Cambodia’s rice production faces numerous challenges that threaten both its sustainability and the livelihoods of farmers. The drive for higher yields has led to the widespread use of modern rice varieties that are designed primarily for productivity, often at the expense of other important traits such as nutritional value, stress tolerance, and flavour.
It is estimated that 75% of Cambodia’s traditional rice varieties, which possess unique and valuable characteristics, have been lost due to the focus on maximising modern varieties.
Through this initiative, we are supporting the work of seeds cooperatives and farmers organisations committed to reinstate the use of traditional rice species.
It is essential to strengthen the organisational capacities of local seed producing cooperatives and farmer organisations to accelerate the uptake of local rice varieties. By enhancing the knowledge, learning, and organisational skills of these groups, farmers can better understand the benefits of traditional varieties and how to integrate them into their farming systems.
The initiative focuses on increasing the commercialisation of traditional farmers rice seeds in Cambodia by supporting a specialised cooperative, Camseed, which will not only work on production but also take the necessary steps to develop the market and increase demand for these seeds. The cooperative will begin by increasing production of 3 traditional species, supporting 360 seed producers who will benefit over 10,000 rice farmers living in poverty.
Under this initiative, FFORA is supporting the Asian Farmers Association for sustainable rural development (AFA) representing 12 million smallholder farmers across 16 countries.
AFA on their side is providing support to their national member in Cambodia, the Farmer and Nature Net Association and one of the local cooperative of their network, Camseed.
The Asian Farmers Association for sustainable rural development will also organise three exchange visits to Camseed with farmers organisations from Laos specifically focused on strengthening seed cooperatives.
In addition, AFA will build capacity of their members throughout South East Asia by setting up exchanges with rice seed producer organisations with members from Timor Leste, Philippines, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar.
