Empower 325 Cambodian Families to be Self Reliant

Executive summary

During the report period, the progresses focused on activities, problems, solutions, and achievements including chicken and pig raisings, vegetable growing, and saving component of Self Help Groups in eight villages, Damrey Pong commune, Chhaung district, Kratie province, Cambodia.  

Activities and achievements

There was no restructure for new groups in other villages to become Self Help Group as most group members had no available time to join the meetings.

Chicken production in all groups of the eight villages was quite the same. Beneficiaries ate more chickens than sold them. On average they ate three chickens (about 4.5 kg of meat) per household per month. In Kroach village, no chicken fence made from cassava stem was constructed as most stems were damaged by the rain. However, one beneficiary has completed his chicken fence made from cassava in Pre Kor village.

Currently the pig production of the SHG in Kroach village isn’t going quite well as the price of the pig meat is low on the local market and beneficiaries have difficulties to collect water from water sources which are far away from the village in the dry season. As a result four members (out of 10) sold their pigs. They then, considered improving chicken production as the chicken price is better as well as using less amount of water.   

Vegetable production was quite similar within all villages where beneficiaries grew vegetable for eating more than selling. They grew four to five diversified vegetable varieties within an average 5mX10m land size. A widow grandmother, Yem Thon, 76 years old is living with her three grandchildren in Prey Kor village, they consumed 0.5 kg of vegetable per day. Moreover, she earned about 20,000 riels ($5) per month from selling vegetable.      

Saving components of groups in Kroach, Sre Treak, and Brahout villages have improved compared to groups in other five villages in terms of borrowing and paying loan back to the groups. Groups’ members in Kroach, Sre Treak, and Brahout villages were 20, 40, and 26 respectively. Till now the total amount of money gathered of the groups in Kroach, Sre Treak, and Brahout villages has reached the amount of 815,000 Riels ($204), 4,470,300 Riels ($1,117), 1,700,000 Riels ($425) respectively. And the total amount of money borrowed by groups’ members was 647,000 Riels ($161,75), 3,113,600 Riels ($778,40), and 700,000 Riels ($175) respectively. Groups’ members have mainly lent money for rice, cash crop, and livestock productions and sometimes on health care.     

Executive summary

The report has focused on the progress of activities, problems, solutions, and achievements in terms of chicken and pig raisings, vegetable growing, and saving component of CBOs in eight villages, Damrey Pong commune, Chhaung district, Kratie province, Cambodia.  

Activities and achievements

In the last report there were needed improvements of all CBOs in all villages to have a better way of functioning. In response, in Brahout village, the Chicken group, Fish group, and Vegetable group were restructured to become only one Group with only three elected committee members and 23 members (in total 26 people, 12 women), called a Self Help Group. The committee members were Mr. Sun Sokchea, group coordinator, Mr. Thean Mao, group representative 1, and Mrs. Than Soklin, group representative 2. All new committee members have committed to work harder in order to improve the livelihood conditions for their members. All group members were happy to change from three groups to become only one which they expect to have better management and let them more time to do their work. According to the proposal of the new group, the project team has approved to release a USD 200 grant for supporting the saving component of this brand new group.    

Chicken raising activities of the Self Help Group (SHG) in Kroach village were similar to the previous report in terms of delayed construction of fences around chicken houses as they have not yet finished harvesting cassava. However, on average 3 chickens were eaten per household per month and 2 chickens were sold per month. For one case, Mr. Teng Vanny, 50 years old, a group member of the SHG in Kroach village, said that his family ate 16 chickens and sold 11 chickens which allowed them to earn an amount of 198,000 riels ($49.5). Pig raising activities were going well with 10 households conducting the activity, but two other households decided not to raise pigs due to the lack of water for the pig production. In terms of vegetable growing, most of the households produced vegetables for their own consumption only.

Chicken raising and vegetable growing group members in other villages were quite similar to Kroch village. However, few members could have a vegetable production not only for their own consumption but also for earning a surplus income. As a good example, Mrs. Soy Sophat produced vegetables to support her four family’s members with 15 kg per month and at the same time she earned an income of 100,000 Riels per month. Through following up the chicken and pig raising activities of group members, it was decided that the improvements needed are mainly on feeding and vaccination.

The saving components of the Kroach village group showed that the group is doing much better in terms of making loans and repaying them back than other groups in other villages. So restructuring small groups to become SHGs was the right solution and will be needed to be done in other villages.

Links:

• http://www.crdt.org.kh/

Cambodian Rural Development Team (CRDT)                                                                  GlobalGiving

Report for the “Empower 325 Cambodian Families to be Self Reliant” Project

August 01 –October 31, 2012

Executive summary

The main project activities for August to October were: providing trainings on enhancing capacity on pig and chicken raising techniques to the CBO of Kroach village and following up livelihood activities and saving components of all CBOs in eight villages, Damrey Pong commune, Chhlaung district, Kratie province, Cambodia.

Activities and achievements

After having integrated the fish, chicken and vegetable groups into one Self Help Group with 19 members in Kroach village, it has been found that the group was well functioning. It has regular monthly meeting and runs saving activities. The total of the SHG members has increased from 19 to 22. In addition after the capacity of group members on chicken and pig raising improved through training, 10 members out of 12 who wished to raise pigs have completed pig pen constructions and started to raise pigs while eight out of 10 members who wanted to raise chickens have completed housing pens but fencing around the housing pens made from cassava stems have not yet started as they have not yet harvested cassava.

The follow up showed that, the chicken groups in seven other villages did not function well in terms of having regular meeting, saving activities and productivity. These were due to the fact that most group members were busy with cassava plantation, had low trust in each other, relied on NGO’s facilitation, members did not pay back for loans, and had limited technical knowledge. Thus it led to low chicken productions for food and income.                      

Currently most chicken group members raise chickens for household consumption only. But few of them only had successes in chicken raising. For example, Mr. Uk Saraut, 49 years old, a member of CBO in Brohout village has fed his four family members with 35 chickens per year and generated USD 112 per year as surplus income.

Pig and fish groups raised the same challenges as chicken groups. Vegetable groups in all villages encountered quite the similar situation as the groups above. However, a small number of vegetable group members have sold their vegetable products to their neighborhood for a surplus income. For example, Mr. Kit Tone, 48 years old, a member of CBO in Brohout village, has fed his 9 household members enough vegetable and earned a net income of about USD 100 per year.

In addition, a 52 years old chief of vegetable group in Preykor village, Mrs. Soy Sophat, said that her family with 4 household members had enough vegetable to eat the whole year. Moreover, she earns 80,000 riels (USD 20) per year. Due to this low income she plans to increase it by selling vegetables during next year.

As most work of the groups was not very active, it led to a weak financial management in terms of recording loans and interests. Some of the groups suggested having further capacity building on administration and financial management.  

Overall most CBOs were not quite active due for the main part to busy group members with cassava growing, less team spirit among the members in managing finance and paying loan back late and some members had limited will to pay back loan to their groups, limited agricultural skills and still having dependency on facilitation from NGOs. Therefore, it is important to continue to build further understanding about benefit of participation and team spirit among group members, provide further training on agricultural skills as well as administration and financial management, and follow up more frequently to CBOs members by project teams in order to make them become independent on managing groups to improve their sustainable livelihood development.        

Links:

• CRDT's official website

 1. Objective:

The report is mainly focused on progress of vegetable, chicken and fish groups of Community Based Organizations (CBOs) in Krouch village, Domrey Phong, commune, Chhloung district, Kratie province, Cambodia. 

 2. Project activities and achievements:

• Vegetable growing group (11 households):  Following up showed that 11 households (all members) had vegetable to eat. On average 214 kilos of vegetable were produced per household and about 86 kilos of vegetable were individually consumed annually.  In addition 8 out of them sold vegetable products for income generation.

• Chicken raising group (19 households): On average each household had 10 chickens (not including chicks), 4 chickens were eaten while few of them were solve monthly.  All beneficiaries were willing to increase their chicken productions through enhancing capacity building and fixing pens. Thus, they proposed further training on chicken raising techniques and small grant to purchase more chicken breeds and repairing pens.  

• Fish raising group: (4 households): All households suggested changing from fish raising to pig raising due to inadequate water sources for ponds.  But inputs (e.g. feed) for pig raising are available in the village. Thus, all of them proposed training course to enhance capacity building on pig raising technique and small grant to support pig breeds and materials for pen construction.
  

• Releasing small grants: Based on proposals of beneficiaries to have small grant for purchasing pig and chicken breeds, and materials for making pens, USD 1,120 were approved by CRDT in which USD 720 can buy 12 piglets (USD 45 per head) and contribute building 12 pens (USD 15 per pen) for 12 families while USD 400 can purchase 7 chickens (USD 5 per head) and support repairing 10 pens for 10 families.

• Saving activities:  In vegetable growing and chicken raising groups there is saving component in each group. The main aim of saving is to provide members with accessibility to loans with less interest compared to microfinances.  By the end of July 2012, financial status of both savings is presented on below table:

            Table. 1 See attached report

• Integration of CBOs: Most of households were mixed in vegetable, chicken and pig groups. In this regard they faced constraints such as spending times to participate different monthly meetings in different groups and holding more than one role. Thus, representatives of all groups suggested integrating these groups into only one Self Help Group (SHG) called Development for the Poor Group with 19 households, but the SHG still keeps the same livelihood activities such as growing vegetable, raising chicken and raising pig. The SHG has been followed some practical principles from HiH in India. This model is not only supposed SHG’s members to focus on business or livelihood activities of its members but also emphasized on social aspects (e.g. health, education issues).    
  

• Activity planning: See attached file

3. Pictures of some activities: See attached file 

 Thanks donor and commitment of community

Mr. Long Yin, SHG coordinator, said on behalf of SHG’s members” we will use this money with transparency and accountability to all members and donors. We use this money to raise pigs and chicken in order to improve food security and income for our families.  We would like to grateful thank to donors and CRDT for your kind support to our community. Finally, we wish you all healthy, successful all the time.”

Thanks you for your kindly heart to support our communities and wish you all success for anythings you want...!

• Reprot_GlobalGiving_May-Jul_2012 (PDF)
  

Among the issues playing on the minds of residents of Kroach Village in Damrei Phong, two have been in focus more than others in the past year: the effects of the floods on farming, and the imminent arrival of rubber companies on their land.

“Following the drought there are few supplies of good seed, so I stopped farming vegetables in February to concentrate on cassava, plus I need to spend $15-$20 on supplies each time I want to sow seeds in my vegetable garden! We are growing white corn as well, but the market price this year is very low and much of our product was destroyed by the rain. The estimated difference is about 50%, as last year, 2 hectares was $5,000 but this year we'll only get $4,000 for 3 hectares. Talking about rice, I was very lucky as my family and another two or three families enjoyed a higher yield of rice because our fields are located in a hilly area rich in natural fertiliser after the floods, but other villagers were impacted negatively by the flood and got much less yield. The unusual rains and the market price of cassava have affected the villagers in Kroach and people in Damrei Phong commune as well. Especially those who have loans from micro credit institutions and are now going to find it hard to make their payments.”

“One Cambodian company is now clearing forest not too far from the village's boundary and another two Vietnamese companies are staying silent about their plans. It will be a very bad thing for the villagers as the three companies' land boundaries is located close to the village's land and some parts are actually farming land currently held by villagers...”

So now is an important time in the lives of those resident to Kroach and other villages in the Damrei Phong district of Kratie. The floods may have been last year, the but the effects go on and on, and with rubber companies on their doorstep, their situation may continue to be a precarious one.

Please consider helping CRDT to help the people of Damrei Phong commune in 2012. There is still much to do.