Prevention of Human Trafficking and Unsafe Migration" in Svay Rieng and Prey Veng provinces. I went to Svay Rieng on the first day of my visit and I have discussed with Mr. San Sorn about the project, I explained to him the rational background of the project, objectives, main outputs, methodologies and activities will be done by the project. Importantly, I wanted Mr. San Sorn who is the one to act the role of farmer community facilitator of this project can understands well about the general concept of this project and he can move forward to field implementation. Furthermore, I have met him for reflection on the activities and results that the project has achieved so far if compare to the project's plan at the beginning of this month. It is to note that 120 out of 140 families have been conducted the one-to-one conversation both in Svay Rieng and Prey Veng provinces. Based on the collected information from the one-to-one conversation with the families in Prey Tung commune, Sithor Kandal district, Prey Veng province, we could know that:

There are around 100-150 families in the villages produce sugar palm with the average quantity of 1000 kg per year, the maximum is 1500 kg/year and the minimum is 500 kg/year. The market price now is 2000 riel/kg. Remarkably, there are totally 5 villages of Prey Tung commune.

Most of the villagers in the target villages lack of rice for family consumption, in case of the poorest families, they lack of rice at least a half of the whole year. Most of the poorest are hired to make silk so that they can get some complementary income for the family's need.
The size of homestead area is small and the house settlement of the villagers is located in a close place among house to house, so farmers feel that they lack of land for vegetable cultivation as well as there were many big trees planted in the homestead that is unable them to grow vegetable because of competing of nutrient absorbing from the roots of big trees,
Additionally, I have discussed with Mr. San San to review the project's work plan to organize the introduction workshop, village general meeting at the village level, etc. Hope that there will be more activities accomplished at the end of this month.