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Our work in Southeast Asia grew from early partnerships on several projects in Cambodia. From efforts in sustainable intensification to agro-ecological services provided by cave-roosting bats, UTIA researchers have been frequenting Cambodia since early 2016. UTIA-Cambodia partnerships originally expanded from a collaboration with the Pennsylvania State University on a four-year USAID project supported by the Feed the Future Sustainable Intensification Innovation Lab (SIIL). Following these projects our team was selected to support the next phase of agriculture and food security programming under the U.S. Government’s Feed the Future initiative by providing technical assistance to United States Agency for International Development (USAID) missions in target countries.

Since then, partnerships and research activities in Cambodia and across Southeast Asia have been expanding. UTIA was implementing a five-year (2023-2028) cooperative agreement from USAID through the Farmer-to-Farmer (F2F) Program. The Smith Center was the lead partner for the “Agricultural Leaders of Tomorrow” (ALOFT) regional F2F program in three core countries: Cambodia, the Philippines, and Thailand. F2F provided technical assistance from U.S. volunteers to farmers and agricultural groups in foreign countries to promote sustainable improvements in food security and agricultural production, processing, and marketing.

Past Projects

Overview

This project examined the effectiveness of three native tree species in creating a physical, living barrier to prevent cows from foraging on rice paddy cover crops, a common challenge encountered in Cambodian rice-based systems. The project also integrates cattle nutrition components through the help of cattle extension specialist, Jason Smith, assistant professor in the Department of Animal Science (Co-PI), as these tree species can serve as supplementary forage for livestock, contributing to their rice straw-based diet.

Project Dates 

June 2017 – September 2019

Funding   

Feed the Future Livestock Innovation Lab through the University of Florida

Implementing Partners

Royal University of Agriculture and University of Battambang

Impacts

  • Living fence species, such as Leucaena leucocephala, can produce 2.5kg of fresh weight per week per 100 trees during the Cambodian dry season.
  • This biomass volume is sufficient to supplement cattle diets so that a smallholder can sustain a small percentage weight gain in cows throughout the dry season
  • Land tenure, physical access to paddy lands, and the gendered nature of these farming systems, remain challenges for realizing private benefit on paddy lands culturally considered public in the dry season.

Overview

This project empowered women and improved nutrition by promoting women’s participation in the value chains for horticultural crops and rice produced through sustainable intensification practices.

Project Dates 

December 2015 – March 2020

Funding 

USAID Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Collaborative Research on Sustainable Intensification; subaward through The Pennsylvania State University.

Implementing Partners

Royal University of Agriculture and University of Battambang

Impacts

  • Identified and promoted adoption of gender-sensitive sustainable intensification technologies and practices.
  • Identified and fostered enabling conditions for women to fully participate in sustainable intensification practices.
  • Farmers adopted gender and ecologically sensitive sustainable intensification production practices through green manure cover cropping strategies, water-saving techniques,vegetable grafting and a focus on underutilized species.

Overview

In partnership with Pennsylvania State University, a UTIA delegation traveled to Cambodia to examine how the pressure of the increase in mining activities on the bat population impact the natural pest control of the agricultural systems, as these predator-prey relationships have not been clearly identified among these species of bats and pests. Bats provide essential agro-ecological services to agricultural systems by helping to control pests and providing guano, bat droppings, which can be used as fertilizer.  

Overview

Our Farmer-to-Farmer project provides technical assistance from highly-skilled U.S. volunteers to Cambodian farmers and agricultural groups to promote sustainable improvements in food security and agricultural production, processing and marketing in Cambodia. The project draws on a “toolkit” of interventions, including improving soil health, managing water resources, improving access to germplasm, promoting integrated pest management and promoting integrated systems for crop and livestock production. We recruit Cambodian host-organizations to support both Cambodian and American F2F volunteers to provide hands-on training around these intervention areas. F2F volunteers exchange technical assistance with these communities to address specific needs identified by hosts. We also work with extension and education providers to strengthen their capacity to promote agricultural innovations in their networks. 

Project Dates

January 2020 – September 2023

PARTNERS

Center of Excellence on Sustainable Agricultural Intensification and Nutrition (CE SAIN)

FUNDING 

United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Partners of the Americas and Farmer-to-Farmer Agriculture Volunteer Opportunity Project (AVOP) Small Grants Program

IMPACTS

  • Organized 41 short-term exchanges between F2F volunteers and Cambodian host-communities
  • Supported 10 Cambodian host-organizations to improve their agricultural production and capacity, including universities, NGOs and agricultural cooperatives

The Smith Center supported the next phase of agriculture and food security programming under the U.S. Government’s Feed the Future initiative by providing technical assistance to United States Agency for International Development (USAID) missions in target countries. As the “Country Planning Operational Hub,” the Smith Center provided technical assistance to USAID missions to develop Global Food Security Strategy (GFSS) plans for their country. These strategic plans will guide each mission’s investments in the agricultural sector over the next five years.

PROJECT DATES

October 2022 – September 2023

PARTNERS

The Operational Hub partnered with five USAID missions in 5 countries: Bangladesh, Mali, Nigeria, Uganda, and Zambia. The Hub recruited 6 external consultants to provide research support for these assignments.

FUNDING

United States Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service (USDA/FAS), United States Agency for International Development (USAID)

IMPACTS

  • The Operational Hub supported USAID missions in five countries to research, draft, and edit sections of each country’s GFSS country plan. 
  • Research teams supported stakeholder consultations in Kampala, Bamako and Lusaka to gather information for country plans.

The Scaling Suitable Sustainable Technologies (S3) project brought three sustainable intensification technologies to scale: vegetable grafting, cover/relay crops and wild gardens. S3-Cambodia project scaled these technologies to farmers in Cambodia through various pathways, including school systems and the private sector. These technologies include vegetable grafting and the marketing of grafted plants, post-rice secondary cropping and seed production and wild food plant gardens in schools and as private nurseries.

PROJECT DATES:

July 2020 – September 2023

FUNDING:

USAID Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Collaborative Research on Sustainable Intensification (SIIL)

IMPLEMENTING PARTNERS:

Tennessee State University, The Pennsylvania State University, University of Battambang, Center of Excellence on Sustainable Agricultural Intensification and Nutrition (CE SAIN), Swiss Foundation for Technical Cooperation (Swisscontact) and Centre de coopération internationale en recherche agronomique pour le développement (CIRAD) 

IMPACTS:

  • Identified private sector agricultural groups and the secondary school system as viable scaling pathways for uptake of these market-oriented technologies
  • Diversified and resilient smallholder systems, introducing new sources of income and nutrition during seasonal “food gaps,” across different agricultural spaces 
  • Vegetable grafting and wild gardens contribute to value chains that have traditionally engaged women in Cambodia 

The Smith Center was the lead partner for the “Agricultural Leaders of Tomorrow” (ALOFT) regional Farmer-to-Farmer (F2F) program for Southeast Asia. F2F provided technical assistance from U.S. volunteers to farmers and agricultural groups in foreign countries to promote sustainable improvements in food security and agricultural production, processing, and marketing.

PROJECT DATES:

October 2023 – January 2025

FUNDING:

United States Agency for International Development (USAID)

IMPLEMENTING PARTNERS:

Center of Excellence on Sustainable Agricultural Intensification and Nutrition (CE SAIN), ECHO Asia, and Central Philippines State University (CPSU)

  • Smith Center for International Sustainable Agriculture
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