She is happy and proud (both at home and farm)

She is happy and proud (both at home and farm): A story of woman in Cambodia shows everyone has the rights to better livelihood

Ms. Him Sothea is an example of the woman who could change her life from nobody to a well-recognized organic rice farmer.

12 January 2016

Him Sothea, 49, a mother of three daughters, living in Chum Teavchreng Village, Tang Krous commune, Kampong Chhnang Province. Her older daughter is 21 years old, studying at university in Phnom Penh while the youngest is studying at grade 7 in the community. Ms. Sothea has been working in agricultural farming since she was young. Her parents and so do her grandparents were farmers. After her graduation at grade 6, she married and cultivated rice on one and a half hectares of land in the same way her ancestors had been doing.

“Before joining this project of CEDAC/GIZ, I was too shy to be in meeting. When attending the meeting people did not listen and pay attention to me while I was talking and sharing information. May be they see that I am poor and illiterate,” she said.

Since 2006, Ms. Sothea has participated in the CEDAC (The Cambodian Center for Study and Development in Agriculture) /GIZ (German International Cooperation) project where she could learn more about agriculture technique to improve production, and she was assigned as a leader of an organic rice producer group that requires a lot of time for the participants to be in the meetings, trainings, and various facilitation and monitoring activities while her husband was working at the field.

At that time, her husband was unhappy because a neighbor told him that women should not go out of a house to attend the meeting, or training. They should be at home for cooking and farming. But, this could not stop her from doing her out-of-the-house work.  She started to share what she learnt from the meetings with her husband and it made him gradually understand and let her continue what she was doing.

In her normal days, Ms. Sothea wakes up at 4 am for cooking, doing home gardening, feeding pigs and cows and during rice production seasons doing some field works including ploughing, transplanting, harvesting and threshing on the family’s four hectare of land. During the day time in the production season, she only make time for 30-minute-rest while in the off production season she manages to have one hour rest. Right now, she has four hectares in total for organic agriculture.

From the surplus of family consumption, she makes 2,500 US dollar annually from selling organic rice with 15 percent above the conventional market price.

In the beginning, the villagers did not concern much about health care, sanitation and any input source for agriculture. They spent a lot of money for chemical fertilizer. But today things are getting better,” Ms. Sothea  said.

The source of food for her daily consumption comes mostly from her own farm. From the surplus of family consumption, she makes 2,500 US dollar annually from selling organic rice with 15 percent above the conventional market price. Apart from agriculture, she earn 40 US dollar monthly from her part time job in rolling as a village statistical collector, women and children health and gender promoter at the village.

“In the beginning, the villagers did not concern much about health care, sanitation and any input source for agriculture. They spent a lot of money for chemical fertilizer. But today things are getting better,” she said.

In the family, she is mostly responsible in decision making. Her husband mostly leaves it to her as he does not want to deal with family related matters and only wants to work in the farm.

“My husband does not speak or communicate much with others or even me. He is not very active in farming activities and he drinks wine every day,” she said.

For her future plan, Ms. Sothea wants to scale up the organic production and apply biocontrol agents to her rice farming.

Through her own observation, men in the community do lesser activities associated with the immediate care and maintenance of the households such as children caring. Women are usually concerned with issues relating to family, health, food, child’s study and social work.  In farming, she sees that women have the primary responsibility for the care and maintenance of the rice seed, livestock and home garden.

“I think women benefit directly from the CEDAC/GIZ training and meeting. I think men may see it is not important for them. However, the men are constantly updated about results of the trainings and meetings,” she said.

Ms. Sothea now knows very well about chemical pesticides which pollute water, soil quality, and beneficial insect and human health. She said recently a neighbor farmer in the village died at the field because he was not instructed well to use pesticides against insect crab in rice field. With this reason, she and some other farmers in the village stop using chemical pesticide. Instead, she uses compost, cow dung, field residue and green manure to fertile soil and natural pesticide to against insect.

“The villagers now feel confident on me and trust me on the information.  They have seen that I have changed positively not only in terms of my livelihood, but also in terms of training facilitation, public speaking and social responsibility.”

For her future plan, Ms. Sothea wants to scale up the organic production and apply biocontrol agents in case there is any problem with soil borne and foliar disease in her farm. Ms. Sothea is an example of the woman who could change her life from nobody to be a well recognized organic rice farmer in the community through her activities in transferring the knowledge from the training to other farmers and improve various social contributions.

The training and meeting consists mainly female women participants who are acting as multipliers to transfer their gained knowledge to farmers and other cooperatives. Due to Based on the training, a survey analysis showeds that knowledge of female women farmers increases in terms of production techniques, biological plant protection as well as the usage of pesticides and organic cultivation methods. It also gaives awareness of the effects on the environment such as degradation and water pollution as well as the effects on human’s health by using chemicals and pesticides. The study also showeds that women got empowered through capacity development measures provided by the CEDAC/GIZ project. The acquired knowledge increased the self-confidence and the role of women in the agricultural sector and in society. Besides, the confidence of women increased in terms of public speaking, social responsibility and decision making capacity in family.

The CEDAC/GIZ project in Cambodia promotes organic cultivation among farmers in the country. It trains farmers in implementing biological plant protection based on Trichoderma fungi, a specific form of biological plant protection. In cooperation with the USAID project HARVEST, the aim is to improve the yield in rice and vegetables of a total of 500 smallholder farmers. About 6,000 could be reached indirectly.

By Channa Samorn, ASEAN Sustainable Agrifood Systems

Please register for change to Korea

South Korea, an East Asian nation on the southern half of the Korean Peninsula, shares one of the world’s most heavily militarized borders with North Korea. It’s equally known for its green, hilly countryside dotted with cherry trees and centuries-old Buddhist temples, plus its coastal fishing villages, tropical islands and high-tech cities such as Seoul, the capital.

Petronas Office Towers

I. Introduction
The Petronas Towers were designed to be the centrepiece of a larger complex called the
Kuala Lumpur City Centre (KLCC), a mixed-use development with a site area of 14.15 acres,
which includes the towers, two other office towers, underground parking and service
facilities. The project site is well located in the heart of the commercial district of the city, the
‘Golden Triangle’. Each of the twin towers is eighty-eight storeys high and contains 218,000
square metres of floor space. Rising 452 metres, the towers were certified the world’s tallest
buildings by the Council of Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat in 1996. The two towers are
connected by a sky bridge at the forty-first and forty-second floors – the sky lobby levels – to
facilitate inter-tower communication and traffic. A multi-storey shopping and entertainment
galleria connects the office towers at their bases, integrating the entire complex. Other public
functions within the complex include the Petroleum Discovery Centre, an art gallery, an 865-
seat concert hall and a multimedia conference centre.

Prey Veng is quite a sleepy Cambodian

Prey Veng is quite a sleepy Cambodian province that just happened to have one of the countries
busiest highways running straight through it-National Highway No 1, which links Phnom Penh and
Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. It is a small but heavily populated agricultural region located on the
east banks of the mighty Mekong. The name of the province means literally tall forest, but
actually doesn't refer in any case to lush forests as most of them were chopped down in the past
30-50 years. Also rubber played once a big economical role in this province, but since the war
took over the country the plantations are no longer commercially viable.
There are little places of significance to see nowadays, but during the pre-Angkorian times it must have been one of the most
populated and lively areas of the country. One of the earliest pre-Angkorian Kingdoms was located in the area around Ba
Phnom.
Geography of Prey Veng
Prey Veng province is 4,883 square kilometres big. It's located in the South of the country and
is bordering to the North with Kampong Cham, to the West with Kandal, to the East with Svay
Rieng and to the South with Vietnam. The province consists of the typical plain wet area for
Cambodia, covering rice fields and other agricultural plantations (rubber plantations in former
times). The province also features two of the biggest rivers of the country the Tonle Bassac and
the mighty Mekong.
Prey Veng History
In early Christian era, the province was a major center of the Kingdom of Fu-nan, between economic and political capitals of
the country what were Oc Eo (now in the Vietnamese province of An Giang) and Angkor Borey (in the Cambodian province
of Takeo).
However, with the advent of Chen-la, the hub of the Kingdom moved farther west, to Koh Kerand Angkor and the region lost
its importance.
In the 15th century, the Khmer emperors, under threat from the Siamese (former name of people current Thailand) decided
to resettle back to the east, to O’dong, Luvek then Phnom Penh. Prey Veng did favor them as it was too close to another
danger, namely the Annam. Never less they formed an army at Ba Phnom in 1473 to defend against an invasion of Siam.
Under the French protectorate, the colonial authorities saw potential of the region in terms of agriculture and fishing and its
proximity to the French colony of Cochin China. Mass deforestation took place, to create land for agriculture.
In 1975 when the Khmer Rouge took power, the province experienced its first famine, until 1977. Thousands of people in
Prey Veng Province were killed by the Khmer Rouge and buried in mass graves.
As the Vietnamese army advanced in January 1979, the region regained its position and became one of the first areas of
Cambodia liberated from the Khmer Rouge.
Climate
The country has a tropical climate - warm and humid. In the monsoon season, abundant rain allows for the cultivation of a
wide variety of crops. This year-round tropical climate makes Cambodia ideal for developing tourism. Travelers need not to
fear natural disasters such as erupting volcanoes or earthquakes, and the country is not directly affected by tropical storms.
Climate: Cambodia can be visited throughout the year. However, those plans to travel extensively by road should be avoided
the last two months of the rainy season when some countryside roads may be impassable. The average temperature is about

The faith of people's cambodia

Seven solar orbit assembly, astrologers were very frightened. Very afraid of this, if appropriate professional performance to others with Tiger as well. In Pakistan it seems worse than anywhere else, because that's prophecy Hor cause unrest until astrologers government to jail .

He will break or not , the fact is , they should not have any problems because the leak is a natural law . We also die at any minute the dead , the living cells in our body will be born again every breath . When the cells in our body die , then we die body is dead .

The issue on whether the truth is what we should believe side. When we do not know the reality also caused our faith crooked accordingly. Our faith in the road was also because we see the reality. We see the truth, because intellectual. We have the intellectual study. If we do not learn to be conscious that we are in ignorance if so, we will also be easily deceived, and our lives will also become their bait often.

Cambodia

Cambodia is a Southeast Asian nation whose landscape spans low-lying plains, the Mekong Delta, mountains and Gulf of Thailand coastline. Its busy capital, Phnom Penh, is home to the art deco Central Market, glittering Royal Palace and the National Museum's historical and archaeological exhibits. In the country's northwest lie ruins of Angkor Wat, a massive stone temple complex built during the Khmer Empire.