Campaign on the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) in Svay Rieng Province, Cambodia

Cambodian Center for Study and Development in Agriculture (CEDAC) is implementing a development project titled “Development of food production, farming income, nutrition and resilience in Cambodia”.  The duration of the project is from January 2010 to June 2011 which covers on 75 villages in 5 districts of Prey Veng and Svay Rieng Provinces. The specific objectives of the project (1). To increase productivity and sustainability of family scale agriculture through development of farmers’ skills, access to irrigation, development of input supply and other services to farmers, (2). To upraise food availability and nutritive quality on the market, including the availability of adequate food for young children. The System of Rice Intensification (SRI) is one among the main agricultural innovations introduced by CEDAC.

In July 2010, the project team in Chantrea district, Svay Rieng Province conducted a SRI Campaign with 270 participants (137 women). Those participants composed of farmers, village chief, commune councilors, local stakeholders who come from 9 villages across 4 communes, in Chantrea district. It is now the beginning of rainy season in Cambodia so the campaign was conducted in order to raise awareness among the farmers on SRI so that they can understand and prepare for SRI cultivation. In addition, the campaign was helpful to exchange the knowledge and experiences on SRI practices among farmers, farmers and local authorities (village chiefs and commune councilors)  and other stakeholders. During the SRI Campaign, 613 SRI leaflets were distributed to 454 farmers, 187 out of 454 are the members of the village based farmer associations.

As the result, the farmers have gained more understanding on SRI principles and techniques. Generally, majority of the farmers are interested in experimenting and applying SRI in this rainy season. In addition, the project staff of CEDAC will provide individual follow-up advice on SRI and record the result of the SRI experiment with the cooperating farmers. It is expected the SRI report will be produced at the end of the rainy season.