March, 06 2018
SNV organised a trade fair in Kratie to promote Cambodia Horticulture Advancing Income and Nutrition II project (CHAIN-II), and KAFDOC got a booth to present his products as a partnership of the project.
CHAIN- II project started in December 2017 and will last until 2020. It seeks to establish inclusive extension services to promote the safe production of horticultural products with the aim to increase the incomes and food security of the rural poor.
Pegken Oeun (58) is a farmer and she grows vegetables. She joined KAFDOC two years ago, in 2016.
Before being part of the partnership, she produced few vegetables because she used traditional techniques and she sold them in her village only, as she did not have any trader. Since she joined KAFDOC, her situation is far more different because she uses new techniques, more effective, and she is able to sell her production in the village as well as in the city thanks to KAFDOC which helped to find her a trader. She increases awareness about eco-friendly tools too and she now uses organic fertilitisers. She is very satisfied with this collaboration and she wants, in the future, “to increase the farm to grow more vegetables”.
In addition to helping farmers, KAFDOC wish to educate children to sustainable agriculture. Consequently, they started a new partnership with the Khsar Primary School (177 children, F: 93) as they were already partner for the Easy to Learn Project (with the financial support of ChildFund), to focus on this topic.
The trade fair was the occasion for the students to sell what they grew. Indeed, in 2017 KAFDOC helped the school to improve their organic garden where they grow vegetables, fruits and plants such as waterlilies, bananas, salads and chilli. Both educational team and the children also received trainings to learn more about the growth of each variety of products. The director of the school, Choub Chanda wants to “make the garden bigger to grow more vegetables and fruits for the future”. The partnership with KAFDOC will help him to see further and to be able to continue to sensitise children to sustainable agriculture.
Two students of the school were also present at this event, Noch Da (14) and At Sorean (15) to tell us how happy they are concerning their organic garden.
They studied and worked on different topics to learn how to select the soil, how to select the seeds, how to put the seeds with the soil, which vegetables/fruits to grow according the seasons, the numerous veggies which exist, how to manage a land and last but not least, an eco-friendly dimension was also added to learn how to do a compost and how to do an organic fertilitaser. Both of them are children’s farmers and it is what they aspire to become as well. Thus, what they learnt at school thanks to KAFDOC, they can reproduce it at home. “I am happy when I see something grows and it is a possibility to make money” told Noch Da. By means of her new skills, she will be able to do so.