To improve household incomes for the rural poor through close interaction with all farmers, their families and communities, and to use recognized consultative methodologies to identify and understand needs of these groups and barriers to improvement through change.
APPROACHES
Identify impact of technologies developed by CARDI research program applying in practical situation.
Identify farm resources and constrain to the adoption of new innovations including gender’s role in decision making.
Define famers adopters’ critical requirements in particular condition using participatory rural appraisal.
Measure marketing issue locally and internationally for agricultural products.
Measure economical feasibility of potential adopted and adopted methodologies.
RESEARCH COMPONENTS
1-Farmer research and rural livelihood study:
Undertake Agro-ecosystem analyses.
Investing perceived requirements and needs of farmer adopters.
Analyze social condition within the farming systems of farmer adopters.
Analyze existing farm resources and capability of farmer adopter.
Study non-farm job opportunities.
Household economics analysis.
2-Technology assessment/ evaluation:
Evaluate feasibility and suitability of proposed new or recommended technologies.
Investigate the effectiveness of research strategies to improve quality of existing technologies and new innovation.
Advise on better methodology of transferring suitable technologies.
Analysis of gender on professional roles in research and development of the agricultural production.
Investigate of methodologies for collaboration and network development.
Impact of participatory research methods on development in agriculture sector.
3-Agriculture market study:
Study of marketing agricultural products
Study of marketing availability and accessibility of agricultural production inputs.
Study of marketing potential for agriculture products.
Economics analysis of new technologies disseminating among farmers.
RESEARCH ACTIVITIES
Study on Supply Chain and Value Chain of Vegetable Produces in Kandal, Kampot Provinces and Phnom Penh .
The Socio-Economics Division of CARDI, studied the supply chain and value chain of vegetable products in two provinces and one municipality, both farmers survey and farmer focus group were used in this research. This research comprises of supply chain and value chain of vegetable produces ranging from the producers to the final consumers. The selected locations for Kandal Provinces were Saang District, Muk Kampoul District, Kean Svay District and Takhmao Market. In Kampot, location of the study was selected at Tuk Chhou District and Samky Market. Three markets including Deum Kor, Neak Meas and Chbar Ampov were targeted as the study sites for Phnom Penh. Leafy vegetables were emphasized as the main research commodity for Kandal and Phnom Penh while general vegetable such as pumpkin, tomato and chilli was selected as the objects of study for Kampot Province.
The Adoption of Some Technologies to Improve Upland Crop Productivity.
To increase the income of farmers through growing upland crops, CARDI conducted an evaluation study in collaboration with farmers and agricultural officers from different organizations such as CARE and MJP to promote the uptake of improved technologies for farmers who cultivate upland crops in the North Western part of the country. The stakeholder such as farmer, trader and local authority were invited to participate in the study and process of data collection included in-depth interview and farmers’ focus group. In general, the study was to assess the acceptability of some new technologies by farmers and also to study the behavior of farmers in adopting these new techniques by comparing to their traditional practices.
Research on Reduction of Rice Loss During Storage
The research wad conducted in Kampong Cham and Kandal Provinces, The famers were invited to participate in farmers focus group discussion and individual interview to find out the methodologies of rice post harvest management especially losses of rice grain during storage.
The investigation of rice less during storage was done with two types of paddy rice: seed rice and consumption rice.
Farmer Assessment of their Adaptive Capacity to Climate Change
The study is very essential to study the adaptive capacity as well as resources of farmers which enable us to determine their resilience to climate change and push for strategic intervention from the royal government as well as other development partners to help farmers reducing the constraining factors and other obstacles caused by climate change. The preliminary study was conducted at the village level with farmers coming from Koul, Kbal Damrey and Cheas Russey Villages of Svay Chrum District, Svay Rieng Province. Individual interview and farmers workshops were run to assess the small scale adaptive capacity of the community to climate change.
Improved rice establishment and productivity in Cambodia and Australia:
Purpose of the study is to identify the planting methods and production management of rice farmers and also to determine the tendency exist so far. The research was conducted in three provinces including Takeo (150 samples), Kampot (151 samples) and Kampong Thom (150 samples). Among each province, 3 districts were selected for the study. Prey Kabbas, Tramkak and Treang were the selected districts of Takeo Province while Banteay Meas, Angkor Chey and Chum Kiry were the districts of Kampot Province and Santuk, Kampong Svay and Baray were the selected districts of Kampong Thom Province. Total farmer respondents was 451 people.
The Adoption of Phka Rumduol and Sen Pidao Rice Varieties
The study was conducted to assess the adoption status of Phka Rumduol and Sen Pidao Rice Varieties by farmers in Kampong Cham and Battambang Provinces. The study has found that, in general, the adoption patterns of both rice varieties are affected by five important factors including eating quality, yield, grain quality, market price and market demand. These factors influence the decision of farmers whether or not to adopt these varieties.
Dissemination and the Adoption of Appropriate Technologies for Rice Production in Cambodia.
In 2010, the Socio-Economics Division received some budget allocation from the Royal Government of Cambodia to support its research activities. Objectives of the research is to collect some important information on the technologies currently applied by Cambodia farmers, the dissemination of those technologies and the adoption of the technologies recommended for farmers to improve their rice productivity. The study was conducted in eight provinces including Kampot, Takeo, Pursat, Battambang, Kampong Thom, Kampong Cham, Siem Reap and Prey Veng. The interviews were made with 4,000 farmer respondents including wet and dry season rice growers.
Cassava production and utilization in Cambodia.
The survey on cassava production and utilization in Cambodia was conducted in 2008 by the Socio-Economics Division of the Cambodian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI), with funding from the Nippon Foundation through The Centro International de Agricultura Tropical ( CIAT). Individual interviews were conducted with 427 cassava growers in nine communes in eight provinces throughout the country using random sampling and snowball sampling technique.
