New farming techniques improve income of small farmers

Thursday, February 9, 2012

The Cambodian Farmers Association Federation of Agricultural Producers executes a two years project aimed at improving the livelihood of member farmers through rural economic activities in vegetable and rice production and marketing. In the project that Agriterra supports members in four provinces of Cambodia (Svay Rieng, Prey Veng, Kampong Speu and Kandal) receive various trainings and exchange visits to demonstration farms. Also access to market information and markets will be improved. The project now runs for a year. What did it bring the members so far?

Ms Neang Sangvapich, 41 years old, lives in Trabaek village, SvayChrum commune, in SvayRieng province. She has six children, three of whom are going to the primary school about 3 kilometers from her house. She and her husband, Mr. Mey Bora, are both farmers.  One oldest daughter got married and lives and works at Phnom Penh with her husband. Their other two younger children live with their sister. They have around 3,000 square meter of vegetable growing land in rainy season; the family does not have land for rice growing. However, they have some land behind their house.

Ms NeangSangvapich and Mr Mey Bora became  member of the vegetable grower group under the SVAYCHRUM Commune Farmer's Association (CFA-SCH). Later on, in July 2011, they became member of CFAP. They used to grow more than ten kinds of vegetables/crops such as cucumber, bitter gourd, nasty lettuce, mustard, kale, leave onion, mint, turnip, string bean, gourd, winter melon, etc in traditional practice and the yield was very low, as was the quality and they sold the produce for a very cheap price. They were taught the traditional method by the old generation in the village. Being member of CFAP, they could join the technical vegetable trainings conducted by CFAP and learned how to grow vegetable with new practice. Now their vegetables grow faster with fewer threats of diseases. The yields are also much higher with better quality hence they receive higher prices which resulted in considerably better income for the family.

They sell vegetables/crops at SvayChrum market (a centered district market) and some traders come and buy their vegetables/crops from the farm gate. They sometimes need to compete with imported vegetables from other countries, but because they do not use chemical pesticide their products distinguish from the imported ones.

The trainings offered by CFAP dealt with all stages of vegetable growing: land preparing, planting the seeds, preparation of the trellis, replanting, taking care (cutting leaves) and harvesting. Generally, Ms. NeangSangvapich's family earns around 15,000 - 20,000KHR (USD 3.75-5.00) per day. Although their income improved using the new technical skills, it still is just enough for their children and the daily expenses of the family. They hope to enlarge the land size in next year to expand their vegetable growing and subsequently earn more money.

They got a loan from CFA-SCH (member organisation of CFAP), but not enough to buy more land.  They also experience difficulties to get access to good seeds, agri-tools. She hopes the planned local selling points and collections sites of SVAYCHRUM Commune Farmers' Association will simplify this. However, they expressed their satisfaction with these new techniques and the starting materials, like seeds, they got from CFAP. They also satisfy with the loan from CFA-SCH which charges low interest compared to other MFIs/Banks.

In the future, they plan to enlarge their farm land and to increase the types of vegetables for sale. They hope they can build a house some day through the earnings out of vegetable growing.    Other farmers frequently come to their farm for advice in the new technical vegetable growing skills. They are very pleased to be able to share their new  knowledge and experiences.