Phnom Domreiy Romeal Organic Rice Federation

By Nhep Meng Cheang

 

Sahak Poan Srov Sakreiy Rieng Phnom Domreiy Romeal, named in English “Doreiy Romeal Mountain Organic Rice Federation” was founded on 6^th November 2007. Four organic rice communities are the members of the federation. 450 families are the members of this federation. The federation is located in Trapaing Chhouk Village, in Tramkak district of Takeo Province. The objective of this organic rice federation is to improve food production and income generation capacities of the small scale farmers through the application of ecological agricultural innovations, conducting collective buying and selling of organic rice and normal rice, and negotiating for a better price of their rice product with the middlemen and other rice market actors. Please read more….

Completion report of ALP Mundulkiri Province

The completion report of the project titled “Agriculture Livelihood Project for the Sok San community/ALP” was already written and submitted to WWF. Furthermore, i will be responsible to write up the end project evaluation report (end line survey) and result  come up from the report will be used to present at the end project evaluation workshop to be held on March 18, 2010 at Sok San commune hall. There will be representatives from WWF Mundulkiri to participate in the workshop. The local authorities, community people especially the farmers who have cooperated with the project will be invited to join the workshop. The project officer of ALP Mr. Cheav Sopheak will facilitate the workshop.
It is to note that CEDAC is implementing a development project mentioned above since March 2008 to February 2010. The project is very helpful to increase the agricultural production of the indigenous people. Before the project’s intervention, majority of the indigenous people the Sok San commune conducted off-farm activities that mainly rely on the natural resources. Furthermore, the indigenous people didn’t know how to grow vegetables, how to raise chicken appropriately, how to conduct fish raising in the  plastic film, how to form and manage the collective saving group or village based farmer association, etc. But this time, they have learned a lot about this knowledge and skills that are very important for improving their quality of lives.

Organizational Self-Assessment on Climate Change

Today, I am working on the organizational self assessment on climate change. I followed the instruction that i have learned during the training workshop at Sihanouk province from 22-26 February 2010. The organizational self assessment on climate change enabled me to know very well about what to be, to do (programs and projects), what to be integrated into our existing programs/projects. Furthermore, i also could now about strengths, capacities needed and gap to fulfill the gap, etc.
I expected that this task would be completed by 29 March 2010 as we expect to present this result at the workshop 2 at the end of this month. To me, I think that the organizational self assessment on climate change is very important because it is a way to discover new ideas in order to integrate the climate change mitigation, climate change adaptation, Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) into our existing programs and projects. The climate change concepts is now very necessary important for the community farmers, the local authorities and other local stakeholders because this is a hot issue happening on this world.
CEDAC will conduct a research on impact on climate change and rice next week with a few team members. The study will be conducted in 5 villages across 3 communes in Prey Veng province where is the most vulnerable province in terms of natural disaster vulnerability. Mr. Yim Sok Sophors, Mr. Vang Sean and Mr. Nhep Mengcheang will jointly conduct this research next week. It is expected that the results come up from the research will enable us to know well about the impact of climate change and rice in that studied areas. That will be used as case study and examples for the other areas.

CEDAC and FNF organize two Development Forums with Teachers

On March 6-7, 2010, CEDAC organized a Teachers’ Forum at Phnom Pros Hotel, Kampong Cham province. Attending the forum were 32 participants (6 females) including principals, vice-principals and teachers of 22 different schools from 12 districts.
On March 20, 2009, CEDAC organized another Teachers’ Forum at the CEDAC office at Baphnom district, Prey Veng province, with 48 participants (5 females) also including principals, vice-principals and teachers from 32 different schools in Baphnom district.
The objectives of these forums were to:

• Provide an opportunity for school principals and teachers to discuss and exchange experiences on leadership issues and self-help saving groups as well as development work.
• Exchange experiences among CEDAC development professionals and teachers.
• Build an informal network among teachers from different schools.

These workshops were supported by the German Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Liberty (FNF), Cambodia’s program.
CEDAC, in collaboration with FNF, has been organizing Teachers’ Forums since 2005 in nine provinces including Prey Veng, Kampong Thom, Kampong Cham, Svay Rieng, Takeo, Kampot, Kampong Chhnang, Siem Reap, Pursat and Phnom Penh municipality.

CEDAC Organized Project Launching Workshop in Prey Veng

On March 3, 2010, CEDAC organized a project launching workshop on “Improving Food Security of the most Vulnerable Families in Prey Veng”. The workshop was held at the office of the Provincial Department of Agriculture (PDA) in Prey Veng province. There were 109 participants attended the workshop, including chief of PDA, representatives from Provincial Department of Women’s Affairs, representatives from the Provincial Department of Rural Development, district authorities, commune council members, village chief, village based farmer organization representatives, and other relevant NGO staff from the target communities, etc. This is the second project that CEDAC has received direct grant support from European Union to implement a project abovementioned in 200 villages across 27 communes, in 3 districts of Prey Veng province. The target villages will be located in Baphnom, Kopong Trabek and Prah Sdach districts.
At the beginning of the workshop, president of CEDAC, Dr. Yang Saing Koma gave his summary remark on CEDAC’s activities and achievements in Prey Veng province in the recent years especially he expressed briefly about new project to be implemented by CEDAC in the province such as objectives, expected results, and how to monitor and evaluate the change of farmers and communities before and after the project intervention. Deputy Governor of Prey Veng province, H.E. Phann Chanthol presided at the workshop and gave his speech for opening the workshop. He is interested in and provided support to CEDAC to implement this project in the province.

To get detail about the project, CEDAC Field Program director, Mr. Yi Kim Than conducted a plenary presentation on the project to the participants. The project’s concept, expected results and outputs, strategies and activities as well as the main target groups of the project were raised and discussed during the presentation.



At the end of the workshop, Dr. Yang Saing Koma summed up the result of the workshop and Chief of the Provincial Department of Agriculture of Prey Veng Province, Mr. Yuos Mony provided closing remark of the workshop. He encouraged farmers, local authorities and other local stakeholders to cooperate closely with the project. In addition, he also suggested having a coordination mechanism at the provincial level for ensuring the effectiveness of the project implementation. All relevant development agencies especially those who are working involved in agriculture sector should meet together for sharing their concrete ideas and experiences relating to agriculture and community development activities in the province. Generally, the participants understand very well about the project and they are happy to cooperate with the project in order to prosper their communities.

Climate change workshop

On February 22-26, 2010 Mr. Yi Kim Than and Mr. Yim Sok Sophors attended a training workshop on climate change at Sihanouk province. There were many participants who come from different 10 partner NGOs of DCA/CA, ForumSyd, and Cord. During the workshop, the participants have learned very well about the concepts of climate change. The technical terms relating to CC were raised and discussed actively during the workshop.

CEDAC Zone Two Retreat Organized at Koh Kong Province

February 17-19, 2010, CEDAC Zone Two organized a three-day retreat at Koh Kong province with 44 staffs. It is to emphasize that CEDAC divided its 3,200 target villages into 5 zones and CEDAC Zone Two is implementing 9 development projects covers on 750 villages across 110 communes, in 20 districts of 4 provinces (Takeo, Kampong Speu, Kandal and Kampot Provinces). The specific objectives of the retreat was to improve solidarity and cooperation among of the staffs and to provide a good time for staff reflection on its annual activities and achievements in 2009 as well as to develop activity plan for 2010.

CEDAC Zone Two coordinator, Mr. Huot Dok facilitated the meeting  at Fishing Community Hall to share and discuss about progresses and challenges of project implementation, progress of self-development of the staffs, and activity planning for 2010. In addition, a member of CEDAC Steering Committee (CSC), Mr. Bao Vuthy presented to the participants about the number of current projects and expected projects for 2010. Furthermore, he presented about main activities of CEDAC Zone Two in providing technical and social assistances to communities such as: promotion and dissemination of family’s ecological agricultural innovations, establishment and strengthening community-led business cooperatives, facilitation to set up collective saving and credit services, etc.

According to participant impressions, the retreat was very helpful to encourage the staffs to increase their commitment to accomplish expectation of CEDAC Zone Two in 2010 as the staffs have already understood very well about the plan and strategies for the implementation in 2010. Furthermore, it also stimulated awareness to the staffs in relation to self-development for achieving their personal goal in the near future. In general , all staffs were able to learn about good progresses and achievements of CEDAC Zone Two and they also absorbed good lessons-learned and practical experiences from the project implementation through sharing from one another and it was important that the staffs have increased their mutual cooperation and team spirit among the whole team.

Weekly staff meeting of CEDAC Field Program

Weekly staff meeting of CEDAC Field Progam was organized among staffs who are based in Phnom Penh. Mr. Yi Kimthan normally chairs the meeting every weekend. Yim Sok Sophors, Vang Sean, Pheng Chandy and Nuon Piseith participated in the meeting to share each other about the activities and results of what we have done during this week. Furthermore, the participants also shared about activity plan for next week as well.

Based on the sharing from Mr. Vang Sean and Mr. Yim Sok Sophors who did end project evaluation of ALP (Agriculture Livelihood Project in the Sok San Community), it was able to know that the indigenous people have now improved their knowledge and skills relating to agricultural practices. For example, the indigenous people previously didn’t grow vegetables and lack of food for family consumption. But now they can grow vegetables for family consumption and some of them are able to produce for selling to generate more family’s incomes. Now, some indigenous farmers who have arable land near to natural water bodies, they can grow vegetables in the dry season. I noted that the vegetables produced are very good because the natural condition is fit for vegetable growing and other kinds of crops.  Some farmers said that they don’t really want to make compost because the soil fertility is good enough to  produce a good yield. I think that CEDAC’s staff there should train them more about soil nutrient management in order to help the indigenous people to be able to use the land sustainably for a long term benefit. 

Miss. Pheng Chandy shared about the progress of data entry of rice value chain study in Takeo and Kompot province. Up to now, all collected questionnaires were installed into computer database system for data analysis. Mr. Chhong Sophal will be responsible to write up the synthesis report of the study. It is expected the draft report will be firstly produced during the fourth week of this month, February 2010.

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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CEDAC organized a training workshop on Samachal in Pailin Province

On 8-9 February 2010, CEDAC organized a training workshop on Sammchal at Pailin Bomboo Hotel in purpose of strengthening the knowledge and capacity of school principals, farmer leaders of Self Help Groups/saving groups, village chief and commune council members on how to improve quality of life through the rehearsal of Samachal theory. The theory of Samachal focuses on the enlargement of Health, Knowledge, Friendship, and Money. It was to note that, in the workshop, CEDAC also revealed progress of its project implementation to the participants. Attending 30 participants, including 6 women, come from Pailin and Sala Krao districts, Pailin province.



Derived from post evaluation of the training, the participants could learn in a good way on the subject of Samachal along with the increasing of relationship and solidarity among the participants. As the training is very helpful for the participants because it is necessary to improve their quality of life. Furthermore, they suggested having more training sessions for their communities. The participants assured to disseminate what they have learned to their colleagues and other people in their workplace. Besides, the participants also gained comprehension on advantages of community-led saving group and they commits to strongly participate in and set up saving group in their respective villages.

It is to notice CEDAC is executing second phase of project, titled “Community-led Saving Development for Poverty Reduction and Self-reliance in Pailin province” from October 15, 2009 to December 15, 2010 in 23 villages across 5 communes, in 2 districts, in Pailin province. Up to date, 36 community led saving groups with 876 members were set up with the total saving capital of 95 million Riels (approximately 23,200 USD).