2021 Lukluk (VSA) - Magazine - Page 14
Clint gathers carrots during the 2020 harvest
Growing resilience
When Lukluk last spoke with
Senghorng Tout he was working
with VSA volunteer Clint Smythe
to develop the Cambodia Melon
Growers Association in partnership
with global development
organisation iDE.
Now, three years later, the
association is on track to being
self-sustaining and Senghorng is
still working with iDE and Clint,
but this time the crops are carrots,
and the aim is to build climate
change resilience.
There are plenty of benefits to
carrots as a crop says Senghorng.
“Carrots are one of the newest
crops in our provinces and a lot of
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people didn’t believe that it can
be grown in Cambodia’s climate.
But it has many advantages
compared to other crops including
high interest from consumers.
Instead of imported carrots,
farmers enjoy higher prices and
demand from the market.
He says the project is already
showing plenty of benefits. “The
work we are doing includes water
saving through use of drip irrigation
and micro-irrigation, and it allows
farmers to grow off-season through
seed strain testing, trellising and
plastic and biodegradable mulch.
“We’re also applying climateresilient horticulture technologies