RCE Contributions to aMore Sustainable World:
Celebrating Five Years ofInnovative Projects onEducation for SustainableDevelopment (2015–2019)

Editors:
Philip VaughterNancy Pham

PLANET // RCE Award Winners Projects Publication

ERECONRCE Greater Phnom Penh

Farmers attend a workshop on sustainable agricultural practices.

Region:Asia-PacificCountry:

Cambodia
2412SDG(s):Zero Hunger
Quality Education
Responsible Consumption
and Production
Theme(s):Agriculture, Plants and Animals

Chapter People

Promoting ESD through Food,
Agriculture, and Environment
in Rural Communities inCambodia
RCE Greater Phnom Penh

Target audience(s):Community, District and ProvincialEcosystem(s):Agricultural
GAP Priority Action Area(s): 5
Language of project:English, Khmer
Contributing organisation(s):• Institute of Environmental
Rehabilitation and Conservation(ERECON), Southeast Asia Office• Provincial Department ofAgriculture, Forestry, andFisheries (PDAFF) – KampongCham• Kampong Cham National
Institute of Agriculture (KNIA)• Royal University of Agriculture Cambodia• Tokyo University of Agriculture Japan
Year awarded RCE Award:
2015

Rationale
In Cambodia, the usage of chemical fertilisers and pesticides
has significantly increased to promote agricultural productivity.
However, due to the inappropriate use of agro-chemicals such as
overuse and application without sufficient knowledge, especiallyby small-scale farmers, this practice has caused various problems
to both human and environmental health. Although agricultural
productivity has increased temporarily, environmental issues suchas soil degradation, water contamination from agro-chemicals,
and water degradation through eutrophication have occurred.
Although many farmers realise the adverse impacts of agrochemicals to human and environmental systems, they lackknowledge related to sustainable or alternative farming systems.
Meanwhile, agricultural extension officials who are responsible forenhancing farmers’ knowledge are simply not enough in number
compared to any one assigned area. Hence, the intervention fromthe RCE and its partners such as NGOs and education institutes totackle this problem is indispensable.

Objectives
This ESD project has the following three objectives:

the practices employed by the project to meet itsobjectives:

1) To build the capacity of agricultural extension
officers and other staff in the Provincial
Department of Agriculture, Forestry, andFisheries (PDAFF) and the District Officeof Agriculture (DOA) in regards to thedissemination of skills, knowledge, and facilities
for a cyclic use of natural resources in farming;2) To use education for sustainable development
to promote sustainable farming practices tolocal farmers; and3) To use education for sustainable development
to promote conditions for the sale of agricultural
products with low chemical inputs.

1) Capacity building for agricultural extension
officers through technical trainings in Cambodia
and Thailand, and through publishing a series ofguidebooks on sustainable farming with cyclicuse of natural resources with the RCE members;2) Building collaboration among universities, local
government, and farmers through workshops andtrainings facilitated by the RCE;
3) Establishing Centres within local government
for promoting sustainable agriculture througheducation and training;
4) Promoting sustainable farming practices basedon cyclic use of natural resources throughagricultural extension services provided to local
Activities/Practices
farmers; andBased on the project’s objectives, through5) Promoting conditions for sales of agricultural
education for sustainable development, improved
products with low chemical inputs through public
farming conditions based on sustainable agriculture
information campaigns.
were set up in the project areas. The following are

ERECON

Farmers learn and try to make bio-pesticides from plants.

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ERECON

Vegetable farm and paddy field that was applied with compost and bio-pesticide.

After more than five hundred compost boxes
were set in the project area, farmers started tomake compost and apply it in their farmlandcontinuously. Moreover, after received training on
making bio-pesticides from plants, farmers haveapplied bio-pesticides instead of chemical ones.
Through the participatory training, farmers feedback their ideas to the project team to revise media
and focus more on demonstration and practicerather than lecture.

officials to farmers. Farmers were asked to attend
meetings or workshops arranged by the agricultural
office for the given district. Due to the limited
number of extension official staff, the scope ofeducation was not only one-way, but also very
limited.

Results
Through the series of activities of this five-year
project, agricultural extension officers andfarmers gained more knowledge of sustainable
farming systems and have changed their practices
from conventional ones, which rely heavily on
agricultural chemicals, to sustainable farming
practices that have led to responsible consumption
and production, as well as healthy producers,
consumers, and a healthier environment.

After two years of the project implementation, it
was observed that the knowledge disseminationfrom agricultural extension officials to District
Model Farmers and district farmers to generalfarmers in the project area is well practiced.
District Model Farmers have become the centreof knowledge dissemination to farmers in nearby
communities. Through this type of education,knowledge dissemination has become a two-way
communication. Farmer’s feedback to the project’s
curriculum outputs, such as posters and handouts,
led to the improvement of both the curriculum
and the outreach practices to make messages onsustainable agriculture easier to understand.

Before the project was started, agricultural
knowledge dissemination was a one-way
communication from agricultural extension

The capacity of agricultural extension officers
has been greatly enhanced through technicaltraining and practice in giving lectures to farmers,

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PEOPLE RCE Greater Phnom Penh // Promoting ESD through Food, Agriculture, and Environment in Rural Communities in Cambodia

especially for junior officers. Moreover, due tothe multi-stakeholder approaches, more projectstakeholders participated in the evaluation andmonitoring process at regular intervals. This gives
an opportunity for farmers to feed back theirknowledge and practices learnt from the project’sactivities. Interestingly, some farms of District Model
Farmers in the project have become a learningplace for agricultural students from Kampong ChamNational Institute of Agriculture (KNIA). Farmers
shared their knowledge and sustainable practices
to students in addition to farmers from nearby
communities who regularly visited their farm tolearn and exchange experiences of sustainableagriculture practices.
The project also contributes to the AgriculturalExtension Policy in Cambodia in the aspect ofimproving human resource capacity and capability
in delivering extension services in response to local
needs by building capacity of agricultural extension
officers through a series of trainings. The project
has also contributed to the provincial and district
agricultural strategic plans by promoting farmers in
the province to produce low agro-chemical input
or organic products to local markets. Moreover,the project also has enhanced food security at thehousehold and community level through increased
crop diversity and productivity.

Lessons Learned
As a result of the multi-stakeholder approach
employed in the project, relevant agencies such
as NGOs and educational institutes can play avital role in promoting sustainable agricultural
practices by partnering with local government
agricultural extension services. The outcomes ofthe project can be taken into consideration by the
Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries,
at the national or sub-national level to involve
more stakeholders and to implement moresustainable agriculture activities.
This is an ongoing project, but the challenges thatwere faced during the project implementation
include the low literacy level of farmers. This has
challenged the RCE to modify its conventional
outreach material – such as pamphlets or
handouts – into demonstrations, which canengage more farmers and make them understandthe content and message of the curriculum
more clearly. Encouraging farmers to monitor
their resource use as well as reciprocal farmvisits to learn from other farmers are some of thepractices that encourage farmers to practice moresustainable agriculture practices.

Crops that farmers have been able to grow sustainably in the project areas include:• Rice• Chilli• Tomato• Lettuce• Lemongrass (in one particular commune)• Mango• Dragon fruit27