CAMBODIA, Pursat Province
£13,468
Supporting Iniatives for Livelihood Improvement in Cambodia (SILIIC) project. Funds for: seeds, tools, rice bank set-up costs, water pumps and 30 wells. A pond or canal will also be constructed during the project.
Over 80% of Cambodia's population is involved in farming - mostly small scale rice production.
Pursat Province has a poverty rate of 40%. Landowners lack the resources to acquire seeds.
Small scale farmers live from harvest to harvest to survive.
Poor families have insufficient food for 4 to 8 months of the year - they are lacking in basic nutrition and live on the margins of society. There is little or no access to markets.
Soils have been adversely affected by chemical fertilisers and pesticides, seasonal droughts and floods. Forests are being depleted because of overuse and poor management.
Water resources are in short supply and irrigation systems are left unrepaired. Some areas have no access to water at all.
Beneficiaries: over 1,100 of the poorest farming families (5,500 people) - 40 groups in 10 villages. The beneficiaries are either without an income or suffer from disabilities and serious illnesses such as HIV/AIDS and TB. Many are elderly, orphans or vulnerable children.
This home gardening and rice production project will establish demonstration plots and 8 rice banks. Each rice bank will benefit 70 families.
Training will be provided on crop diversification, pest management and water resources.
Crops grown will include: cabbage, cucumber, egg plant (aubergine), lemon grass, rice, peanut, pumpkin, soybean and watermelon.
Sustainable, low cost agricultural techniques will boost production and yield.
The villagers will now have food throughout times of general food shortage and they will also have stocks of food to sell at market.
Non-timber forest products will also be grown: bamboo shoots, mushrooms, wild potatoes and edible leaves for food and medicine. Other benefits from non-timber products will include small scale employment from the sale of goods (jewellery from bark etc).
New water resource structures will reduce flooding and improve access to water.
This project will directly benefit more than 2,000 families with the same number again benefiting indirectly. As a result beneficiaries will have: food security, water supplies, marketable produce, income generation, a cash for work programme and access to markets.
Financed through Concern Worldwide (London, UK), working with in- country partners Environment Protection and Development Organisation (EPDO) and Ponleu Komar (PK).