IJERD – International Journal of Environmental and Rural Development (2012) 3-2

Special Contribution on EFA and ESD Research article
erd

Environmental Education through Eri-culture for
Reducing Amounts of Chemical Pesticide Applied in
Greater Phnom Penh of Cambodia
KUMIKO KAWABE*
Graduate School of Agriculture, Tokyo University of Agriculture, Tokyo, Japan
Email: sunshinekumiko@gmail.com

MACHITO MIHARA
Faculty of Regional Environment Science, Tokyo University of Agriculture, Tokyo, Japan

KEISHIRO ITAGAKI
Faculty of International Agriculture and Food Studies, Tokyo University of Agriculture, Tokyo,Japan
Received 30 August 2012

Accepted 20 September 2012(*: Corresponding Author)

Abstract Cambodia is located in Southeastern Asia with more than 70% of population isliving in rural areas and engaged in agriculture and related sectors. Agriculture is the mostimportant sector for the country, and the government focuses on increasing productivity
and trying to meet the international market demand. However, farmers are usually lesseducated and there are difficulties and obstacles for local farmers to increase knowledge
for better ways of agriculture and creating better quality of life. Most of farmers apply
agricultural chemicals with low knowledge to increase crop yields that causes various
illnesses of local farmers and environmental problems. Statistical data showed that literacy
rate of Cambodia from 2005 to 2010 was only 74% for over age of 15 years old. The rate
in rural area was much worse than the city. Education for All (EFA) aims to provide
quality basic education  for  “every  citizen  in  every  society.”  Although education is one of
the fundamental factors for the country to be developed, daily life security such as basicand stable income is more significant for local people. However, ensuring stable incomeneeds basic education such as literacy and basic numerical ability. This paper deals withenvironmental education through eri-culture, raising eri silkworms, for reducing amountsof chemical pesticide taking into account the perspective of Education for All (EFA) andEducation for Sustainable Development (ESD). Following the first survey in March 2011
for evaluating the potential of local farmers to reduce chemical pesticide through ericulture, the results showed that expected percentage of chemical pesticide to be reduced
for eri silk-raising farmers was remarkably higher than the other farmers. However,research interests have been focused on how much amounts of chemical pesticide local
farmers succeeded to reduce compared to the conventional use. So, this study dealt withthe evaluation of the amounts of chemical pesticide reduced through eri-culture in
Kampong Cham province, Cambodia. The results showed that 35% of eri silk-raising
farmers reduced the amounts of chemical pesticide to 80 to 100%, 45 % of eri silk-raising
farmers reduced to 60 to 80% while only 5% of eri silk-raising farmers reduced to 20-40%
and other 50% reduced to 0-20%. Consequently, eri silk-raising farmers succeeded toreduce the amounts of chemical pesticide use through eri-culture, and eri-culture has
educational function to increase the environmental awareness to local farmers, especially,in terms of reducing chemical pesticide use.
Keywords eri-culture, sustainable rural development, ESD, environmental awarenessⒸISERD20

IJERD – International Journal of Environmental and Rural Development (2012) 3-2

INTRODUCTION
Cambodia is located in Southeastern Asia, bordering the Gulf of Thailand, between Thailand, Vietnam and Laos. Population is 14,952,665 (July 2012 est.), and population growth rate is in 2012
up to 1.687%. More than 70% of population is living in rural areas and engaged in agriculture andrelated sectors (CIA Factbook). Agriculture is the most important sector for the country, and thegovernment focuses on increasing productivity and trying to meet the international market demand.
However, farmers are usually less educated and there are difficulties and obstacles for local farmers
to increase knowledge and technique for better ways of agriculture that hinder creating better quality of life for local farmers.
Most of farmers apply agricultural chemicals to increase crop yields, however at the sametime they face to the risks to be affected by agricultural chemicals that leads them to various illnesses, such as cancer or skin disease. Most of agricultural chemicals are imported from neighboring countries and are sold with label in foreign languages. Prohibited agricultural chemicals such as
Methyl parathion and Methamidophos are still on sale in the local market and farmers purchasethose chemicals without knowing it is categorized as prohibited ones or not knowing the appropriate usage, just simply because they are illiterate or have low level of literacy, so they listen and believe what sellers say.
Statistical data show that literacy rate of Cambodia from 2005 to 2010 is only 74% for overage of 15 years old. Literacy rate of male is 83%, while that of female is 66% (UNESCO Institutefor Statistic database, 2012). Literacy rate of female is lower than that of male, and also the rate inrural area is much worse than the city, Phnom Penh and it is also lower than the average literacy
rate of other developing countries.
Education for All (EFA) is an international initiative and started in 1990 under the coalition
cooperation of UNESCO, the World Bank, national government, development agencies and etc., toprovide quality basic education for all children, youth and adults, “every  citizen  in  every  society.”    EFA sets up six goals to be met by 2015. So, Governments, development agencies, civil societies
and the private sectors are working together to reach the EFA goals that include to ensure the learning needs of all young people and adults should be provided through equitable access to appropriate learning and life-skills programs (Dakar Framework for Action, UNESCO, 2000). EFA expects
literacy rate goes up to 78% in total, 85% for male, 72% for female by 2015.
However, promoting EFA or ESD to local farmers in Cambodia, some kind of incentive related to poverty reduction and sustainable development are the keys to spread the concepts of EFAand ESD. Although education is one of the fundamental factors for the country to be developed,
daily life security such as basic and stable income is more significant for local people. On the otherhand, ensuring stable income needs basic education such as literacy and basic numerical ability. Inshort, promoting EFA and ESD are inseparably related to poverty reduction and income generation,and it is important that above aspects should be promoted together that will raise the level of “Sustainable  Development”.
Eri-culture, raising eri silkworms, has introduced to local famers in Kampong Cham provincein October 2010 and has been promoted since as a part of regional challenges of Regional Centresof Expertise (RCE) to promote as environment education (Kawabe, 2010). After 6 months passedsince eri-culture introduced to local farmers in Kampong Cham province, questionnaire survey wasconducted to evaluate the effects of eri-culture on promoting environmental awareness. The results
showed local farmers who raise eri silkworms wanted to reduce 92.5% of chemical pesticide compared to the conventional use, while local farmers who just participated in the workshop or who
have never participated in the workshops showed only 72.3% or 66.9% of chemical pesticide to be
reduced (Kawabe et al., 2012). The expected percentage of chemical pesticide to be reduced for
local farmers who raise eri silkworms was significantly higher than that for local farmers who justparticipated in the workshop or who have never participated in the workshops. So, it was considered that eri-culture has educational function for local farmers especially, regarding the reductionof chemical pesticide application.
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OBJECTIVE
Accordingly, this paper deals with environmental education through eri-culture for reducing
amounts of chemical pesticide, taking into account the perspective of Education for All (EFA) and
Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). First survey was conducted 6 months passed after
eri-culture has introduced to the local farmers in Kampong Cham province for the first time in October 2010 to evaluate the potential of local farmers to reduce chemical pesticide through ericulture. However, research interests have been focused on how much amounts of chemical pesticide local farmers succeeded to reduce compared to before starting eri-culture. So, this study aims
to evaluate quantitatively the amounts of chemical pesticide reduced through eri-culture in Kampong Cham province, Cambodia.
METHODOLOGY
Eri-culture
Eri-culture, raising eri silkworm (Samia cynthia ricini) is conducted not only for rural development
but also for women’s capacity building and income generation in some developing countries, suchas Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, south China, and Ethiopia where the areas can grow the hostplants of eri silkworms, castor (Ricinus communis) and cassava (Manihot esculenta). Eri silkworm
is categorized as wild silkworm although it is completely domesticated as same as silkworm of themulberry tree (Bombyx mori). While Bombyx mori hatches once or twice per year according to thetypes, eri silkworm hatches approximately 6 times a year. In October 2010, eri-culture has introduced to local farmers in Kampong Cham province, Cambodia. Since then, workshops and demonstrations on promoting eri-culture have been conducted in the villages.

Photo. 1 Eri silkworms

Photo. 2 Cocoons of eri silkworms

Photo. 3 Extension activity for promoting eri-culture in Kampong Cham, CambodiaⒸISERD

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The first survey was conducted in March 2011 to evaluate the effects of eri-culture on promoting environmental awareness of local farmers in Kampong Cham province. The results showed that
eri silk-raising farmers wanted to reduce 92.5% of chemical pesticide compared to the conventionaluse. While local farmers who just participated or who have never participated in the workshops
showed only 72.3% or 66.9% of chemical pesticide to be reduced. Environmental awareness of erisilk-raising farmers on chemical pesticide to be reduced was significantly higher than that of otherfarmers who just participated in the workshop or who have never participated in the workshops(Kawabe et al., 2012). Sequel questionnaire survey was conducted in October 2011, 12 months
passed after eri-culture has introduced to local farmers, as attention has been paid how much in fact
the eri silk-raising farmers did reduced the amounts of chemical pesticide applied compared toconventional use.
Research sites
The research sites are namely Wat Chas village and Roung Kor village in Baray commune, Prey
Chhor district in Kampong Cham province where located approximately 100 km northeast from thecapital of Cambodia, Phnom Penh (Fig. 1). Due to the suitable location for distributing agricultural
products to Phnom Penh, most of farmers apply agricultural chemicals for farming practice to increase the productivity.

Prey Chhor district,Kampong Cham province

Fig. 1 Location of Wat Chas and Roung Kor villages in Baray commune,
Prey Chhor district in Kampong Cham province

Fig. 2 Education level of famers at Wat Chas (Left) and Roung Kor (Right) villages,
Kampong Cham province
Source: ERECON Questionnaire Survey in 2009 and 2010

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IJERD – International Journal of Environmental and Rural Development (2012) 3-2

Frequency

According to the surveys conducted in 2009 and 2010 by the Institute of Environment Rehabilitation and Conservation (ERECON), level of education of farmers at Wat Chas and Roung Kor
villages were observed. The results shows 10% of farmers have never been to school, and 61%
completed only primary school and 22% completed secondary school, while only 6% completed
high school in Wat Chas village (Fig. 2). In Roung Kor village, less percentage of farmers completed secondary or high school as shown in Fig. 2.
Education for adults is usually not paid enough attention, also not enough provided. Local
farmers tend to think education is costly and they are too old to go back to school for study. However, they face difficulties due to being illiterate or less educated that cause poor access to theknowledge of agriculture and adoption of new techniques. Being illiterate, the information andtechnology are not easy for local farmers to access. Thus, any kind of non-formal education could
take an important role for local farmers to reach appropriate and reliable information andknowledge that promote sustainable development.
In the research sites, all men and women aged 18 and over were eligible to receive land equally by the Cambodian government when Pol Pot regime was over. Thus, the average farmland isquite small and approximately 0.45 ha per household today. Rice in paddy filed and some amountsof vegetables in upland fields are cultivated. Due to the limited size of farmland and one-crop system for most of farmers, agro-production is limited and poverty level is higher than other provinceof Cambodia (Kawabe, 2011).

n =77

USD

Fig. 3 Monthly income from agriculture at Wat Chas village,
Kampong Cham province

Frequency

Source: ERECON Questionnaire survey at Wat Chas village, 2009

USD

n =170Fig. 4 Monthly income from agriculture at Roung Kor village,
Kampong Cham province
Source: ERECON Questionnaire survey at Roung Kor village, 2010

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IJERD – International Journal of Environmental and Rural Development (2012) 3-2

According to basic survey, monthly income from agriculture at Wat Chas village is shown inFig. 3. Income from agriculture, main income for living remains relatively low, and the income
range of 0 to 40 US dollar dominates 70% of the farmers in Wat Chas village, while the income
range of 0 to 30 US dollar dominates 83% in Roung Kor village (Fig. 4). However, increasing andmaintaining in yields, most of farmers purchase agricultural chemicals with small income and apply into farmlands that cause not only weighing down the household budget, but also causing
health problems of farmers, degradation of soil and water.
Solving the above mentioned problems, eri-culture has introduced to local farmers in Kampong Cham province as part of regional challenges of Regional Centres of Expertise (RCE) topromote ESD through the food, agriculture and environment education.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Amount of chemical pesticide reduced (%)

In the first survey in March 2011 to evaluate the effects of eri-culture on promoting environmental
awareness of local farmers, the results showed that eri silk-raising farmers wanted to reduce 92.5%
of chemical pesticide compared to the conventional way.
A**

B**

Conducting eri-culture

Only attending workshops

B**

No idea about eri-culture

n=36, farmers who parn=16, farmers whoticipated in the last work- have never participated
shops
in the workshops
Different letter indicates the significant difference at 99%(**)

n=20, farmers who
conduct eri-culture

Frequency

Fig. 5 Difference in actual percentage of chemical pesticide reduced
between eri silk-raising farmers and othersn= 20

Fig. 6 Percentage of chemical pesticides reduced for eri silk-raising farmersⒸISERD25

IJERD – International Journal of Environmental and Rural Development (2012) 3-2

While local farmers who just participated or who have never participated in the workshops
showed only 72.3% or 66.9% of chemical pesticide to be reduced (Kawabe, 2010). Expected
percentage of chemical pesticide to be reduced for eri silk-raising farmers was remarkably higher
than the other farmers. So, an attention has been paid to reveal that how much in fact the eri silkraising farmers reduced the amounts of chemical pesticide application compared to theconventional use. Questionnaire survey was conducted in October 2011, one year after eri-culture
had introduced to the local farmer in October 2010.
The results showed that eri silk-raising farmers succeeded to reduce the amounts of chemical
pesticide 69.5% compared to the conventional use, while famers who only participated in the ericulture workshops or who never participated in the eri-culture workshops reduced only 7.5% or 5%(Fig. 5). Observing the detail amounts of chemical pesticide reduced by the eri silk-raising farmers,
35% of eri silk-raising farmers reduced the amounts of chemical pesticide to 80 to 100%, 45 % ofthem reduced to 60 to 80%, while only 5 % of them reduced to 20-40% and other 5% of them
reduced to 0-20% (Fig. 6).
Consequently, eri silk-raising farmers succeeded to reduce the amounts of chemical pesticide
use through eri-culture, and eri-culture has educational function to increase the environmental
awareness to local farmers, especially, in terms of reducing chemical pesticide use. Moreover, ericulture has strong impact on local farmers who raise eri silkworms to move forward to sustainable
rural development.
CONCLUSIONSExpected percentage of chemical pesticide to be reduced for eri silk-raising farmers was
remarkably higher than the other farmers. So, an attention has been paid to reveal that how much infact the eri silk-raising farmers reduced the amounts of chemical pesticide application.
Questionnaire survey was conducted in October 2011, one year passed after eri-culture had
introduced to the local farmer in October 2010. The results showed that eri silk-raising farmers
succeeded to reduce the amounts of chemical pesticide 69.5%, while famers who only participatedin the workshop or who never participated in the workshops reduced only 7.5% or 5%. Observing
the detail amounts of chemical pesticide reduced by the eri silk-raising farmers, 35% of them
reduced the amounts of chemical pesticide to 80 to 100%, 45 % of eri silk-raising farmers reduced
to 60 to 80% while only 5% of eri silk-raising farmers reduced to 20-40% and other 50% of them
reduced to 0-20%. Consequently, eri silk-raising farmers succeeded to reduce the amounts ofchemical pesticide use compared to conventional use through eri-culture, and eri-culture has
educational function to increase the environmental awareness to local farmers, especially, in termsof reducing chemical pesticide use although most of farmers have less education in childhood.
Moreover, eri-culture has strong impact on local farmers who raise eri silkworms to move forward
to sustainable rural development, especially supplementary income is great motivation for local
farmers to learn and obtain knowledge and skills more and more. Education is the key fordevelopment, but it is not necessarily a panacea for everything, and it should be discussed alongwith the ideas of income generation for adult education.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Institute of Environment Rehabilitation and Conservation, ERECON, has been supported the promotion of eri-culture in Kampong Cham province, Cambodia. Also, Ms. Nittaya Mahachaiwong,
Knowledge and Technology Center for Northern Textile (Fai Gaem Mai), Science and Technology
research Institute, Chiang Mai University and Dr. Bunthan NGO, Royal University of Agriculture
have been advising technical and social aspects on eri-culture. Authors would like to express special thanks to them.

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REFERENCE
Central Intelligence Agency, https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/cb.html.
ERECON. 2009, 2010. Questionnaire Survey at Baray commune, Prey Chhor district, Kampong Champrovince, Cambodia on November 2009 and 2010.
Kawabe, K. 2010. Eri-culture for sustainable rural development. ERECON Annual Report, Institute of Environment Rehabilitation and Conservation, 2009-2010, 4.
Kawabe, K., Tal, M. and Mihara, M. 2011. Effects of eri-culture on promoting environmental awareness inGreater Phnom Penh of Cambodia. International Journal of Environmental and Rural Development,IJERD 3(1), 22-29.
Mihara, M. 2005. The effect of natural weed buffer on soil and nitrogen losses in Japan. Catena, 65, 265-271.
Mihara, M. and Fujimoto, A. 2009. Sustainable farming practices for environmental conservation. Institute ofEnvironment Rehabilitation and Conservation, Japan.
United Nations Education, Scientific and Culture Organization, http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/leading-the-international-agenda/education-for-all/.
United Nations World Food Programme, http://foodsecurityatlas.org/khm/country/provincial-Profile/Kampong-Cham.

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