The document outlines the progress and activities of the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) project in Cambodia from 2004 to 2016, highlighting the initial introduction of SRI, its integration into national plans, and participatory research involving farmers. Among the key objectives were improving understanding of SRI principles, promoting farmer participatory action research, and enhancing rice production in rain-fed ecosystems. Lessons learned emphasize the significance of early engagement, proper training, and addressing local farming conditions for successful implementation.

1. 23-25 April 2017, Hanoi, Vietnam
Mr. Kong Kea, Project Management Unit, General
Directorate of Agriculture, MAFF, Cambodia.
Regional Workshop for SRI-LMB Project

2. Content
1. Introduction
2. Overall Objective
3. Organization Structure
4. Target area
5. Activities and Output from 2004-2016
6. Conclusion
7. Lesson learnt
8. Future plan

3. 1. Introduction
• In 2000, SRI was introduced first in Cambodia by CEDAC
and tested with 28 farmers.
• GTZ was the first partner to provide support to CEDAC
for SRI promotion, quickly followed by other
stakeholders like Oxfam, HEKS, Rachana, FAO, and other
projects.
• In 2004, SRI working group was created and chaired by
DAALI to improve linkage and cooperation, and sharing
experiences among implementer, donors, and policy
makers.

4. • In 2005, SRI secretariat established to facilitate
meeting, conduct training for PDA, develop
promotion materials, and collect data on SRI
dissemination.
• In early 2006, SRI was integrated into the National
Strategic Development Plan (NSDP) and policy
frameworks to reduce food insecurity and poverty of
rural households.
• Based on report from NGO and SRI promoters, many
farmers had been trained and many farmers applied
SRI practices.
• However, the adaptation of some SRI practices still
be difficult and limited since lack of formal research
activities investigating these cultivation practices and
necessary adaptations.

5. • For that reason, it is very important to conduct Farmer
Participatory Action Research (FPAR) involving farmers,
trainers and researchers to investigate the potential
benefits, challenges and adaptations.
• In 2007, FAO-IPM were interested and want to promote
SRI through Farmer Participatory Action Research
through FFS. Some FFS and action researches were
conducted in Prey Veng province.
• Experience learnt from FPAR, farmers have learnt a lot
from their experiments and could modify SRI practices
based on their local condition.
• In 2014, SRI-LMB has started in four countries, Cambodia,
Vietnam and Thailand and Laos.

6. 2. Overall Objective
• To develop common understanding among
participants about the concept and principles of System
of Rice Intensification (SRI) and relevance rice
production in rain- fed ecosystem;
• To develop practical understanding of setting field
experiments, observation of the key indicators,
develop data formats and data analysis from actual field;
• To understand the Farmer Participatory Action Research
(FPAR) process and its concept and discuss the curricula
and session plans for the upcoming FPAR;

7. • To discuss and integrate gender aspects into learning
curricula and in practice of FPAR process;
• To learn about Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning
(MEL) aspects to support the FPAR work.

8. 3. Organization Structure
General Directorate of Agriculture
National IPM Programme
Training Expert
PMU & FAO-IPM
Provincial Department
of Agriculture
(LMU coordinator)
Provincial Department
of Agriculture
(LMU coordinator)
Provincial Department
of Agriculture
(LMU coordinator)
District Agricultural Office District Agricultural Office District Agricultural Office
Local NGOsAcademic School

9. 4. Target Areas
• There are 3 provinces, Takeo, Kampot and
Kampong Speu province.
• In each province, three districts were selected
for implementation project.
• In each district, four target communes were
selected for project implementation.

10. Target area of SRI-LMB in Cambodia
SRI target

11. 4/27/2017 11
SRI target in Kampong Speu Province

12. SRI target in Takeo Province

13. SRI target in Kampot Province

14. 5. Activities and Output
from 2004-2016

15. 5.1 Inception Workshop
• In 2014, one National Inception and Planning
Workshop was organized is to kick-start by
informing larger audience about the project, its
goal and objectives; revisit the project definition,
goals, overall work plan for Cambodia;
• There were 44 participants (9 women) invited from
Regional FAO-IPM, FAOR, Regional Coordinator
SRI-LMB project, PMU, Oxfam, Srer Khmer, HEKS,
CENTDOR, RUA, Provincial Department of
Agriculture, LMU, and Farmer Trainers from Takeo,
Kampot and Kampong Speu province.

16. 5.2 Baseline survey:
• The baseline survey was carried out in Kampong Speu,
Takeo and Kampot province which area was grown rice
crop. 134 farmers (35 women) were interviewed.
Province District Males Females Total
Kampong Speu Borseth 10 2 12
Korng Pisey 10 2 12
Samrong Torng 9 5 14
Takeo Bati 11 5 16
Prey Kabas 8 8 16
Tramkak 13 3 16
Kampot Angkor Chey 16 0 16
Chhouk 9 7 16
Chumkiri 13 3 16
Total 99 35 134

17. 5.3 Mini-TOT or CFPAR
 Three Mini-TOT on Farmer Participatory Action
Research (FPAR) and SRI were conducted from 28 June
2014 until 28 November 2014
 The CFPAR were conducted at Agriculture Farmer
Training and Research Center with 81 participants (23
women).
 This mini-ToT aims building up understanding of
participants on SRI practices, concept of farmer
participatory action researches, goals and objectives
of project, development of curriculum and session
guide for FPAR, and FPAR management.

18.  Learning by doing approaches and adult learning
process were used intensively in mini-ToT
 Field day for CFPAR were organized at research
station where the participants conducted a lot of
experiments.
 All participants from 3 mini ToT and honor guests
from AIT, FAO and GDA were invited to
participate in this field day. Totally, 107
participants ( 29 women) attended field day.

19. 5.4 Farmer Participatory Action Research (FPAR) and
post-FPAR :
• FPAR is a farmer training tool using farmer field
school approach
• Through FPAR, principle of SRI and good practices
of rice production were introduced and discussed.
• Innovation idea from various sources and farmers
were brought for experiment and evaluation.
• Appropriate technologies for improving rice
production, economically, efficiently, environmental
friendly in rain-fed condition were identified and
adopted by farmers in specific local condition.

20. • Through FPAR, farmers are able to set up
experiments by them selves for better cultivation
technologies for their rice production.
• In the FPAR curriculum, 13 session, 10 session and 8
session were designed in 2014, 2015 and 2016
respectively.
• After FPAR, post FPAR were implemented to do more
researches and demo about SRI and follow up by DT
and FT.
• Totally, 170 FPAR were conducted from year 2014
until 2016 with 3393 farmers (2061 women) involved.
• Seventy two post-FPAR were conducted from year
2015 until 2016 in three provinces namely Kampong
Speu, Takeo and Kampot province involving 1738
farmers (1201 women).

21. Project Activities and output
Year
FPAR Post-FPAR
No.
FPAR
Total
farmers
Women No.
FPAR
Total
farmers
Women
2014 36 1032 634 0 0 0
2015 36 1024 663 36 879 622
2016 45 1337 764 36 859 579
Grand total 117 3393 2061 72 1738 1201

22. • Farmer Field Day (FFD) were conducted at
some location of FPAR. FFDs were conducted
for sharing the achievement of FPAR
implementation to other farmers, officers
and other relevant stakeholders in each
province. Totally, from 2014 to 2016, there
were 680 participants (349 women)
participated in seven FPAR Field Day .
5.5 FPAR Field Day

23. • LMU Workshops were conducted at Provincial
Department of Agriculture of targeted area.
• This workshop aims to discuss the result from FPAR
and Post-FPAR, Problem encountered and lesson
learnt were shared among DT and FT who
implemented FPAR and Post FPAR
• This workshop also discuss the activities planned for
each year.
• Totally, 6 LMU workshops were conducted with 192
participants (49 women) from Regional Coordinator
SRI-LMB project, PMU, Oxfam, Srer Khmer, RUA, LMU,
DT and FTs
5.6 LMU workshop

25. 5.7 Farmer exchange visit
• Oversea Farmer Exchange Visit was
made to Thailand in November 2014
involving 10 participants (2 women)
including PMU, LMU, DT and FT.
• The objective of the Farmer Exchange
Visit was to strengthen the capacity
of Farmer and District Trainers for
designing, conducting, evaluating,
and managing experiments .

26. Impact of SRI demonstration

31. Problems encountered for FPAR in 2014-2016
• Drought prolonging until Sep-Oct
• There were changing family member to attend training.
• Some NGOs and projects give attendance fee for farmer
meeting or training at community.
• Farmers do not actively participate in collection data from field
experiments.
• Knowledge and facilitation skills for DT and FT

32. Solution
 The FPAR should start as earlier as possible especially the
selection of experimental field and cooperation farmer.
 At the beginning of FPAR, facilitators have to discuss the local
practices and identify gaps for technical improvement.
 The technical problems identified have to be prioritized and put
for experiment.
 Only SRI demo plot ( about 1000m2 follow by one simple specific
comparison experiment (single factor and single replication
experiment)
 Village chief should be invited for FPAR training.
 Duration of training at FPAR should be minimized but more and
more focusing on the key points.

33. 6. Conclusions
• In the condition of rain-fed, the application of
completed SRI could not be applied.
• Even some SRI practices applied, rice yield and
economic efficiency be increased either
transplanting or direct seeding methods.
• Applying SRI, farmers need more time to take
care of their field than conventional practices.
• However, through FPAR farmers have been built
the skills of observing the field and can set up
the experiments in their field.

34. 7. Lesson learnt from FPAR in 2014-2016
• It would be difficult to select good fields for FPAR if
starting late.
• Quality of FPAR is depending on facilitation skills and
technical knowledge of trainers.
• The number of participants at FPAR is more If the village
chief attend FPAR,
• Good experimental site and active cooperation farmer
selected will contribute to the successfulness of FPAR.
• If the identified local problems were considered and put
for experiments, farmers would much interested and
participated in observing field experiment regularly.

35. • It would be difficult to differentiate SRI and conventional
plots if both plot put in the same main plot.
• There was an observation that old age farmers pay less
attention in observing field experiment as compared to the
young.
• The quality of FPAR would be better if LMU and PMU team
provide backstopping visit regularly.
• It would be easy for farmers to learn and compare if the
experiment simply designed (single factor and single
replication)
• If duration of each training take over than 2h:30 minute,
farmers would pay less attention to the training (affect to
their daily works especially for women).

36. 8. Future plan
• In 2017, the number of FPAR and post-FPAR
were completed. So, the follow up made by
LMU and PMU to observe the impact of SRI
farmers and non- SRI farmers will be continued.
• Only land less activities conducted 10 locations
by promoting and create skills for landless on
chicken production and mushroom culture.

38. Mini-TOT activities
Mini-TOT activities

39. Mini-TOT activities

40. Mini-TOT activities

41. Mini-TOT activities

42. Mini-TOT activities

43. Mini-TOT activities

44. Mini-TOT activities

45. Mini-TOT activities

46. Mini-TOT activities

47. CFPAR Field Day activities

48. CFPAR Field Day activities

49. FPAR and post-FPAR activities

50. FPAR and post-FPAR activities

51. FPAR and post-FPAR activities

52. FPAR and post-FPAR activities

53. FPAR and post-FPAR activities