Green Shoots in Cambodia

Helping rural communities thrive

The Food, Agriculture & Social Entrepreneurship initiative aims to help address the rural exodus to cities in Cambodia by introducing new generations of Cambodian farmers to techniques aligning productivity gains with environmental responsibility. The goal is to ultimately convince rural communities that their economies can thrive and become sources of livelihood.

The initiative in Samrong in the Northwestern province of Odtar Meanchey is Green Shoots first venture into Cambodia. They work with Enfants du Mekong (EDM, a well establish NGO in Cambodia) and Community-based Integrated Development (CIDO, a local NGO with a proven record in agricultural projects and community empowerment).

The projects include establishing a vegetable garden at EDM’s education centre in Samrong and the purchase and development of a 5 hectare rice paddy for the centre, thereby making them self-sufficient and give the students a sense of responsibility. CIDO has been working with the students, training them in agricultural techniques.

There were initial problems in clearing the land for the rice paddy, but in 2013 they achieved a yield of 5 tonnes of rice for 2 of the 5 hectares. This provides about 4 months of food, saving roughly $1000. In 2014 red jasmine rice was planted on 4 hectares with a yield of 7.2 tonnes.

Another project is the Agriculture Skills in Public Schools (ASPUS) which aims to improve food and agriculture skills of target students; diversify the skills of target teachers by providing training about cultivating vegetable gardens and facilitating networking with existing farmers; and increasing the use of environmentally responsible practices such as reducing the reliance on expensive chemical fertiliser and non-organic pesticides.

Page under development.