Him Sothea, 49, a mother of three daughters, living in Chum Teavchreng Village, Tang Krous commune, Kampong Chhnang Province. Her older daughter is 21 years old, studying at university in Phnom Penh while the youngest is studying at grade 7 in the community. Ms. Sothea has been working in agricultural farming since she was young. Her parents and so do her grandparents were farmers. After her graduation at grade 6, she married and cultivated rice on one and a half hectares of land in the same way her ancestors had been doing.

“Before joining this project of CEDAC/GIZ, I was too shy to be in meeting. When attending the meeting people did not listen and pay attention to me while I was talking and sharing information. May be they see that I am poor and illiterate,” she said.

Since 2006, Ms. Sothea has participated in the CEDAC (The Cambodian Center for Study and Development in Agriculture) /GIZ (German International Cooperation) project where she could learn more about agriculture technique to improve production, and she was assigned as a leader of an organic rice producer group that requires a lot of time for the participants to be in the meetings, trainings, and various facilitation and monitoring activities while her husband was working at the field.

At that time, her husband was unhappy because a neighbor told him that women should not go out of a house to attend the meeting, or training. They should be at home for cooking and farming. But, this could not stop her from doing her out-of-the-house work.  She started to share what she learnt from the meetings with her husband and it made him gradually understand and let her continue what she was doing.

In her normal days, Ms. Sothea wakes up at 4 am for cooking, doing home gardening, feeding pigs and cows and during rice production seasons doing some field works including ploughing, transplanting, harvesting and threshing on the family’s four hectare of land. During the day time in the production season, she only make time for 30-minute-rest while in the off production season she manages to have one hour rest. Right now, she has four hectares in total for organic agriculture.

“In the beginning, the villagers did not concern much about health care, sanitation and any input source for agriculture. They spent a lot of money for chemical fertilizer. But today things are getting better,” Ms. Sothea  said.

The source of food for her daily consumption comes mostly from her own farm. From the surplus of family consumption, she makes 2,500 US dollar annually from selling organic rice with 15 percent above the conventional market price. Apart from agriculture, she earn 40 US dollar monthly from her part time job in rolling as a village statistical collector, women and children health and gender promoter at the village.

“In the beginning, the villagers did not concern much about health care, sanitation and any input source for agriculture. They spent a lot of money for chemical fertilizer. But today things are getting better,” she said.

In the family, she is mostly responsible in decision making. Her husband mostly leaves it to her as he does not want to deal with family related matters and only wants to work in the farm.

“My husband does not speak or communicate much with others or even me. He is not very active in farming activities and he drinks wine every day,” she said.

Through her own observation, men in the community do lesser activities associated with the immediate care and maintenance of the households such as children caring. Women are usually concerned with issues relating to family, health, food, child’s study and social work.  In farming, she sees that women have the primary responsibility for the care and maintenance of the rice seed, livestock and home garden.

“I think women benefit directly from the CEDAC/GIZ training and meeting. I think men may see it is not important for them. However, the men are constantly updated about results of the trainings and meetings,” she said.

Ms. Sothea now knows very well about chemical pesticides which pollute water, soil quality, and beneficial insect and human health. She said recently a neighbor farmer in the village died at the field because he was not instructed well to use pesticides against insect crab in rice field. With this reason, she and some other farmers in the village stop using chemical pesticide. Instead, she uses compost, cow dung, field residue and green manure to fertile soil and natural pesticide to against insect.

“The villagers now feel confident on me and trust me on the information.  They have seen that I have changed positively not only in terms of my livelihood, but also in terms of training facilitation, public speaking and social responsibility.”

For her future plan, Ms. Sothea wants to scale up the organic production and apply biocontrol agents in case there is any problem with soil borne and foliar disease in her farm. Ms. Sothea is an example of the woman who could change her life from nobody to be a well recognized organic rice farmer in the community through her activities in transferring the knowledge from the training to other farmers and improve various social contributions.

The training and meeting consists mainly women participants who are acting as multipliers to transfer their gained knowledge to farmers and other cooperatives.  Based on the training, a survey analysis showed that knowledge of women farmers increases in terms of production techniques, biological plant protection as well as the usage of pesticides and organic cultivation methods. It also gave awareness of the effects on the environment such as degradation and water pollution as well as the effects on human’s health by using chemicals and pesticides.

The study also showed that women got empowered through capacity development measures provided by the CEDAC/GIZ project. The acquired knowledge increased the self-confidence and the role of women in the agricultural sector and in society. Besides, the confidence of women increased in terms of public speaking, social responsibility and decision making capacity in family.

By Channa Samorn, ASEAN Sustainable Agrifood Systems

Mr Sun Song is a farmer in the Siem Reap province in Cambodia. He has been using an organic fertilizer and pesticide called Trichoderma to protect his cucumbers and string beans from harmful fungal infestation and to improve the growth of his crops for the past year. Trichiderma is a green fungi naturally living in the soil. Before using Trichoderma, Mr Song applied chemical pesticides to control diseases. Trichoderma can be mixed with compost and distributed on the field to improve the soil quality and control harmful fungi, Mixed with water, it can also be used for seed coating to accelerate germination and protect the seed against pathogens. Or, it can be directly sprayed on infested plants.

Asking Mr Song about the differences, he says: “Now my kids are allowed to play in the fields.”

Due to the fertilizing effects of Trichoderma, Mr Song also says: “The crop is healthier and also looks better.”

Mr Sun Song’s yield is higher and because his vegetables are of better quality now that he does not need additional synthetic pesticides, he earns about 200 riel (approximately US$ 0.05) more per kg compared to other farmers.  Smiling diffidently, he tells that he also receives support from customers that recently called to ask for his vegetables.

Mrs Choun Yan farms since her childhood. As Mr Song, Mrs Yan started using Trichoderma-based products last year. Even before the harvest, she could see the changes. Previously, Mrs Yan had problems with diseases, mainly fungi. Since the application of Trichoderma, she does not have that problem anymore. In addition, she estimates an increase in her cucumber yield from 1 to about 1.5 tons, while the input costs for pesticides and fertilizer are reduced.

In supporting the farmers’ use of Trichoderma and other biocontrol agents (BCAs), GIZ’s ASEAN Sustainable Agrifood Systems’ project (ASEAN SAS) provides capacity development measures, technical know-how, and establishes a national network and discussion forum to enhance learning among farmers and relevant stakeholders. In this respect GIZ, in collaboration with HARVEST Cambodia (USAID funded) and the Cambodian’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF), organized the 2^nd National Biocontrol Agents (BCA) Forum in Siem Reap, Cambodia on 28-29 July 2015 bringing public sector and other regulators, practitioners, extension workers, academia and the private sector together to share experiences and present BCA-related products.

One of the forum’s participants, Dr. Kean Sophea, Deputy Director of the General Directorate of Agriculture, Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries from Cambodia and his team have been conducting research on Trichoderma in the past ten years.

“So far, a lot of chemicals are used with bad effects. I think the better way is to use organic fertilizer, as it is safe for people and the environment,” says Dr. Sophea.

During the ten years, he and his team have experimented Trichoderma with different kinds of value crops such as vegetables, rice, fruit trees and black pepper. All showed better yields by about 20 to 30 per cent compared to the control groups.

Durians, for example, do not only yield better and give more fruits, but also mature earlier. Dr. Sophea emphasizes that there are no known negative effects to humans of the application of Trichoderma. However, it would not be advisable to eat or inhale the spores of the fungus. Farmers are advised to store the product safely and use protective masks while spraying.

To demonstrate the practical application and the benefits of Trichoderma, field visits were part of the the 2^nd National BCA Forum’s agenda. At the farmlands of Mr Song and Mrs Yan more than 150 participants witnessed the usefulness of green fungi and earned their own impressions of what BCA have to offer.

Story and photos by Kristina Spantig, ASEAN Sustainable Agrifood Systems

Phnom Penh, Cambodia Production of Cambodian organic rice is rising rapidly as international demand for the product increases, experts said at a forum for growers and other in­dustry members held Tuesday at the Phnom Penh headquarters of agricultural NGO Cedac.

“In the first six months of this year we’ve exported about 200 tons of organic rice, which is about double last year’s figure,” said Cedac president Yang Saing Koma, adding that farmers aren’t producing enough to meet de­mand. “We hope that by next year, we’ll be exporting 1,500 tons annually.”

Although there are about 100,000 farmers who produce organic rice in Cambodia, only about 200 meet international standards, Mr. Saing Koma said.

He said Cedac hopes the number of certified organic farmers will rise to 700 by next year, but certification is a strict, three-year-long process, and farmers who are certified are subject to annual inspections thereafter.

Claudius Bredehoeft, national project coordinator for the regional program ASEAN Biocontrol for sustainable Agrifood Systems of GIZ, the international development arm of the German government, said at the forum that Cambodian farmers are well-positioned to carve out a niche in the rice market. GIZ together with CEDAC is building up the organic rice value chain for the national and international market since 2003. The organic production is preserving the soil fertility on the one  hand and supports the farmer to save the costs for chemical inputs on the other. Through the organic and fair-trade certification and market driven approach the farmers are increasing their income as well.

“Since Thailand has introduced minimum rice prices, and Cambodia can export tax-free to the E.U., it has advantages Thailand and Vietnam do not,” he said. “With the fair trade and organic price premium, there are good market incentives to [continue to grow the rice industry].”

Heum Sothea, a farmer from Kompong Chhnang province and forum participant, said that growing organic rice had improved living conditions for her family.

“When I grew conventional rice, I spent a lot of money on fertilizer and chemicals, and cultivated only 1 to 2 tons per hectare. I sometimes had to sell pigs to pay my debts,” she said.

“But now that I grow organic, I harvest about 3 tons per hectare and sell at higher prices. I can use the profit to send my children to school and buy them plots of their own.”

by Mech Dara and David Kaner

Copyright by The Cambodia Daily