Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development / Technical Schools / Action Research

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Background

Development work is making progress in Cambodia, but all the same the situation for farmers and local people is harsh as they are confronted with issues such as the monopolization of agricultural land. For many farming households - which constitute 70% of the total population - there are times when food runs short. Whilst providing support within rural villages so that households may be able to con-tinue to feed themselves, it is necessary also to carry out research and advocacy aimed at improving the structural issues that underlie this situation.

Over the last two decades, JVC has been involved in a range of projects regarding issues such as the provision of safe water; human resource development; health service provision; and support for im-proving rural livelihoods. At present, JVC is implementing projects in the field of sustainable agricul-ture and rural development; we are also supporting a technical school for vehicle maintenance; and furthermore we are conducting research and advocacy work.

Summary of activities

1. Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development (SARD) and Trainers' Resource Center (TRC)

In order for people in farming communities to lead stable and secure lives, it is vital that they should be provided with the necessary information and support to take an active and innovative lead in guiding the development process in the area in which they live. Since 1993, JVC has been working to improve vari-ous particular aspects of people's livelihoods as well as their overall wellbeing.

We are working to improve people's livelihoods and to create opportunities for community-led rural development by implementing mutual assistance pro-jects among local people, such as "rice bank", "cow bank", "women's mutual assistance group", well-digging programme, environmental education and so on. At the same time, we aim to promote "sustainable agriculture" that produces a variety of crops whilst making the use of local resources. In this way, the farmers are able to reduce their reliance on chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and to control their expendi-ture without imposing a burden on the environment.

Furthermore, in Cambodia there is very little in-formation available on agriculture and the environ-ment and so we are also managing a library of docu-ments on sustainable agriculture, the "Trainers' Re-source Center" (TRC). At the TRC we created a da-tabase of users and of the status of documents on loan, and this allowed us to analyse and understand the patterns in which documents are being borrowed and returned, and thus to build a system for the future management of the Center.

In 2006, we have been gradually winding down our project in the current project site, but we will continue to monitor the activities of the community. In addition, we have begun the action research to design a new project at the proposed new project site in Siem Reap Province.

We plan to expand the TRC activities to provinces, and hence we have been supporting Community Re-source Centers in cooperation with local farmers and agricultural / environment NGOs in each area of the country.

2. Technical School

In 1986, JVC founded a technical school for vehicle maintenance in Phnom Penh in an effort to cultivate human resources for the next generation of Cambodians. With tangible experience in technically supporting the UN-assisted repatriation of refugees in 1992-3, JVC technical school has provided free-of-charge technical training in vehicle repair and weld-ing. Each year, there are some 110 students and al-most 40 instructors and technicians affiliated with this project. The school in Phnom Penh has been fi-nancially self-sufficient since 2000, and is able to continue providing free tuition thanks to the income from its own repair workshop.

Technical skills training

In 2005, it was decided to relocate the Phnom Penh school in response to a request from the government and a group of corporations. The school in Sihanouk-ville was closed in 2005 and its equipment were transferred to the Phnom Penh school. In 2006 we have been continuing with the preparations for the relocation of the Phnom Penh school.

3. Action Research

There has been a persistent drop in prices in Cam-bodia as a result of large-scale development and the selling-off and exploitation of natural resources. Farmers are losing their land for a variety of reasons, and rural livelihoods are being severely threatened. JVC is helping farmers to avoid falling into trouble by gathering and presenting information on the local situation and on government policies and by provid-ing opportunities for dialogue among stakeholders. In cooperation with other NGOs, we are carrying out advocacy towards the Japanese government regarding its ODA programme. We are also supporting local NGOs in promoting the cooperative management of forests by the local indigenous people in Ratanakiri, who are threatened by illegal deforestation and land acquisitions.

In 2005 we started a survey of village medicinal herb tradesmen and farmers who were cultivating medicinal herbs. Furthermore, with members of JNNC (Japanese NGO Network in Cambodia), we carried out advocacy work regarding Japanese ODA.