Meeting with IDE’s NGO partners

On February 19, 2010 Mr. Yim Sok Sophors facilitated a meeting with partner NGOs of IDE at Kor Andeak, Kompong Trabke district, Prey Veng province. 9 participants attended the meeting who are NGOs’ staffs from CEDAC, IDE and PADEK. The meeting was conducted by reviewing minute of the last meeting, discussion about Radio program of FBA (Farm Business Adviser), strengthening cooperation among partner NGOs, selection of new field school, etc. The meeting was conducted smoothly and was able to produce much results. The next partner meeting will be conducted at IDE office in Svay Rieng province on March 19, 2010.

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NGO partners Meeting at Svay Rieng

On December 29, 2009, Mr. Yim Sok Sophors who is in charge of the Project Linking Farmers to Market for Rural Prosperity (RIU/ICF) as the project manager will participate in the partner meeting at Svay Rieng Province. Representatives of IDE (International Development Enterprises) and Representatives from PADEK (Partnership for Development in Kampuchea) will present at the meeting.

By this time, it is the second year of the project enactment, buoyantly all NGO partner representatives will confer in detail about the expansion of new target communes, which communes will be covered by CEDAC, IDE and PADEK. It is expected that the NGO partners will be able to discuss indeed about the operational strategies for 2010. It is to note that CEDAC is responsible to support 500 cooperating farmers within 50 vegetable farmer producer groups (in 50 villages across Prey Veng and Svay Rieng Provinces) be able to generate more farming income from vegetable selling. According to the project document, it is expected that each cooperating farmer will make further income of 150 USD from selling of vegetables.

Field Visit to Prey Veng and Svay Rieng Provinces

From 23-24 February 2009, I went to Prey Veng and Svay Rieng provinces because I wanted to see the progress of vegetable growing conducted by the cooperating farmers of the project “Linking Farmers to Market”. Based on what I have seen the practices of farmers in the field, I could note that there are still many farmers have grown vegetable even now it is the late rainy season. Some of farmers have been using water from pond and others from the drilled well. I see that those farmers experienced of vegetable growing for a few years but they have not yet understood so well about negative impact of chemical fertilizer and pesticide. Currently, most of them use chemical fertilizer and pesticide for vegetable production, but it is used in the small amount. But after cooperating with the project, they wanted to reduce or stop using of chemicals.



However, there is a difficult for vegetable farmer producer in this year due to the price is now hugely decreased if compare to the last year. It is not good to benefit farmers as they have done previously. Based on the individual interview with farmers, they raised that this is because of much amount of vegetable is imported from many other places in the country especially Vietnam. In such condition, the local farmers lost of market opportunity in term of selling their vegetable products and it is not a good factor to encourage the local producer to try more effort. At the same time, the local consumers also have not got healthy vegetables for consumption because they are using imported vegetable from Vietnam which is cheaper than the local products that contains high chemicals. The main reason why the local producers cannot compete with imported vegetables from Vietnam is the production cost.

On the other hand, I could note that most of the cooperating farmers with the project are the medium farmers in term of their livelihood standard. Therefore, the project needs to make more effort to persuade the poorest families to become the members of the vegetable farmer producer groups so that the project can contribute to poverty alleviation among the poorest families. It is to highlight that the project expected to choose 150 poorest families out of 500 total target families.

Linking Small Farmers to Market

Concerning to the project "Linking Farmers to Market for Rural Prosperity in Prey Veng and Svay Rieng provinces of Cambodia" which has been implementing by CEDAC (Cambodian Center for Study and Development in Agriculture)is now moving on the progress. It is to note that IDE (International Development Enterprises) which is the funding agency of this project has recently facilitated to select PEA (Private Extension Agents), PEA will be the one who link farmers access to high quality agriculture input supplies, specialized on vegetable seeds and drip irrigation equipments and so on.

Regarding to the farmers' activities in the field, vegetable growing have been applying after harvesting rice. It is a good time for vegetable growing in Cambodia meanwhile farmers have already harvested rice in December and January and there are some remaining raining water in the rice field or ponds so that they can grow vegetable, the vegetable is mainly used for family consumption. Actually, most of Cambodian farmers are highly dependent on raining water as they have no access to irrigation scheme like canal, etc. By the reason, farmers are hard to grow vegetable especially in the dry season meanwhile they have no sufficient water for watering their crops. The arable land is kept free without any cover crops, it indicates that farmers have not used as much as possible the productivity of arable land and poor knowledge and skill in term of soil nutrient management in the dry season, the rice straw were slashed and burned without understanding of its advantages for covering the land.

60%-70% of vegetables in Cambodia has been imported from Vietnam (IDE Cambodia), so it is a good potential for Cambodian farmers to grow vegetables for domestic supply. But the constraint is high production cost that is not able to compete with imported products. SUSTAINABLE ALTERNATIVE AGRICULTURAL FARMING SHOULD BE CONSIDERED!

Meeting at IDE Office, Phnom Penh

On 08 December 2008, I participated in a series meeting at IDE office from 2:30-5:00pm. The meeting consisted of totally 8 peoples which included 5 from IDE (among them 2 are foreigner technical advisors), 2 from PADEK , and 1 from CEDAC. The meeting aimed to follow up the progress of PEA selection process and to discuss on the preparation for the first meeting with interested PEA candidates that will be held in Svay Rieng and Prey Veng provinces on 16-17 December 2008.

At the inception phase of the meeting, each of NGO partner such as IDE, PADEK and CEDAC has shared the general overview of the progress of PEA selection process in each responsible target areas. I could know that there were only 3 people called to IDE by its radio broadcasting program but PADEK and CEDAC could get higher number of candidates who are interested of being PEAs which is around 4-5 interested farmers per commune have applied so far. However, the numbers of farmers who have applied for being PEAs have not yet been gathered by the project’s staff in some other communes so the information will be lastly updated on December 12, 2009. A step forward after sharing an overview of the progress in the field, Mr. Ros Kimsan, operational manger of IDE has presented the slides that he is going to present during the first meeting with interested PEA candidates.

Ultimately, we all who were in the meeting jointly decided the following points:
•There will be only 2 days for the first meeting with interested PEA candidates that 2 meetings will be organized in Svay Rieng province (one meeting at the morning and another at the afternoon) and another in Prey Veng
•One meeting will be organized in Kompong Trabek district, Prey Veng province with the invitation of interested PEA candidates from Baphnom and Prash Sdach districts as well.
•Mr. Sieng Kan, IDE’s staff, will inform to CEDAC and PADEK about the name of communes will be invited in the particular meeting (schedule and meeting venue)
•CEDAC and PADEK will send the name list of total interested PEA candidates to IDE on December 12, 2008.

RIU Prey Veng

Mr. Yim Sok Sophors went to Prey Veng and Svay Rieng province from 3-5 Dec 08 in order to meet with YCLs and CFA who is working for the project Linking Farmers with Market for Rural Prosperity in Baphnom district, Prey Veng province and Svay Chrum district, Svay Rieng provinces. Some activities have been done at Baphnom such as:

Meeting with YCLs

We have discussed to prepared activity work plan for the project Linking Farmers with Market for Rural Prosperity in December 2008. Several key activities are highlighted as follows:

-Organizing village general meeting in 7 villages that have not yet been organized
-Announcement to recruit farmers who are interested to be PEA (Private Extension Agent) for the project Lining Farmers with Market for Rural Prosperity
-Participating in workshop that will be organized by IDE (International Development Enterprises) in Prey Veng and Svay Rieng to select potential PEAs.
-YCL and CFA will organize group meeting with vegetable farmer producer groups in Baphnom and Kompong Trabek district, Prey Veng province. In Svay Rieng, YCL is going to continue working on organizing village general meeting due to this activity has not been accomplished
-2 cases studied written by YCL and CFA will be produced in this month
-Additionally, the project’s staffs also planned to conduct individual follow up visit to the target families as well, several questions will be raised during the discussion with them in order to seek for understanding on the situation of vegetable growing in those target families,
-1 YCL in Svay Rieng, named “Chhim Veasna” probably would like to resign from work due to he is sick and unable to continue working, he will inform me in December 2008 after the result of health check come out,

Additionally, I would like to emphasize that the main activity relating to RIU/ICF project in this month is mainly focused on selection of PEA (Private Extension Agency) who are the input suppliers to farmer producer groups.

2.Based on San Sorn (Farmer Community Facilitator in Svay Rieng province), Mr. Prak Sereyvath called him to host a visit from a group of people consist of 2 French and 1 Khmer-French nationality so he spend one day to host them as that group wanted to visite a commune in Svay Chrum district in order to set up a project relating to vegetable growing and they also wanted to include schoolteachers in the project as well. Based on San Sorn, the project will start in 2009.

RIU/ICF Baphnom, Prey Veng

24-25 November 2008: Mr. Yim Sok Sophors, the project manager of RIU/ICF (CEDAC) went to Baphnom district, Prey Veng province in order to review the project's progress with 2 market chain officers. Additionally, he also participated to a village general meeting at Trapaing Seka village of Sdao Koang commune.

Based on the discussion with market chain officers, generally there were around 25-30attended in each meeting and there are at least 10 farmers are interested in the project, they would like to join the vegetable farmer producer groups that will be faciliated by the project.

Meeting RIU/ICF

27 November 2008: Mr. Lang Seng Horng, Mr. Bun Penhpheak and I (Mr. Yim Soksophors) myself have attended a meeting with PADEK and IDE in term of the project RIU/ICF. Generally, we have continued to debate on PEA selection from the last meeting, such as schedule of PEA selection process, outline for the workshop and who will be involved, etc.

Ultimately, we are clear on what what we are going to do and the next meeting will be held on 09 December 2008. However, there is a need of discussion about the principles relating to the training topics to PEAs (Private Extension Agent) as well as the business of PEA relating to chemical fertilizer and pesticide. It is to note that CEDAC is a local NGOs working to promote family ecological agriculture so that this project needs to design based on the policy and stand of CEDAC in term of agriculture and rural development.

RIU/ICF Baphnom district,

On 07 November 2008, Mr. YIM Sok Sophors went to Baphnom district, Prey Veng province to work for the project RIU/ICF (Linking Farmers to Market for Rural Prosperity). During that time, Mr. YIM Sok Sophors who is the project manager of this project met 2 market chain officers (Mr. Nin Chhay and Ms. Houl Sokun) to discuss with them about the introduction of the project RIU/ICF, developing activity work plan with all of them, budget planning for field operation, discussed on the job description for each of them, etc.

Additionally, during the meeting, all of participants have also discussed to determine the target villages of the project as well, especially select them from the target communes that we have joint agreement with IDE. Ultimately, all of the project staff were clear about the activity that the project is going to complete in this month and the specific activity schedule was developed so that it is easy to follow up the progress of our field work. Return back at the evening to Phnom Penh with Mr. Tath Sok and Miss. Luy Theary, those are working involved in promoting saving for self reliant project. We all have arrived Phnom Penh about 6 PM at Chbar Ampov bridge.

Mission to Svay Rieng

From 29-31 October 2008, I went to Svay Rieng to join the workshop with IOM project in Khset communes, Kompong Ror district. It was good time to see and listen the presentation in the workshop.

During that time, i also discuss with Mr. Chhim Veasna about new project RIU and financial report of this project.

Workshop on Drip Irrigation

Today on 10 October 2008, I have participated in the workshop on Drip Irrigation in Phnom Penh. The workshop organized by IDE with 40 participants from different 25 NGOs. The agenda is presented as follows:

-Summary of drip irrigation pilot project
-Result of drip irrigation trial
-Supplay chain and partnership strategies
-Presentation of experienced drip farmers
-Open discussion and feedback

In summary, based on the information i got from the workshop, i could learn that:

-The yield of vegetable which adopted drip irrigation is higher than non-drip irrigation, but i could see that it is not quite different. Additionally, I could learn that it save 50% of water comparing to traditional practice, so it is good if we introduce drip irrigation in the dry season. Farmers will be able to prolong their cropping season and it is a profitable time.

-IDE has some cooperating farmers who have already adopted drip irrigation technique so that it is available if we would like to organize the field visit to see the experienced farmers.

-In the concept of CEDAC, we can introduce the idea of drip irrigation to farmers, but we will not introduce chemical fertilize as IDE has been doing. The liquid compost and solid compost will be trained in stead of promoting chemical fertilizer.

-The price of one set of drip irrigation is about 50$, so it may be expensive to the poorest families, but the medium farmers are probably possible if they really want to try. I have noticed that drip irrigation is suitable for fruit crops, but not leaf crops.

Participated in the Training on PRISM

From 01-05 September 2008, I have participated in the training on PRISM (Poverty Reduction through Irrigation and Smallholder Markets), the training was organized by IDE (International Development Enterprises) in Phnom Penh. It is to note that i have learned about the process of PRISM, including:

- Situational analysis
- Intervention design
- Implementing and monitoring
- Evaluation and adaptation


The training enabled to learn more the concept and other main tools for business activity. it is helpful to my work with the project Linking Farmers with Market for Rural Prosperity. What i gained from the training will help me to work effectively to link the vegetable farmer producers to the local markets inside the project's targeted area.

Participated in the Training on PRISM

From 01-05 September 2008, I have participated in the training on PRISM (Poverty Reduction through Irrigation and Smallholder Markets), the training was organized by IDE (International Development Enterprises) in Phnom Penh. It is to note that i have learned about the process of PRISM, including:

- Situational analysis
- Intervention design
- Implementing and monitoring
- Evaluation and adaptation

The training enabled to learn more the concept and other main tools for business activity. it is helpful to my work with the project Linking Farmers with Market for Rural Prosperity. What i gained from the training will help me to work effectively to link the vegetable farmer producers to the local markets inside the project's targeted area.

Joint meeting with IDE (International Development Enterprises)

Today, on August 19, 2008 I and Mr. Lang Seng Horng, director of CESDE (Cedac Enterprise for Social Development) went to IDE office in Phnom Penh for a whole-day discussion on a new project, that project is called "Linking farmers with Market for Rural Prosperity" and it will be jointly implemented by IDE, CEDAC and PADEK. The target area will be selected along the national road 1, Prey Veng to Svay Rieng province. Up to now, we have discussed and agreed to prepare the project's budget of each partner, to identify and select the target site, etc. Hopefully, this project will be implemented very soon so that we can improve the capacity of farmers, especially the poorest farmers to produce vegetable for market supply, it is to note that each of CEDAC and PADEK will be responsible to improve the livelihood of 500 target families with increasing of income 150$, the vegetable farmer producer group is conducted. There will be 60,000 USD of the project's budget for both CEDAC and PADEK. To me, I think that even though this project seems to be small, but we can have more change to strengthen the vegetable farmer producer group and especially to link those groups to NAP (Natural Agriculture Product) in Svay Rieng and Prey Veng provinces and a few CFAs will be employed.