National: Cambodia
Title: Research and demonstration of climate-resilient and agro-ecological cashew nuts production
Organization: HEKS/EPER is a major Swiss NGO with focus on rural community development, humanitarian aid and inter-church cooperation
Link: (Website, facebook, YouTube,….)
Summary:
Though Cambodia has grown to be one of the largest producers of cashew nuts in the world, cashew producers in Cambodia, mostly small scale farmers, are not aware of technical know-how on agroecological and climate resilient cashew production, and rely heavily on agro-chemical for pest and weed management and to increase the yield. Although HEKS has ongoing research on how climate change affects cashew nuts production and what factors affect yield drop, HEKS is also planning to start research on resilience towards climate change and pest mitigation. The project will commence in Kompong Thom province, one of the largest producer provinces, by training producers on agro-ecological practices to mitigate damage from climate change.
The research and demonstration will be implemented by Agrismart Innovation Co., Ltd., which has been involved with projects related to cashew nuts in Cambodia dating back to 2010. It will also be coordinated with PDAFF, whose staff are committed to support cashew producers in Kompong Thom. The proposed project will be combined with ongoing HEKS project “Green Cashew” (2022-2025), which targets cashew farmers in other provinces in Cambodia.
The research results will be shared publicly and successful agro-ecological practices will be disseminated to the producers through the “Green Cashew” project by HEKS and the ASSET project in Preah Vihear province. Agro-ecological produce will be linked to the buyers with whom HEKS has been communicating as well as international buyers whose safety standards demand chemical-free cashew nuts.
Localization: Kampot & Kompong Thom Provinces
Period: 18 months
Activities:
1 : Assessment & Preparation
- Interviews with agriculture cooperative and other community leaders
- Participatory processes for identifying interested farmer groups and selection of demonstration farm sites
2: Test on cashew variety for climate-resiliency and pest control
- Test 3 different varieties of cashew nuts, M23, M10 and traditional, under the controlled condition at one of the selected demo farms.
- Collect data on growth and harvest and analyze the data.
3 : On-farm demonstration on agroecological practice and trial of innovative method
- Technical orientation to demonstration farm operators Experimental design and establishment of trials
- Agroecological and farm budget data collection
- Monitor and follow up the demonstration
- Collect data on growth and harvest and conduct analysis of research results
4: Shear evidence-based demonstration result
- Compile all the test and demonstration results including farm-economy analysis to develop the recommendation for safe and agro-ecological practice.
- Organize a workshop to share the above production guideline among cashew producers in the community of the demo farms.
Documents:
(will add and update during the implementation)
Budget granted by ALiSEA: 20,000 EUROs