August 11
Hello! My name is Puth Saroeun, and this is my mother, 78 years old. My husband died two years ago. I have four children, two daughters (Sor Ratha is 40 and Sophy is 37) and two sons (Sor Rithy is 32 and Bunthoeun is 27). They are all married. We live in Phnov Village, Svay Chrum District, Svay Rieng Province Cambodia.
I work on about 2 hectares of rice field.Three of my children have moved after they got married and they live close to my house. Bunthoeun is living with us and this is his wife, Khat Sovanary, and their baby girl, Thyda. Bunthoeun is the only child who has just graduated from Svay Rieng University, major in Agronomy, but he has got a job with a Uniliver co.ltd. It’s funny, isn’t it? Well, yes I think it doesn’t matter because he needs a job to support the family but I hope one day he will be able to find the right job so that he can use and apply his knowledge in Agricultural field.
Here is a sewing machine my daughter-in-law uses for her daily work at home, where villagers around here come. But not many come so she has lot of free time for her baby and for helping me with the house work.
Around my house, I grow some kinds of tree fruits like banana, mango and sugar cane and vegetables such as cucumber, leek , water green, waterlily and mint. To me mint is good and easier to grow than others beause it is the rainy season now . I harvested very often from the start but now only one time a week. Maybe it is the tenth harvest so I think I will have to start growing again. I don’t have to sell anything to the market because my clients come to collect at my house.
Some insects and pests are damaging the harvest but there aren’t many pests so I never use any chemical fertilizer. I just spend some time walking around to get the pests and grass out and so does my mother. After some training, I realized that chemical fertilizer is not good for both users and consumers.
I feel more confident to grow vetegables and meet the clients around the village since I have started work as an FBA because I have gained some technical knowledges from the training and from an Advisor who gives me ideas and help on demand. I have noted that my living standard has improved. For example I have technical ideas, make some income through the FBA job selling seeds and vegetables, and my name is also better known than before. I do enjoy work as an FBA!
(Read the story of Sor Nak, one of Puth Sareoun's clients)
(Read the story of Sor Nak, one of Puth Sareoun's clients)
Here, in front of me is one of my fish ponds which consists of between 400 to 500 fish. We use them for household consumption and we can sell them to the market too. When we need them we can just spend some time fishing.
Last week Bunthoeun had his friends from university come around and caught some fish and grilled. It is really fresh and tasty, I can say.
I, in this pond and in the lake behind me, also grow kinds of water green vegetables and waterlilies. Before I could sell them to the nearest market and to other clients who collect them to sell in Phnom Penh city, but now there are not any more collectors. Even though I cannot sell them very much, I can still use them as feed for my pigs every day.
Right! I am now feeding my pigs. I have four big pigs as the one you can see here. Three of them were sold because they were not breeding except for meat. Without technical skills, I find it takes so long to have the pigs ready for sale, maybe 6 to 8 months. This one is kept for breeding pigs. The other two young pigs which I have just bought a month ago are let outside the cage, but I will get them back in the evening. It isn’t easy to look after them as they eat a lot, at least two times a day, and they must be neat and clean.
Besides fish and pigs, I have some chicken and ducks. My mother also helps me give them rice or feed. They are generally good for the marketplace and price, especially in Khmer New Year time in April and in Chinese New Year around January or February. But because this season is rainy, we have to sell them at a cheaper price when other farmers sell them too because they would eat and damage the rice seeds in the rice field if we let them. We cannot take care of them because we have to go to the rice field also.
September 1
A lot of chicken and ducks, something like 15kg, are served as a meal for 8 farmers we hired to help plant our rice.
Soon it will be our traditional festival (Pchum Ben) which lasts for 15 days so chicken and ducks are sold at high price at the market then.
My mother also helps me do the chores. Now she is preparing the coconut leaves to make brooms. She sometimes helps give feed to chicken and ducks while I am away to meet my clients, but she cannot help sell seeds or fertilizer because she cannot settle the bill.
And in this pond I have around 150 fish. Some we eat and serve as a meal for other farmers we hire to help plant our rice.
Just behind me is a field in which I am going to plant a rice demo. That is a new method with a fertilizer from IDE to prove farmers around my village that it works by comparing rice with new fertilizer with another rice next to it grown in traditional way and without the fertilizer I am selling.
Eh! However, I am not sure yet if farmers will buy more as I was told, “It’s good to try new method together with fertilizer bought from me, but the problem is that they have to put one piece of fertilizer into each hole of the rice stem, which they think will take longer time and more effort.”
While I am off to meet clients or find new ones, my daughter-in-law helps do the house work, cooking, selling seeds or fertilizer, and she looks after her baby together with her sewing job.
Mmm! It costs me a lot to hire farmers to transplant rice for us and it takes 5 days to be ready. In total, I have paid 15,000Riels for ploughing and 56,000Riels for transplanting rice for 8 farmers.
As you may know, I am getting older and my son has to do his full-time job. Because rice is the main thing we grow, we have to hire those farmers to do that for us.
I have to leave my vegetable garden alone for a while now and wait and see if there is too much or not enough rainfall. Then I will start again, and I can make sure vegetable seeds will be sold more.
In the afternoon, I take my cows to the field where grass is available and come back at around five. We cannot leave them alone. Otherwise they would eat other farmers’ rice and then I would have to pay for that or farmers would not be happy with us.
September 21
Hello! Today my mother and I are going to a 7-day (funeral) ceremony near here. I sometimes bring seeds or leaflets with me to a meeting or ceremony, but a funeral is not suitable for me to do that.
During this season, I spend less time visiting my existing clients and well looking for new ones because lots of farmers have to work in their paddy fields. However, Pchum Ben Day is coming soon in which Cambodian people spend most of their day at the pagoda. Then it is a good time for me to introduce my products: seeds and fertilizer.
To catch attention from farmers in the village and get them to buy fertilizer, I have a small demo SRI field. It is close to my house so that I can take good care of it.
It is still a challenging task for me to sell fertilizer as I heard from farmers who say they want to try, but the problem is that it takes them time to put fertilizer in the ground one by one. Although I told them they can mix with the paddy soil before transplant, they think it would take a large amount of fertilizer in one field to do so.
I am visiting one of my clients, Mrs. Taon Yam, whose taro garden has a big problem caused by pests (a kind of caterpillar I think). At first I told her to spray, but she said most of them are damaged already and although she sprayed, the spray wouldn’t work because the pesticide is on top of the leaves and the damage is on the opposite side.
I will bring the leaf and soil to the (FBA) training to ask if they have better solution to this.
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Taon Yam: Hi. My name is Taon Yam. I live near Mrs. Puth Saroeun. I have grown different kinds of vegetables in rotation. This time I have 27 beds of taro that I expect to earn good profit (around $200 including the bulbs and sterm), but look they have big problem caused by pests. Saroeurn told me to spray but I don’t think it works, and I don’t want to use pesticide which can damage my health. What I must do is to harvest them as soon as possible before they are damaged.
October 20
Here! On my right is my Improved Practice Rice transplanted in line using FDP Briquettes and on my left is traditional practice rice. They are not very different if we take a quick look, but if we walk closer, then we can see that they are absolutely different. Improved Practiced Rice stems are much healthier and bigger than traditional rice.
A couple of days ago, my son caught some fish from a fish pond next to the Improved Practiced Rice field for his dinner party.
I kept a few of them so today we are going to have fish soup for lunch. Because it rained all this week, it is muddy. I thought the fish would be washed out, but luckily they are still in the pond. Although we don’t make money from fish, we don’t have to pay much for our meal.
Besides fish, I have some bananas, chicken, and ducks which are used for meals especially during Pchum Ben Day when there are some guests and relatives who came around. I keep them as reserved food so I don’t make any profit from these at the moment. But in Chinese New Year in January or February and Khmer New Year, I expect I will make some money as prices go up.
This is the first time that my pig gave birth to 10 piglets (one of them is a male) at midnight while we were sleeping. We didn’t know and couldn’t take care of her, so then 2 of them died after birth. We have had her for nearly a year.
I am happy. I will keep some of them for breeding and some will be sold when they grow up.
Mrs. Yam was one of my clients whose taro garden had problem. Now she leaves it for a while because there has been too much rain recently. I am seeing her and giving her some ideas to improve her vegetable growing beds. She should try to put some white lime on them then leave it for about a week before transplanting. She’s not sure yet which vegetable she’s growing. “Lettuce or mints,” she said.
After talking to Mrs. Yam, I visit Mr. Son Yang to see if he needs some seeds because he has just made his vegetable garden beds ready. Just like Mrs. Yam, he doesn’t know yet which vegetables to grow because of the rain. He might grow long green bean or lettuce.
I need 10 kilograms of papayas. Let’s me help you with this. Then you can get me 6 kilograms of mints. OK!
I got an order from IVY, and on Wednesday evening after training, I go around to the growers to collect the vegetables because I have to bring them to IVY office on Thursday morning. I often have to do it myself, picking them up like this, while the grower gathers other plants.
At another farmer’s house, I am preparing the lemongrass while her husband cuts them from the vegetable garden just behind their house.
While I am with the growers, I tell them that they shouldn’t worry about the market place because IVY collects vegetables from us every Thursday and will take them to the Casino in Bavet close to the Vietnam border.
After collecting vegetables, I must make them neat and clean. Then I will have to weigh them to make sure they are at the right amount.
My mother also helps me and so does my daughter-in-law.
I am now at IVY office collecting place (every Thursday). Here I must help clean these vegetables again and prepare them in the baskets.
Sometimes the IVY collector goes to my house and takes the vegetables and sometimes I must bring here and they will pay for transportation.
November 29
I have just finished the harvest this afternoon and my Improved Practiced Rice was harvested last week. As a result, in one square meter, we got 0.5 kg of rice seeds. I have sold some FDP and white lime as well as vegetable seeds.
For the threshing machine and labor, we settle an agreement with them that for every 25 baskets of rice seeds, they will get 1 basket.
Yesterday I got an order of 45 kg of water convolvulus so I am going to visit my clients and other growers.
My daughter Saroeun has gone to the field for the last harvest so I am home with our granddaughters. I must help in the vegetable garden to get the weeds off.
We occasionally make a profit from bananas, especially on Full Moon Day because villagers would like to buy these as fruits and take them to the pagoda for the monk.
We have three different kinds of herbal mints in here, and Saroeun is making other beds for Herb Basil mints that we will plant when the soil is dry enough.
Two of the piglets were sold (2 piglets for 150,000 riels each) last week. Now there are five piglets in here, and my mother-in-law said she wanted to keep all these.
I stay at home to look after my baby girl and to help do the chores. I keep the cages clean and tidy while my mother is off to look for clients or to work in the rice field.
Only two beds of these mustard cabbages grew better in the muddy soil because they were transplanted about 10 days before the rain. The rest of the mustard cabbages look unhealthy as they were transplanted and then the rain fell for two nights constantly.
I am at the farm of Mrs. Prac Sarin and her husband Mr. Sor Sarun. They normally buy seeds from the market because they focus on price which they say is cheaper at the market. They never think about the quality, but now they decided to buy seeds from me for a try.
They have three beds of these cucumbers from the seeds bought from me. They will compare them with the seeds bought from the market.
Prac Sarin: I am Prac Sarin and this is my husband Sor Sarun.
We normally buy seeds from the market and occasionally from Mrs. Puth Saroeun. These are cucumbers from seeds bought from the market. Now I found that few of these are spoilt and rotten in the muddy beds caused by heavy rains.
February
20 kg of leafy garlic in here have been sold. Some were pulled off and transferred to the new soil nearby.
Today 5 kg were ordered by Ms. Sor Nak, a collector. This evening I am taking them to her when she comes from Svay Rieng town market. IVY market stand in Svay Rieng also orders some kinds of vegetables two days a week, between 5 to 10 kg per each kind. IVY also gives me me some payment for transportation.
Here is new transplanted leafy garlic. I water them once every one or two days. Not only I, but also my daughter and son who live around, like to grow garlic this time of the month.
In here there are some kinds of mints but they are not yet cut or harvested. After watering here, I must clean the pigs and feed then. Most of our income is spent on their feed and our daily food.
Herb basil has been really good and we have made about 108,000Riel. Today my daughter-in-law is cutting them off. My mother and I prepare, clean, and wrap them. Then I take them to Ms. Ey, a collector in our village, this evening when she comes back from the market in Svay Rieng town. Normally Ms. Ey gives better price than Ms. Sor Nak.
FBA: Hello! Ms Ey! Nice to see you! Have you had dinner yet?
Ms Ey: No, I just arrived from the market.
FBA: Oh, and here is your herb basil.
Ms Ey: Thanks. How many of them?
FBA: 80 bunches (about 8 kg)
Ms Ey: How much is that?
FBA: That’s 14,400Riel (80 x 180 riel). You bought so much leafy garlic?
Ms Ey: Yes, and some are mine grown just behind our house. It’s because there aren’t any vegetables imported during Chinese New Year, so it’s a good chance for our local growers.
March 24
These are just a few wax gourds in the field behind my house and they were eaten by the bulls coming across the field.
I don’t make any money from these but sometimes we use them to make soup for our meal.
I make around 7,000 riels - 8,000 riels from herb basils every day or two which is far less than than before. 100 bunches were sold before but now I can sell only 50 bunches. However, I expect more will be sold and to have better prices in Khmer New Year.
In this field, about 150 kg of leafy garlic were sold and here are the new transplants. I made 150,000 riels total from the leafy garlic. I flooded the field because the weather is too hot and now ducks are playing in and could damage some of the garlic.
I must frighten them off but they will come back again because there isn’t enough protection net around.
These are Mrs. Reach Chan’s watermelons that are grown on my rice field just opposite to my house. The field is not far from her house.
Because I can’t work on too many things, I let her use my field for her melon. It’s too hot now so most of her melons don’t grow well. Some of the ripe melons are sold in the Kontoy Vey market near here. It costs between 800 riels -1000 riels for each one. When there are too many of them, she has to sell them at Veal Yon market in Svay Rieng town.
FBA: Hello Mr Sakhorn! How are you?
Mr. Sakhorn: I’m not so well as you can see now.
FBA: Oh, and how about your vegetables?
Mr. Sakhorn: Eh… cucumbers are spoilt because the weather is too hot and some pests have damaged them. I cannot use pesticide to get rid of them because I’m afraid it will affect my health and I am not very healthy. But salads are good and all harvested.
Mr. Sakhorn: I have to water two or three times a day. My son used to help me make the soil and water these vegetables, but now he has gone to Phnom Penh to look for a job. He thought it took long time and lot of effort until he could harvest. And sometimes when there are too many of them, prices become cheaper.
May
This is Phti, a kind of Amaranth. I just dropped some seeds remaining from sales and they are growing up. Now I am going to Thort pagoda with my mother.
Today I and my mother are going to Thort pagoda. After that, I am going to go around the commune with Mrs Phally, IDE field staff, to sell some new seeds and FDP briquettes.
Field staff: Hello Mrs Saroeun. How are you?
FBA: I’m ok. And you?
Field Staff: Fine.
FBA: Oh. I must prepare 3 kg of FDP for my client… It’s almost 3 kg now.
Field Staff: Yes. Then we are going to go around Tasous commune.
FBA: Where else?
Field Staff: And go further to Svay Chrum District.
FBA: Can I just go with you? Gasoline is now very expensive!
Field Staff: Sure.
On Khmer New Year, my mother-in-law cut all these leafy garlic in this field in which she could make 200,000 riels. Now they are grown and my husband helps her to water he comes back home from work because she is not healthy.
It’ll take a month, I think, from start until harvest in here.
Besides leafy garlic, we made small amount of money from mints. We have cut these two times for sales and in total we made 16,000 riels in three or four months but we can’t cut any of these any more unless they develop new ones.
Mango fruit is partly our tree fruit from which we can also make a little money. I pick them up once every two days and take them to the nearest market just about 3 km from home. It’s cheap and almost all households have grown mango trees.
My daughter who lives next door also grows leafy garlic. I can see some of these are not yet harvestable. Maybe in two weeks time she will be able to cut them for sales.
Here are tomatoes and the drip system offered by IDE through Mrs Phally, a field staff to Mrs. Sarun who will help Sarun try the new seeds.
I am with Mrs. Sarun, who has tried cucumber seeds 331 for 3 packages in her two gardens. One garden is here just behind her house and one is there to the north. Because the weather is too hot, her cucumbers don’t grow well.
FBA: Hello Mrs Sarun! How are the tomatoes and cucumbers?
Mrs Sarun: So frustrating. Cucumbers don’t grow with good yield.
FBA: Sorry to hear that!
Mrs Sarun: Yes. We are going to remove all these. We can’t wait. It is a waste time and effort.
FBA: Why don’t you try other new seeds?
Mrs Sarun: My husband now hesitates to grow this kind of 331cucumber seeds again.
