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Progress and Activities (1999-2006)
[go to 2007-08]

2006 Highlights:
The government of Cambodia has integrated SRI promotion into its national development plan for 2006-2010 given the results demonstrated with these methods and SRI’s fit with its strategy for the agricultural sector: intensification (including SRI), diversification (facilitated by SRI gains in land productivity), compost use to improve soil fertility, and fish culture (SRI makes it possible to free up land area for fish ponds). The Ministers of Agriculture and of Environment are personally promoting SRI, as seen from the January 2006 trip report of Norman Uphoff. One farmer receiving an award for highest SRI yield attained an average level of 14.6 t/ha, with one crop-cut of 2 kg/m2 (20 t/ha). Farmers are making now many modifications in their farming systems, based on SRI, to diversify production for both better income and nutrition.

See also the annual report of the SRI Secretariat at DAALI/MAFF in Phnom Penh.

1999-2005 Progress::
• The director of the Center for Studies and Development of Cambodian Agriculture (CEDAC), Dr. Koma Sang Yaing, first tried SRI methods in 1999 after reading about them in the ILEIA newsletter. He wanted to satisfy himself that they worked before trying to promote them as part of CEDAC's program for farming system intensification and diversification. In 2000, CEDAC was able to get 28 farmers to try out the methods for themselves. Their good results encouraged 400 farmers to use SRI in 2001, and 3,000 farmers in 2002. The next year, 2003, 10,000 farmers used SRI methods. In 2004, when more precise numbers were possible (but there was less expansion than expected because of severe drought), the number of SRI users was at least 17,092. By the end of 2005, the total was at least 40,000 farmers, and as many as 50,000 were using SRI. See report of national workshops/meetings in January and March 2003. The spread has been promoted particularly by farmer initiative.

.• CEDAC has done a longitudinal evaluation of SRI experience of 120 farmers who have used SRI methods for three years (2001, 2002 and 2003). Even though not all are still using all of the SRI methods as recommended, the evaluation showed that even incomplete use of SRI has enabled them to get 2.75 t/ha average compared to 1.34 t/ha with conventional means. Their area under SRI has increased from .11 to .47 ha. Fertilizer use has gone from 116 kg/ha to 67 kg/ha on average, and chemical pesticide use has declined from 35 kg/ha to 7 kg/ha. Costs of production have been reduced by half, and household income, even with use of SRI on only of their rice land has almost doubled. 55% of the farmers said that for them, SRI reduces their labor requirements, while only 18% said it increased labor requirements; 27% said it made no difference. See evaluation report (full report or summary) for details.

• GTZ, the German development agency, in February-April 2004 commissioned a through evaluation of SRI in Cambodia. Data were gathered from 500 farmers, who were randomly selected in five provinces, 400 of them being 'SRI users' and 100 'non-SRI' for comparison. The 'SRI users' were not yet all using all the recommended practices, or using all as recommended, but even so, a 40% increase in yield was documented, and a 75% increase in net income per ha, due in part to substantial reductions in farmers' costs of production. Most significant, this study found that no real increase in labor requirements for using SRI. Labor savings made during transplanting (a time of peak labor demand, when 10 person/days per ha were required) offset the increased labor needed for weeding (which could be done with flexible timing). Also, it was found that reducing the need for cash expenditure at the start of the planting season, when household cash reserves are lowest, was a benefit over and above the overall reduction in total expenditure for growing rice. See report for details.

• In May, 2003, Roland Bunch, well known advisor on farmer-centered agricultural development (author of Two Ears of Corn), now again on the staff of World Neighbors, visited Cambodia for ADRA, the Adventist Development and Relief Association. He visited a village where ADRA personnel had persuaded 100 farmers (of the village's 500) to try SRI. Because these are very poor farmers with an average yield of only 1 t/ha, they asked for assurance that they would be compensated for any loss of yield. Bunch was informed that the average yield for these farmers in the 2002-2003 season was 2.5 t/ha, and none had requested any compensation, as all felt they had benefited from the new methodology. All farmers in the village said they would try SRI in the next season. See Bunch message. This experience has showed how SRI methods can be beneficial under less than ideal conditions (in this case, poor water control) and for very marginal farmers. The most recent report of the ADRA experience is noted in the 2004 ADRA Cambodian Report.

• After a national workshop on SRI in Cambodia in April 2004, participants from MAFF, CARD, OIs and NGOs agreed to form a working group and establish a permanent secretariat. GTZ provided CEDAC with funds to set up the secretariat. The working group is chaired by Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) under the Department of Agronomy and Agricultural Land Improvement (DAALI). Information on the working group, its activities and the secretariat can be found in the forum section of the Cambodian Government's Food Security and Nutrition website's forum section. The Cambodian SRI website has additional information.

• On August 13, 2005, Cambodia’s Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries took 300 of his staff from Phnom Penh to Takeo Province, the most active center for SRI adoption and adaptation, to become acquainted with SRI and its results first-hand. The German development agency GTZ is now supporting a SRI Secretariat in the MAFF headquarters to coordinate training and extension activities, as discussed in Uphoff's March 2005 trip report. The Cambodian SRI website, which currently lists meetings and events, was upgraded in July, 2005.

• 'Global Marketing Partnership for SRI Indigenous Rice- Cambodia, Madagascar and Sri Lanka' was a winner of the 2005 Seed Awards that were announced April 20, 2005, in New York City. His Excellency Dr. Mok Mareth, Senior Minister, the Ministry of Environment of the Kingdom of Cambodia, His Excellency Ambassador Zina Andrianarivelo, Permanent Representative of the Mission of Madagascar to the UN, Mr. Thosapala Hewage - Secretary of the Ministry of Urban Development and Water Supply, Government of Sri Lanka presented the award to D. Yang Saing Koma, Director, Centre d'Etudes et de Developpement Agricole Cambodgien and Professor Norman Uphoff and Mrs. Olivia Vent, Cornell International Institute for Food, Agriculture and Development.