NEW CROPS ENHANCE SMALLHOLDERS RESILIENCE TO CLIMATE CHANGE, BOOST ECONOMIC STABILITY, AND IMPROVE SOIL QUALITY!
Background
The Melon Association Siem Reap Meanchey (MASC) found in 2011 by 27 household members, 5 females.
MASC is addressing climate finance challenges through a three-year strategic business action plan, supported by CFAP Cambodia and funded by IFAD and the EU under the project APFO-FO4A. This plan, running from December 2023 to December 2025, aims to improve the association’s capacity for collective sales and purchases, enhance market supply, and better utilize revolving funds inclusively in a year-round.
Key objectives include:
Improving Produce Quality: Ensuring crops meet high market demands, especially supper markets and export quality by providing technical skills training to farmer members, then farmers have to apply technical protocols.
Expediting Payments: Working with big buyers to ensure timely payments and support for farmers and their family as well as to expand production to meet a cropping calendar.
Expanding Markets reach: Finding new markets to accommodate increased production of farmer members while farmer members keep increasing from year to year to grow new crops.
Increasing Farm Sizes: Expanding land to meet growing market needs and innovative products from melon by small and medium industrials such as ice cream companies.
Diversifying Crops: Adding new crops to meet market demands, especially super markets and malls.
Developing Infrastructure: Establishing facilities for administration, processing, packaging, vegetable shop, cooling and storage.
Participating in trade fairs: Promoting new crops to new markets through participation in trade fairs and exhibitions.
MASC also seeks collaboration with research institutes, companies, and international partners for policy support and to address climate-related challenges. Additional capital is needed to enhance operational efficiency, provide technical training to new farmer members, and expand market opportunities.
Innovation/Good Practice
MASC started with an initial capital of 8,100,000 KHR, household members have increased from 27 households, 5 females to 313 households, 60 females over 12 years, has seen significant growth and success or 91% increase. With the goal of improving members’ incomes through the cultivation of new crops such as melon, yellow watermelon, onion, garlic, cherry tomato, bell pepper, and asparagus. The association has effectively responded to market demands in Phnom Penh. This growth highlights the association’s effective strategies and commitment to supporting smallholders in their agricultural endeavors.
MASC has made impressive strides in addressing the challenges of growing new crops in Cambodia. Despite initial difficulties related to technical protocols, severe climate conditions in recent years, soil conditions, and market demands, the association has successfully expanded its operations and improved its practices. Here’s a summary of their progress and ongoing challenges:
Current Achievements:
1. Capital & Land Expansion: The association’s capital has grown to 160,000,000KHR, and its land size has increased to 260 hectares.
2. Collection Center: A collection center has been established to handle produce from members, with an average output of 28 tons per month.
3. Small-Scale Businesses: The association engages in:
-Selling melon and yellow watermelon seeds to members.
-Collective sales and purchases of various crops from farmer members and vice versa.
-Providing small agri-credit loans.
-Organizing study visits and technical training.
4. Technical Improvements: Members have improved their understanding of climate and soil conditions, leading to better farming practices and soil quality management. Rotational cropping and adherence to a clear cropping calendar are now in place to ensure the association can supply markets in a year-round.
Taking challenges to grow new crops is a unique decision making for the association while members are increasing, therefore the association developed a comprehensive business plan that provided a clear strategy to enhance market supply regularly, optimize the use of a revolving fund and organizational financial management, thus to enable the association to get access to climate finance in the future to expand production and business.
Future Prospects:
1.Expansion Goals: Some members, like Mr. Heng Horn, aim to significantly expand their farm sizes from 3000 Sq. meters to 10000 Sq. meters meet increased market demand.
2.Crop Rotation & Soil Management: The association’s emphasis on crops rotation and sustainable soil practices helps improve long-term soil quality, environmental resilience and avoid producing over markets demands, esp in harvest season of other crops.
By addressing these challenges and continuing to refine their practices, the MASC is poised to further enhance its impact and success in the Cambodian agricultural sector.
As a member of the Cambodian Farmer Federation Association of Agricultural Producers (CFAP), MASC was selected in 2023 for support under the APFP-FO4A project. This initiative, funded by IFAD and the EU and supported regionally by AFA/LVC, aims to bolster MASC’s capacity for collective sales and purchases. The business action plan, which runs from December 2023 to December 2025, focuses on:
-Improving Produce Quality: Enhancing the quality of crops to meet high market demands.
-Expediting Payments: Collaborating with big buyers/companies to ensure faster payments to the association, enabling timely payments to farmers.
-Expanding Market Reach: Seeking new markets both within and outside Cambodia to accommodate the increased production from members.
-Increasing Farm Sizes: Expanding farm areas to meet growing market demands.
-Diversifying Crops: Introducing new crops like bell peppers, cherry tomatoes, and onions to satisfy market needs.
-Establishing Infrastructure: Setting up an office for administrative work, a vegetable shop, a processing and packaging facility, and a cooler for storage.
-Participating in Trade Fairs: Increasing participation in trade fairs both domestically and internationally.
-Strengthening the Cropping Calendar: Refining the cropping calendar to prevent market oversupply in the future.
Despite having a strong structure from farm to market, MASC recognizes the needs for collaboration with research institutes, large companies, international development partners, UN agencies and government entities for policy support.
In summary, MASC requires additional capital to ensure timely collection and supplying produces, provide technical training to new members, establish a processing and packaging collection center, needed a cooling transportation van, expand its marketing team, collaborate with seed producers for quality assurance, and explore new market opportunities for the future.
Impact
Currently the MASC has 313 households as smallholder members, 60 females. In average, members increased about 25 new household members each year. The current strategic business plan helps improved farmers’ livelihoods through increased productivity and improved quality of production to meet high market demands. New interested farmer members grow new crops for suppling markets collectively through MASC, opportunity to expand business plan to meet increased market demands and empower MASC to influent policy to enable farmers’ organizations get access to climate change finance.
Facilitating Factors/Challenges
-Capital Needs: There is a lack of revolving fund capital within the association.
-Scheduling Issues: Overlapping cropping schedules have led to market oversupply, exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic due to travel restriction of our coordinators.
-Seed Quality: Problems with bad or fake seeds persist.
-Reporting & Scheduling: Inconsistent reporting of schedules by members to the association.
-Payment Delays: Late repayments from large companies impact cash flow from companies to MASC and farmer members.
-Market Alignment: Crops sometimes do not align with market demands.
-Transportation Issues: Problems with transporting produces from farms to the collection center, there is no proper means to collect produces timely.
-Market Prices & Competition: Inflation and high market competition of imported produces affect profitability.
-Technical Skills: New members lack sufficient technical skills, and there is a shortage of experts for technical support.
Lessons Learned
A strategic business plan, cropping schedule, use of a revolving fund and technical training protocols help accelerating inclusive markets for MASC’s farmer members. Many farmers get interested in growing new crops and wanted to expand their farm size to increase their production to supply markets collectively in a year-round. CFAP sometimes conducted the project monitoring and implementation, 2-3 times annually and engaging the MASC to the trade fairs and exhibitions to explore more markets opportunity with big buyers.
Recommendations
Based on this experience and on behalf of farmer members and our network we would like to recommend that the International Fund for Agricultural Development – IFAD, development agencies and the government should focus more on direct funding to farmers’ organizations of at least 10% of the country development fund of IFAD and agricultural GDP of the government to improve agricultural production, quality of produces to meet high market demands and exports. To strengthen the institutional capacity of farmers’ organizations by building human resources based to extend services directly and professionally to farmer members, investment in collection center, processing, packaging, storage and collective enterprising of members’ produces to markets in a year-round. Additional revolving fund to ensure the profitable business of farmers’ organizations that can run the organization expenses to serve the interest of farmer members. Policy to ensure that farmers, especially smallholders are profitable and agriculture is a business and farmers must be in the centric discussion at all levels.
Country/Organization: Cambodian Farmer Federation Association of Agricultural Producers, Cambodia.
Contact Person/Email Address: soksotha@cfap-cambodia.org
This case study was selected by IFAD for the Mekong Knowledge Learning Fairs (MKLF) 2024.