August 11
Hi! I am Sor Nak and my husband is Reach Som An. We have five children, one son Chamroen who is in eighth grade at Check Secondary School which is about 4 km from here, and four daughters who have dropped school. One of them passed away a year ago. Two of them live and work in Kompong Som province but my daughter Sophorn is living with us in Phnov Village, SvayChrum District, Svay Rieng Province.
Besides working in the field, my husband does the work and looks after the rice mill together with our son, who is on school vacation for about two months. Our daughter Sophorn is in the rice field with other farmers. She used to work in Kompong Som with her sisters two years ago but then decided to come back home and help me.
In the morning I sell at Veal Yun market in Svay Rieng Town, something like 6 km from my house. I go back in the late afternoon. Now the market is being constructed so sellers have to move outside to sell in the street market nearby.
I sell vegetables as you can see in here, which I collect from other growers in my village and other distributors at the market. That’s why I must get up early. My vegetables are grown at home and I collect water lily from the lake that lies close to my house. Also I sell some my son or husband found in the field or lake and some that are collected from other farmers around.
Well, we own a hectare of rice field just around our house. On the left, my daughter Sophorn is working, pulling out the rice with farmers from other villages and transplanting them the following morning.
We need to have some farmers to help us with this in 3 to 5 days’ time to get ready on a one-hectare rice field. Then we pay for them and give them 3 meals per day and accommodation.
This field is used for different purposes. Now it is being used for rice. After rice, I am going to start to transplant vegetable again. Soil in this field is very rich and fertile as vegetables and rice are rotated according to the season. Rainy season is the best time for rice and dry season is better to grow vegetables.
I grow some kinds of cucumber, bitter gourd, garlic, lettuce, water green, water lily, long green bean, and mint. I buy seeds from a seller, Mrs Puth Saroeun, an FBA from IDE in the village, who also gives me some technical skills. Seeds from her are more reliable than from the market because she has been trained and also she will ask other advisors for help if she cannot help.
Eh! This is the garden where I grow mint. It may look unhealthy to you, of course, because I have harvested many times already, and now I just leave the land free in this wet season then in the dry season I will start again and grow other vegetables too.
Not only vegetables and rice, but we also have lots of mango tree fruit along the fence, which we can make some money once a year, usually in March or April. Some mangos are sold to the market and some to other collectors who will come to give us prices depending on how much fruit is in each tree.
Pigs! They are really not very good to me now. I actually had five pigs. First I had 3 and later on I bought 2 more from the sellers at the market in Svay Rieng. Those two are kept in the same cage with other 3 but without any technical support, 2 died and the other 2 new pigs died as well. That’s why you can see only one in here. Sometimes my son or daughter gives it feed or cleans the cage in the day time.
I don’t want to buy pigs from the market again because some pigs are brought from neighbour countries and they may use any chemical to make them grow and look healthy, but then when they are with us they would soon die. However, I still hope this one could survive, and I will keep it as a breeding pig.
September 1
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It’s cloudy and rainy more often, so my husband is not very busy with rice mill. Our son also helps. He is on his vacation and will start school again in October. We mix some rice with vegetables to make feed for our pig.
September 1
Here I am at Veal Yun market in Svay Rieng Town where I sell vegetables. These are the remaining vegetables that I have to sell myself along the street market because it is being rebuilt. As soon as the market is built, I will move in and sell there, which is easier. In the street market, I can sell only until lunch time and then I have to go back home, so I cannot sell all these.
I can make around 4,000 riels ($1) in 10 kg of mints as well as other kinds of vegetables by selling to other collectors or sellers at the market. The remaining vegetables I will have to sell myself.
After selling vegetables at the market, I always have to go to the vegetable gardens around my village and give them a price. Then growers will bring me vegetables. Now I am getting vegetables myself because the grower is out in her rice field. After this, I am going to another farmer to see if there are different kinds of vegetables. Today I will go back home late.
It’s cloudy and rainy more often, so my husband is not very busy with rice mill. Our son also helps. He is on his vacation and will start school again in October. We mix some rice with vegetables to make feed for our pig.
In the night time, they both go to the field to catch fish. If they could find more, then we could eat some and I could sell the rest.
