Horticulture In Cambodia
Shawnna Franz
As part of Feed the Future, the Horticulture Innovation Lab has conducted research in Cambodia focused on food safety, building vegetable value chains, promoting conservation agriculture practices, integrating livestock systems with horticulture, improving local seed systems, and advancing local expertise in horticulture and postharvest.
This page includes links to Horticulture Innovation Lab research projects, major partners and partner organizations based in Cambodia, along with blog articles and information products with a focus on horticulture in Cambodia.
Approximately 175 participants attended a Symposium on Horticultural Science, held March 18 at the Royal University of Agriculture campus in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The event was presented by the Royal University of Agriculture in collaboration with the Horticulture Innovation Lab.
Millions of Cambodians have risen from poverty, yet many still live in vulnerable conditions. The government of Cambodia recognized that accelerating the growth of the horticulture sector would bring new opportunities, enabling farmers to benefit from higher-value crops. But horticulture in Cambodia was not well developed (half of the vegetables in the country were imported), and those trying to expand operations faced many constraints. USAID, through Feed the Future Cambodia, decided to take a multi-pronged approach, building capacity, market linkages, the policy environment, and the market system itself.
Harvest II applied this approach in four subsectors: vegetables, mango, longan, and cashew. The demand-driven project worked with hundreds of private sector actors to help them expand their businesses, establish mutually beneficial relationships with their commercial partners, and contribute to system-level change. The project also helped market actors coordinate to improve productivity, enhance supply chain management, and meet export requirements. By the end of the five-year project, Harvest II partners had generated $75 million in farm and firm-level sales, invested $28 million in new investment, and created the equivalent of 2,500 full-time jobs.
Its approach focused on a facilitation process involving private and public partners as well as civil society organisations to deliver goods and services on the input and output side of the horticulture value chains (e.g. extension, inputs, marketing and market information) to meet the needs of poor farmers and processors.
The evaluation concludes that CHAIN interventions transformed the local market systems, built the capacity of local service providers and facilitators, and has the potential for sustainability and replication.
Key interventions included the introduction of new production technologies such as drip irrigation, quality seeds and shaded greenhouses through demo-plots co-invested by farmer-owners and the private sector. The project also supported the establishment of 14 business clusters, market linkages, lead farmer incubators and rural business accelerators.
The project reached 10,000 households in 400 farmer groups, with over 65 per cent of the farmers being women, and helped about 6,000 farmers transition from subsistence farming to semi-commercial or commercial operations.
A senior official at the Ministry of Agriculture has called on more investment in the horticulture and subsidiary crops sector because the demand for vegetables in the country has increased nearly 1,000 tonnes per day. ...
Officials from the Ministry of Agriculture have called on farmers to cease using chemical pesticides and adopt environmentally friendly methods in an effort to increase yields and reduce damage to produce.At an agriculture workshop on biological control agents hosted yesterday by the Ministry of Agriculture, ...
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The Cambodia Horticulture Advancing Income and Nutrition (CHAIN) project is an eight-year market systems development programme to develop the horticultural sector and reduce poverty in Northern Cambodia. This factsheet* describes the goals and expectations of Phase 3 of the project (CHAIN III) for January 2021-December 2022. The factsheet is written for a general audience. See also the End of Phase Two Report for much more details on the previous results of the project.
*This weADAPT article is an abridged version of the original text, which can be downloaded from the right-hand column. Please access the original text for research purposes, full references,orto quote text.
The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) has developed the Cambodian Horticulture Advancing Income and Nutrition (CHAIN) programme in close cooperation with the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries through the General Department of Agriculture and the provincial departments of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. Implementing agencies are the consortium of SNV (lead), Swisscontact, and MetaMeta.
This last phase of CHAIN (CHAIN III), will put a specific focus on smart water management at farm, commune and district level, and the transition of leadership and ownership of the support to the horticulture sub-sector in the target areas to the General Directorate of Agriculture of the Ministry of Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries at both national and provincial levels.
Up to now, CHAIN has reached out to 10,200 farmers through 400 farmer groups. This includes 3,300 home gardeners, 6,000 semi-commercial and commercial farmers and another 900 farmers of various sizes and commercial orientation reached indirectly (73% women and 10% indigenous people).
CHAIN-3 is planning to capitalise on the experiences of the CHAIN project to date, producing a number of participatory knowledge and dissemination products to this effect. CHAIN-3 will further build on these focusing on water resources and management, whist consolidating the market system results of CHAIN-1 and 2.
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29 year old Koun Seileap, a Deputy Leader in the Thlork Producer Group located in Thlork Village, Sya Commune, Kandieng District in Cambodia, is married to Nuon Meun living with their 2 children. In this area, locals primarily work as farmers relying on rice crops for their livelihood.
The family has since adapted the new agricultural techniques they have learned to increase a yield of cucumbers and watermelons from the first and second cycles. On average, her family receives a profit of $2,000 USD ensuring they can now meet the monthly interest payments off their loan and their families expenses.
Their success they attribute to profits received from vegetable farming after adapting proper agricultural techniques through Pro-Market facilitation. Since new horticulture techniques have been solving income restraints on families, those affected have been able to build their confidence in becoming commercial vegetable producers receiving higher profits than they would otherwise from rice farming.
For that reason, 165 researchers from 16 countries converged on Phnom Penh, Cambodia, from Jan. 10-13 for the First International Sustainable Agricultural Intensification and Nutrition Conference, the first conference of its kind in Southeast Asia.
Presentation topics by researchers and students included farming systems, horticulture, livestock, soil health, nutrition, gender roles and youth engagement, among many others, with an overarching purpose of solving the everyday problems of millions of smallholder farmers around the globe.
Successful farming is not just about planting annual grain crops, but also includes livestock, vegetables, fruits, perennial crops, legumes and fish, among others. It also means efficiently using and recycling all available resources and protecting the environment.
Some of the innovations highlighted at the conference included use of conservation agricultural practices and drip irrigation systems in vegetable gardens, perennial vegetable crops, cover crops, integrated pest management practices, mechanical tools for planting and harvesting, biogas production, a device for cooking with solar energy and more.
Attendees visited the CE SAIN technology park in Phnom Penh, a demonstration farm operated collaboratively with the Royal University of Agriculture to conduct research and showcase promising practices for Cambodian farmers.
Participants also traveled through Cambodian provinces to see smallholder farming techniques at other technology parks in Kampong Cham, Kampong Thom and Siem Reap. They toured a technology park at Ramsey Sophanna High School and judged a student agriculture competition, an event created to spur interest in agricultural studies among youth and children.
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