Self-sustainable farms

Leng, the agriculture coordinator of CHO, took Candice (an awesome nurse volunteer) and I to see the agriculture project that CHO has done. They took us on a motorcycle adventure to the village which was about 20k out of Poipet.

The first stage of the CHO agriculture project is to find the most vulnerable families of the community. One of the farms we went to had 5 children, their mother had died and the father had to take care of all of them somehow. After selecting the families CHO then provides training, the first batch of seeds and a basic irrigation system (a long pipe). These are all the resources needed in order create a self-sustainable farm. The training involves education on methods of sowing, irrigation and how to make and use compost, as an organic fertilizer. The farm we went to received the resourses from CHO only 2 years ago, now they are completely self sustainable and are also able to sell their vegetables at the market. They also learnt that it is better to alternate the vegetables which they grow at the same area in order to maintain the quality of the soil over time.

The father and one of his son proudly showed us around the farm and their healthy vegetables. He explained to us that the families that live in that community work together, we saw about 10 people working on his farm that day. The families work on an exchange of favours basis, no money is involved. By doing that they can also learn from each other and create a closer community. The land is owned by a "rich man" from Phonon Phen, and the family has to pay rent to him. They gave us a huge "cucumber", which turned out to be a cumelon (similar taste of melon and texture of avocado, good with sugar). We also visited a smaller farm which only had morning glory. There was about 5 little girls piling the plants. Its their summer holidays now, so they can help their parents during the day.

On the way back we noticed that the farmer next door was using chemical pesticides (with no type of protection) on his crop. This is a problem we are currently facing with on the water project. Fertilizes can sometimes reach the families` water source and contaminate it. Chemicals in the water can only be removed by more sophisticated systems, such as reverse osmosis. Reverse osmosis, for example, is a very expensive system when compared to ceramic pots, for a family of 1-6 people the price from each is 300 dollars to 12 dollars respectively. Hence, reverse osmosis could only be implemented if huge subsidies are available. The best solution is to educate families on this issue, so they can make sure that the water used for drinking is not being contaminated.

Evelyn