climate smart agriculture farmer field school on vegetable growing

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IMPROVED FAMILY VEGETABLE PRODUCTION FOR SMALLHOLDER FARMERS
USING FARMER FIELD SCHOOL APPROACH
Life and Nature Project, May 2016
By Yim Soksophors
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO-UN) is implementing a Global
Environment Facility (GEF) funded project, titled “Strengthening the adaptive capacity and resilience of
rural communities using micro-watershed approaches to climate change and variability to attain
sustainable food security in Cambodia,” or the “Life and Nature” project. The Cambodian Ministry of
Environment is the main counterpart of FAO-UN in the implementation of the Life and Nature project,
which is also closely partnering with the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries; General
Directorate of Agriculture; Forestry Administration; Ministry of Women’s Affairs; Ministry of Rural
Development; Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology, and other institutions. The objective of the
project is to build the adaptive capacity of rural communities and reduce their vulnerability to climate
change through integrated micro-watershed management and climate resilient agriculture practices to
ensure food security. The project’s on-the-ground efforts will take place within four locations: Lvea Krang
commune, Varin District, Siem Reap Province; PoPok Commune, Stoung District, Kampong Thom Province;
Ta Veaeng Leu Commune, Ta Veaeng District, Ratanak Kiri Province; and, Kulen Chheung Commune, Kulen
District, Preah Vihear Province. The four communes’ micro-watersheds cover a total of ~60,000 hectares
and have a total population of ~10,000.
As mentioned above, the project has 4 target communes in total. In October 2015, Climate vulnerability
and impact assessment (VIA) was conducted to assess the climate vulnerability, existing adaptation
measures as well as to prepare action plan that address the key issues found in the VIA. Improving family
vegetable production was proposed by interviewed farmers to include in the action plan. The interviewed
respondents identified capacity building on vegetable growing as necessary for boosting vegetable
production in the commune. Vegetable production is normally carried out in rainy season. Lack of water
storage and water supply systems make difficult for the farmers to grow vegetables in the dry season. At
the same limited knowledge of Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) and understanding of climate change and
variation reduced farmers’ adaptive capacity. For instance, limited skills and understanding in selection
of climate tolerant seed, preparation of cropping calendar adaptable to climate variability, sustainable soil
fertility improvement practices, and integrated pest management (IPM).
To respond the farmers’ demand, from February to May 2016, the project piloted farmer field schools
(FFSs) on climate resilient vegetable growing in 3 target communes (Lvea Krang in Siem Reap province,
Popok in Kampong Thom province and Kulen Chheung in Preah Vihear province). The Life and Nature
project partnered with the Provincial Department of Agriculture (PDA) to implement the pilot FFSs. PDA
staff at the provincial level played role as the FFS trainer and district staff acted as the trainer assistant.
Both of PDA staff worked closely with project extension officer, who performed as the FFS facilitator.
About 15 to 20 farmers attended in a FFS, more than 50% of the total members were women. A series of
training organized, key training topics focused on the basic concept of climate change and climate smart
vegetable growing practices including the selection of climate resilient varieties, seedbed preparation
specifically for the dry season and wet season, water use efficiency practices, integrated pest
management, etc. All of these practices are considered as part of the climate smart agriculture. While the
CSA-FFS training curriculum and materials have not been developed, PDA used their existing materials

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with support from national agronomist to integrate climate change adaptation aspect into it. Selection of
FFS members is very important for success of the FFS. Key selection criteria were:
 Farmers must have a common interest in vegetable growing,
 Farmers who are currently growing vegetables,
 Farmers must have a home lot for growing vegetables, etc.
The diagram below indicates the process of implementing these pilot FFSs, including identification and
selection of FFS members, village meeting, provision of trainings, follow-up visit and technical advice, field
day and technical monitoring support after completion of the FFS.
Process of the FFS implementation
The pilot FFS produced a good result while majority of the FFS members have gained a lot of
understanding of climate resilient vegetable growing. As earlier mentioned, they experienced in vegetable
growing (for the family consumption), but the concept of CSA is new for them. Majority of them interest
to apply the techniques that they have learned from the pilot FFSs, but application is limited due to the
lack of irrigation water. Some farmers prepared fence for vegetable garden, selected tolerant vegetables
for planting, used water in efficiency manner, collected natural manure for compost making, and prepared
botanical pesticide for pest control.
The below table provides summary on differences between traditional vegetable growing practices and
new techniques learned from the pilot FFS:
1. Identify and select
interested farmers
2. Organize village
meeting to introduce
farmer field school,
3. Organize training for
FFS members, field
practice was the main
method.
4. Provide follow up
advice by FFS trainer
and project extension
officer
5. Organize final session
of the FFS (reflection,
planning...)
6. organize field day
7.Provide continued
follow -up support to
FFS members

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Traditional practices Highlighted practices trained to
FFS members
Seed selection & germination  Full grain seeds/climate
tolerant seed were not
properly selected for planting
 select healthy and tolerant
varieties for planting
 Mix sand and fertile soil for
seed germination
Soil preparation and
improvement
 Immediate planting
conducted after soil
preparation without drying
 Use chemical fertilizer 1
 Dry the soil properly
 Spray hot water on the soil to
diminish pest
 Use compost /organic matter
Water usage  Used a lot of water to water
vegetables.
 Water collection and water
use efficiency
 Rehabilitate existing ponds –
to make bigger ponds for
water storage and later use
in the drier months
Integrated pest management  Some farmers did not know
the solution
 Used chemical pesticide that
negative impact to human
health and environment, at
the same time increased
family expense on external
inputs.
 Use kerosene mixed with
seed to prevent destroy from
ants.
 Prepare botanical pesticide
to terminate or repel pest
insects
Harvesting  No sorting of produce  Harvest crops in right time
with proper sorting for
commercial purpose.
Water use efficiency, planting climate resilient crop varieties, improved soil fertility, integrated pest
management and introduced appropriate farming systems were seen as key climate change adaptation
aspects trained to the FFS members.
IMMEDIATE OUTPUTS
Even the prolonged drought occurred in this years, FFS members still made effort to apply the vegetable
growing techniques that they have learned. Because of the shortage of water, the farmers could not grow
vegetables on the whole land they have, but they tried to grow on smaller piece of land depending on
amount of available water in pond or well. It is to notice that many areas in Cambodia faced to prolonged
drought and high heatwave, which resulted in shortage of water even for the human to drink.
1
Number of tillers/hand tractors is increasing, but this increase limits the amount of cow dungs for soil
fertility improvement. More farmers sold cattle to buy tiller, but did not find ways to sustain soil fertility.
Life and Nature project through the pilot FFS introduced compost making, promotion of using organic
matters and collection of natural manures, crop diversification, crop rotation, and mixed-cropping which
are good for improving soil fertility.

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Through implementing the pilot FFS, some immediate outputs achieved as follows:
 Farmers, especially women have gained good understanding of vegetable growing. Some farmers
have applied the techniques that they have learned from the pilot FFSs to produce vegetables for
family consumption. Through the individual interview with FFS members, availability of
vegetables for family consumption has increased from three to four months a year. Moreover, a
number of farmers received income from selling vegetables when they sold the surplus.
Phoun Phea is a cooperating farmer of the Life and Nature Project. He lives in Anlong Kranh village,
Popok commune. Phea regularly attended the FFS training, and applied new techniques in his
vegetable gardens. He likes to plant water convolvulus, bottle gourd, yard long bean, etc. Through
the interview, Phea mentioned that he increased quantity of vegetables produced for the family
consumption – he stopped buying vegetables from others, but received more income of 30,000
riels from selling water convolvulus. This amount of income is not much, but it encourages him to
produce vegetables for selling in the future. He did not receive any income from vegetables before.
Photo 1: Mr. Phoun Phea, a cooperating farmer of
the Life and Nature project, in Anlong Kranh
village, Kampong Thom province
Photo 2: Vegetable gardens prepared by
Phoun Phea after attending the pilot
FFS
 Some FFS members are potential to become members of women producer groups. At the same
time, they can be demonstration farmers as well if the project just continued providing additional
technical support a bit more.
 Through the implementation of the pilot FFS, the farmers had opportunity to share their
knowledge and practical experience to each other. This means that their solidary, networking
have been strengthened. This would be easy for the project to form farmer’s group in the future
while they already experience working together.

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Photo 3: Visiting vegetable garden of a FFS member in Anlong Kranh village,
 Farmers understand impact of chemical pesticide to human health, environment and economic.
Imported vegetables from neighboring countries are normally planted with extensive use of
chemicals (e.g. pesticide, fertilizer). In the FFS, farmers prepared botanical pesticide using local
materials without paying money to buy external inputs, and it is also an environmental friendly
practice.
Photo 4: Chemical pesticide used for pest
control
Photo 5: Botanical pesticide introduced by
the project
 Some FFS members come up with clear plan for their family agricultural development. Specifically,
they wanted to improve water storage capacity by rehabilitating the existing ponds and some
other farmers want to plant vegetables in a bigger land for selling to markets.
 Through the implementation of the pilot FFSs, government counterparts from PDA and district
agriculture office have improved their technical skills and knowledge of climate smart agriculture
as well as the facilitation of CSA-FFS. Most of PDA staff experienced facilitating the IPM farmer
field school, but not the CSA-FFS.

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LESSONS-LEARNED
Based on the implementation and achieved results from the pilot FFSs, some lessons-learned are captured
as follows:
• Farmers would be more interested and committed to apply new techniques if they see good
example from successful farmers. Therefore, exposure visit should be organized, particularly for
the next rounds of the farmer field schools.
• Young farmers could be potential members of women producer group. They have high motivation
and commitment to improve their life and the life for their children. By this reason, they make
more effort than the old farmers.
• Farmers have plenty of local knowledge and experience, encourage them to share their
understanding and real practices during the FFS training session is the key training method to be
carried out. Too much lecturing from FFS trainer will make boring learning environment.
• Field practices and/or demonstration with simple field trials run by the farmers is important for
the farmers to learn new technical innovations. They can understand well with their own
practices.
• Regular follow-up visit is very important to build trust and confidence with farmers. At the same
time, additional technical advice can be provided during the individual follow up visit.
• Visible training materials should be developed and used for the FFS training. This would be easy
for the farmers to absorb new knowledge.
• Agricultural inputs/materials should be delivered to FFS members on time. This would enable the
farmers effectively apply the techniques that they have learned,
• The project extension officer together with the FFS trainer should use the FFS record book
regularly.
NEXT ACTIONS
• On-going support and technical advice should be continued even after the completion of the FFS.
However, it is good as the project already planned to continue another cycle of FFS for the same
group. This would allow the FFS members to advance their skills and knowledge for commercial
purpose. It is to note that some potential FFS members could become women producer group
members to produce vegetables for market supply.
• Potential FFS members should be selected to become members of women producer groups
(WPGs) that will be formed by Provincial Department of Women’s Affairs (PDoWA) with technical
support from FAO’s Life and Nature project. Rational background, vision / objectives of the WPG
should be clearly discussed in the beginning to ensure that the farmers understand the nature of
the group and right farmers are selected for membership of the WPG.
• To make a wider dissemination of good practices, field day should be organized at the end of each
FFS. Reflection, key lessons learned should be captured and it would be valuable for planning the
next FFS. Additionally, it is good chance to spread good practices to other farmers, local
authorities and other stakeholders who did not attend the FFS.

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• Step by step, the project should improve water storage and supply systems that enable farmers
to have more water for growing vegetables. Interventions related to irrigation water can be
different based on the site specific, for example digging pond may not be appropriate for some
areas in Popok commune, improved access to water from the natural stream is much more
appropriate in Lvea Krang commune because there are few potential natural streams that
provided water all year round, etc.
• For the next round of the FFS, staff from district office of agriculture should also play role as the
trainer. Prior discussion / meeting between trainer and trainer assistant need to be conducted in
order to discuss the training agenda, content and to share responsible tasks between trainer and
assistant in each training session.