IJERD – International Journal of Environmental and Rural Development (2010) 1–1

Research article
erd

Organic Rice Farming Systems in Cambodia: Potential andConstraints of Smallholder Systems in Takeo
SA KENNVIDY
Graduate School of Agricultural Science at Royal University of Agriculture,
Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
E-mail: kennvidy@yahoo.com
Received 29 December 2009

Accepted 5 March 2010

Abstract The development of organic farming is limited in Cambodia because of low literacy
rates for farmers in rural areas. In this study, organic rice farming systems were demonstrated
to the farmers in Takeo province, Cambodia. As the result of the application, the farmers
improved their income through increasing yields, premium prices and reduced expenditure on
chemical fertilizers after implementing organic farming techniques. Moreover, all of the
farmers adopting organic farming system improved their conditions of health, food quality andthe ties of family and community. Nevertheless, these benefits were not completely distributed
to all individuals and communities. Very poor and isolated farmers were generally unable toaccess the benefits. In conclusion, the three main factors for empowering Cambodian farmers
to initiate the organic farming system are considered as follows: the individual’s endowment of
resources, the strength of the farmer groups and the policies and facilitation of the supportingorganizations.
Keywords organic rice, farming system, potential, constraints, smallholder systems

INTRODUCTION
Rice-based farming systems in Cambodia incorporate rain-fed lowland rice and dry season rice,
and are often integrated with livestock, aquaculture, vegetable gardens and other activities (Mak,
2001). As the adverse environmental and social consequences of high input agriculture have been
discussed, attension has been focused on sustainable systems of agricultural production. For
approaching towards the sustainability, some points should be clarified, such as what thesustainability actually is and how to achieve it. One of the technological innovations, which
resulted in strong farming institutional changes in recent year in Cambodia, is approaching toorganic rice farming. Organic farming has become a significant element in policies promoting foodsafety and environmental quality of global food production considering that it rules out the use ofmineral fertilizers and other chemicals such as pesticides and herbicides (Zanoli and Gambelli,1999). Intensive agriculture has increased crop yields but also posed severe environmental
problems (Knudsen et al., 2006). Sustainable agriculture would ideally produce good crop yields
with minimal impact on ecological factors such as soil fertility (Knudsen et al., 2006).
The motivation of farmers to convert to organic farming ranges from pure production system
considerations to conditions in the market (Christensen and Frandsen, 2001). By focusing on the
production system, there is a need to get a better understanding of the importance of the factors that
determine the conversion rate and the economics of organic farming (Sorensen et al., 2005). The
required increased knowledge on these factors includes the type of farm (production practice), thelabour situation and the economic constraints (Sorensen et al., 2005). However, Elizabeth et al.
(2007) stated another important factor associated with the deliberation of farmers to convert toorganic farming practice is the motivation.
The goal of this research was to analyse the potential and constraints of smallholder system in
Tramkok district as our case study. The results of this thesis will be served as guidelines to set up
appropriate strategies for the future development of organic farming in other areas in Cambodia.
The objectives of the study were to (1) interview organic rice farmers in Tramkok district, Takeo© ISERD

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IJERD – International Journal of Environmental and Rural Development (2010) 1–1

province for evaluating their production technologyies and marketing and (2) identify major
obstacles and opportunities for organic farming.
METHODOLOGY
The results presented in this paper are based on qualitative and quantitative methods of primarydata collection and inquiry. In order to study the differences between two rice farming systems, a
total of 60 farmers were interviewed: 30 organic farmers and 30 conventional farmers.
Qualitative methods such as semi-structured interviews, identification of key-informants andfield visits were used to complete the picture. The interviews aimed at finding out the rationale andthe motivation of organic rice producers in this area as well as the constraints, the opportunities andthe strategies as perceived by the farmers. The knowledge gained in the interviews was used in a
SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis to formulate options for the
future.
RESULTS
Farm management in organic farming systems: Organic rice farming integrated with livestockor irrigation systems plays the most important for rice farmers especially during dry season. Due tolack of irrigation, farmers in this area grew rice only during wet season and rainfall is the main
water resource for rice production as well as human consumption. Rice organic farming system
mainly is related to the small livestock production (cattle, pigs, chickens and ducks). Incorporated
the dungs from livestocks with the other resources to produce organic manures, is the mostimportant elements for organic farmers in their organic rice production.
Organic farmers in this area usually apply straw, rice grain and the rest of food from houses tofeed the various cattle, as chicken, pig, and then make the manure with dungs from those animals.
Farmers start to collect manure, kitchen waste etc and keep it in the organic store beside theirhomes. After 4 or 5 months, through the action of micro-organisms on those wastes become
organic manures which are available to use during the raining season. Moreover, during dry
seasons, some farmers cultivate the seasonal crops which do not need much water. Also, they use
residues of the crops as green manures after harvesting by incorporated or plowed into the soil to
add organic matter and nutrients for rice crop in the next season (i.e. ground bean etc).
Evaluating amounts of labour: Normally, the amounts of labour for rice production between men
and women were not allocated equally. Referred to the information from the field survey, men areusually involved in task such as ploughing, fertilizing and transporting. Women undertake sowing,transplanting, weeding, while both are involved in harvesting and post harvesting. Concerning thelabour, most of people who live in the study site hire labours during transplanting and harvesting
period. People who live in the village or nearby the village and do not cultivate rice can sell theirlabour in for these activities. Table 1 shows the evaluation of amount of labour in organic andconventional rice faming. Organic farming needed much more labour intensively for weed control(19.2 md vs. 3.8 md) and nutrient management (8.5 md vs. 1.2 md) than in conventional farming.
The rest of labor was nearly the same. Because of this, organic farmers need to spend at least 22
md (14%) more than conventional farmer per hectare rice filed.
Table 1 Evaluating labour utilization per hectare
Items

Organic farm

Conventional farmman-day (md)
10.6
14
8.5
19.2
35
87.3

Land preparation
Transplanting
Nutrient management
Manual weeding
Harvesting
Total© ISERD

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8.8
15.8
1.2
3.8
35.5
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IJERD – International Journal of Environmental and Rural Development (2010) 1–1

Trends of organic farmers: Based on the field survey, all organic rice was cultivated by System
of Rice Intensification (SRI). In the beginning, most farmers living in the two villages of the site
did not believe and joint the association to produce or cultivate organic rice, so the number ofhouseholds and the size of lands were small and limited in scale for the organic rice cultivation.
Even some farmers decided to grow organic rice to meet the market demand; they did not cultivateorganic rice fully in their fields.
Trends of non-organic farmers: Many farmers kept some fields for traditional farming system
which depends on agricultural chemicals. According to the information collected in the interview
with local farmers, the shortage of the information on organic farming system made farmers
difficult to accept organic farming system fully and became major constraints to convert theirfarming system.
Potentials and constraints of organic rice faming system in Tramkok: The relative potentials
and constraints of smallholder system for organic farming system were analyzed on the basis of the
SWOT analysis. The data obtained from the survey were classified into 4 categories: Strengths,
Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.
Strengths
•
•
•
•

•

Incorporated the new method of organic farming system in the rice farm, farmers could gethigher rice yield than the previous farming method (traditional or conventional method).
Even farmers are poor but they could consume the premium quality of the free-chemical
products and made them healthier than before.
Instead of chemical fertilizers purchased only from the import markets, farmers could produce
their organic fertilizer (i.e. compost) by using the resource available in the farms especially the
manures from their small livestock such as cattle, pig, chicken etc.
Increased the rice production in the organic farms, farmer has possibility for greater foodsecurity and selling surplus locally with the premium prices which provide more income for
their families. Moreover, the profit net from rice production increases as the cost of input has
been reduced by less or no cost for the organic fertilizers used.
Stop chemical fertilizers and replaced it by organic fertilizers, the soil quality has been
improved and better for the environment.

Weaknesses
•
•
•

•

•

Organic farming always involves substantial additional labour input, especially weed control
and nutrient management.
Organic farming is priority for small farm size which mostly located nearly the village or
home. Lack access for transportation for huge amount of compost or cow manure and taking
care after the transplantation through weeding is also a barrier for farmers.
Conflict location between the organic and conventional farms may introduce the high risk of
insects for organic farms and the flow of chemical fertilizers from conventional farms into
organic farms during the raining. However, farmers tried to induce the organic farming system
to their neighbours but some of them did not care because they consider rice production as
their second source of income.
Since the illiteracy rate is high at farmers, the adoption of new technology is slowly developed
according to their limit knowledge. Moreover, the availability of information on organic
farming to farmers is still very limited. The main sources of information for organic farmers
include the publication (books and magazines) and the communication among farmers.
With the large scale of rice farm (>2 ha), farms could not afford to purchase the externallabour (hiring labour especially for weeding etc) and the huge amount of organic fertilizers.

Opportunities© ISERD

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•

•
•
•
•

Organic rice farming is the first priority for farmers to manage it (including the amount oforganic fertilizer, the labour used for taking care and weeding after the transplanting)especially for smallholders system since the majority of the farms in this area hold land lessthan 0.80 ha.
Organic farming can create new on farm income for farmers and generating opportunities.
Opportunities for greater social contacts and aids through international/local NGOs andMinistry of Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF).
High market opportunities of products since the organic products have been considered aspremium quality.
With growing public concern for food quality and safety, animal welfare and nature resources;
Organic farming become more accepted by government, farmers and consumers worldwide.
This trend and market demand directly influence the rapid grow of organic farming in
Cambodia.

Threats••••

The organic farming movement is still very new to Cambodia. That is a reason why organic
markets and consumers are very limited. Also, people may concern the price of products as the
majority of Cambodia people live under poverty line up to now.
Lack of irrigation system, farmers can produce rice only in wet season and also they dependon the natural situation (drought).
There is no international certificate of organic rice. And organic farmers have to sell theirproducts to consumers by NGOs markets.
Nowadays, the organic producer groups are under the project support of each NGO, “Willorganic farmers sustain by themselves in future after the projects finish?”DISCUSSION AND SUGGESTIONS
How to improve weakness of organic farming: The major constrains of organic farmers in the
study area are; impact on labour utilization, conventional farm always located near organic farm,
high impact of the epidemics (virus and bacteria) by uncontrolled quality of manures.
Improvement of the labour requirement: The labour requirement has been increased mainly
during the growing stage of rice production through weed control (19.2 md vs. 3.8 md) and nutrient
management (8.5 md vs. 1.2 md).
Improvement of the labour input on weed control: Farmers could choose the indirect method toprevent the development of weed and the improving of nutrient management such as; (1) Crop
rotation is one of the weed management practices in the cultivation. Each rice culture is associatedwith a characteristics weed problem, influenced cultural practices used (i.e. three-year rotation ofrice / soybeans / grain crop.) (2) Choosing appropriate rice varieties which are although completive
again weeds. (3) Water management will play an important role in rice cultivation. Since ancient
times, water has been used to manage weeds in rice fields. Many non-aquatic weeds do not survive
in submerged environment, Moreover, grassy weeds can be largely eliminated by continuous
flooding. (4) Biological weed control is the utilization of natural enemies for the reduction of weed
population. Natural enemies of weeds include insect, nematodes, fish and other animals. Example:
ducks eat new-borne weeds in the growth stage of rice. The ducks walk 3-4 km/day on the field,
making the water turbid in which weed seed or seedlings cannot grow up.
Improvement of the labour input on nutrient management: Two weeks after thetransplantation, farmers in this area start to provide more organic manures or livestock manure
directly (cattle dung, pig manure, chicken manure) until the flowering stage. They believed that therice productivity increases with providing fertilizers in this period. Referred to Reich (2000), thebest times to apply organic fertilizers are early spring and fall or even a few months before
planting, because that allows time for soil microbes to digest the organic matter and transformnutrients into forms plants can use (Reich, 2000). Therefore, farmers could apply all the compost© ISERD

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fertilizers in the first land preparation in order to save their labour input on the nutrient
management during the growing period of rice crop.
Controlling manure and limit of manure: Up to now, uncontrolled the quality of manure andover dosage of manure applied to rice field. It was not yet considerded as main problems forfarmers. In addition, (1) it is better that farmers use the resources which are available in theirvillages in order to prevent their health and other domestic animals from the epidemic of virus orbacteria. (2) If farmers have to bring the manures from other farms outside their villages, farmers
have to be sure those manures is from the sanitary farm. (3) Moreover, farmers have to consider
well how to apply manure in the rice field in order to reduce water pollution of surface andgroundwater by nitrate, phosphate and other heavy metals such as copper, zinc etc. in the manures.
How to cope with threats in organic farming: External factors of organic farming include
market, consumer, and role of government which plays an important part in developing andestablishing organic farming in this region.
Development of organic market: Recently, it seems that organic rice farming system have been
growing very fast especially for small holder farming in Cambodia, but in fact organic rice farming
is still very limited as compared to the total land rice in this country (0.02 percent of total land rice).
Moreover, organic farmers are also facing the similar drawback as the conventional farmers,
generally improving the business environment and investment climate at the local as well as
national level, are likewise essential. The latter would also stimulate investment in the agroindustry sector, which traditionally is the major link between farmers and markets and the driving
force for agricultural growth.
Improvement of the irrigation system in the rural area: Beside this, poor governance ofCambodia government is a major concern to late development of the agriculture sector in
Cambodia. Evidently, 85 percent of Cambodia people relies agricultural business for their income.
However, agriculture sector appeared slower progress compared to other sectors such as industry
and service following 4.4%, 17% and 11% of GDP growth in 2006, respectively (EIC, 2008). In
addition, 36 percent of total Cambodia population (including 40 percent of people live in rural area)
have been living under the poverty line as recorded in 2007 (World Bank, 2008).
In order to develop the agriculture sector in Cambodia particularly organic rice farming
system and other cropping system, the government should (1) build more canals or dams which
supply water for irrigation in the dry season and avoid the flooding in the raining season. Water isused not only for agriculture but also it use for drinking, cooking and bathing. Also, (2) attention
should be paid to construct more roads and bridges in the rural area. Mostly farm gate prices are
squeezed by the high transportation costs through the drawback in transportation services.
How to develop and sustain organic farming in the future: All the organic rice farming is under
the support project of local and international NGOs. Sustainability of this farming method is still amain concern to smallholders system because many farmers still unaware of their ability to pay oncertifying their organic products in the future despite the fact whether organic markets grow or stopin near future. Fortunately, Royal Government of Cambodia has recently become interested inorganic farming with the market expansion for promoting sustainable agriculture.
Furthermore, to develop organic farming in this area as other area in Cambodia; (1) generalawareness needs to be raised for easy access to organic seeds and technical training. (2) Awarenessof organic farming could be enhanced through appropriate research and extension programs as wellas education, training and promotion activities. (3) Public-private sector partnerships are alsourgently needed if the rapid growth of organic farming in the country is expected, along with
continuing international assistance in the form of technical and financial aid for strategic initiatives,
networking and collaboration with stakeholders in organic and fair trade movements, and to
stimulate market access. (4) International organic certificate is necessary for organic farmers toexport their product to the other countries.
CONCLUSION
This paper dealt with the discussion on organic farming, which was demonstrated to the farmers in© ISERD

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IJERD – International Journal of Environmental and Rural Development (2010) 1–1

Tramkok district of Takeo province, Cambodia. As the results applied organic rice farming systems
in Tramkok district, the farmers improved their income through increasing yields, premium prices
and reduced expenditure on chemical fertilizers after implementing organic farming techniques.
Moreover, all of the farmers adopting organic farming system improved their conditions of health,food quality and the ties of family and community. Nevertheless, these benefits were notcompletely distributed to all individuals and communities. Very poor and isolated farmers weregenerally unable to access the benefits.
It was considered that there may be three main factors for empowering Cambodian farmers toinitiate organic farming system, the individual’s endowment of resources, the strength of the farmergroups and the policies and facilitation of the supporting organizations.
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Christensen, J. and Frandsen, S.E. (2001) Economic perspectives for the development of organic farming.
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EIC (2008) Key economic indicator. Economic Institute of Cambodia, Cambodia.
Elizabeth, J.Z., Robinson, S.R.D. and Tim, B.C.C. (2007) Motivations behind farmers’ pesticide use in
Bangladesh rice farming. Agriculture and Human Values, 24, 323-332.
Knudsen, M.T., Halberg, N., Olesen, E.J., Byrne, J., Iyer, V. and Toly, N. (2006) Global trends in agriculture
and food systems.
Mak, S. (2001) Continued innovation in a Cambodian rice based farming system, Farmer testing andrecombination of new elements. 137-149, Cambodia.
Reich (2000) Compost fertilizers.
Sørensen, C.G., Madsen, N.A. and Jacobsen, B.H. (2005) Organic farming scenarios, Operational analysis
and costs of implementing innovative technologies. Biosystems Engineering, 91(2), 127-137.
Zanoli, R. and Gambelli, D. (1999) Output and public expenditure implications of the development oforganic farming in Europe, Organic farming in Europe. Economics and Policy, Germany.
World Bank (2005) Cambodia rural sector strategy note towards a strategy for rural growth and poverty
reduction, World Bank, 1-130.

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