V. Agriculture

2. Intensive farming, integrated farming, and compost

Nearly 100% of BFD target groups are farmers, therefore, agriculture works have been a major concern in BFD strategy. Various activities have been set to alleviate the living conditions of those poor farmers.

1. Rice Bank

The village rice bank is a system of lending paddy rice to poor farmers to use for planting during the rainy season and cooking during the growing season as these are the season when there are usually food shortages in the rural areas. People borrow rice seed from the bank, which is managed by a committee selected by villagers, and pay back after the harvest. All rice capital raised by BFD and contributed by the villagers is stored for use the following years. Interest rate for 1998 was 50% (compared to 100-200% charged by private lenders) in which 20% will be stored in the storage that BFD built for the villagers. Today, BFD has 69 storage (36 in Battambang and 33 in Banteay Meanchey), 3,500 members, with the total loans of 660 tons.

Experiences from rice bank show us that this kind of activities very much depends on the weather, and the irrigation system available in the area. Low productivity of the rice farming, due to people preference on extensive farming rather intensive farming, is also affect to the progress of the rice bank. People who do not own land for farming are riskier in reimbursement than those who own land.

Rice Bank in Battambang and Banteay Meanchey

	Province	District	Commune	Village	Storage	Rice (ton)
1	Battambang	Sangker	10	48	25	184.103
		Battambang	6	7	6	32.965
		Ek Phnom	2	1	1	2.547
		Mong Russei	1	2	1	3.096
	Total					222.711

2	Banteay Meanchey	Sway Chek		35	35	264.150
	Total					264.150

	Total 1 +2					486.861

2. Intensive farming, integrated farming, and compost

The intensive farming and integrated farming practices have been introduced to farmers since 1995. It aims to train and advise farmers to increase productivity of rice farming and gardening through appropriate methodology. The traditional extensive farming which usually give 1.5 to 2 tons in average increase up to 3.5 ton per hectare when use intensive farming and proper methodology.

BFD introducing the concept of intensive rice farming of which proper utilization of chemical fertilizers and use of compost (home produced), better technique for farming, and proper use of insecticide and pesticide are emphasized. If the weather is appropriate, the new method can produce up to 3,7 ton per hectare (compared to 1.5 to 2 ton per hectare with extensive farming). In 1999 average yield production per hectare was low due to water deficiency at the early stage. 38 families who join the new methodology got an average of 2.9 ton per hectare.

Integrated farming has been introduced to farmers to increase extra incomes besides rice farming. The idea is to grow plants and raise animals that can contribute daily, weekly, monthly, and seasonally incomes. Farmers grow vegetables, banana, potatoes, mangos, coconut, jack fruit, etc. They also raise chicken, pig, and dig ponds in their land to host fish during rainy season. The practice has been well accepted and followed by BFD target groups. Among 150 families as BFD targets at least 120 families practice or partly practice the integrated farming and their living condition are obviously improved.

3. Irrigation and water supply

BFD always aware that the vital factor of agriculture is water as the Khmer proverb says: Thvoe srae ning tuk thvoe soek ning bay (farming with water, warring with rice). In Banteay Meanchey, two ponds of 60m X 50m X 2m each was dug by villagers of Treas Tasiev and Prasat Ampil with grants supported by Arigato Ainokai from Japan. The ponds are managed by ponds' committees to assure proper use of water and disinfect of the ponds.