Our work in Cambodia focuses on climate-smart farming and agricultural best practices as well as supporting related income-generating work for women in rural communities.
In Cambodia, farming and agriculture is the largest source of employment, yet agricultural production is impacted due to climate variability (flooding and drought) and smallholder livestock farming is often affected by infectious disease.
Compounding these local challenges is limited veterinary care and community animal health workers available to treat animals and reduce disease transmission.
Women and girls are responsible for the majority of unpaid domestic and care work in households and communities, restricting their ability to participate in paid work, education, and training opportunities.
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Timber harvesting, as well as clear-cutting for agriculture, has led to the third highest deforestation rate in the world which has destroyed habitats and disrupted the balance of delicate tropical soils. Limited rice production and other income-generating opportunities have created out-migration of youth and men to work in the industrial and construction sectors.
Working with farming groups, agroecology is a strong component of the work VWB/VSF volunteers undertake in Cambodia.
This includes training activities with farming cooperatives with a focus on climate-smart farming and an overarching goal to increase crop yields to combat food insecurity in the region.
One Health Demonstration sites will be built in the target communities to promote agricultural best practices and their positive impacts on the environment. The project will also provide training on animal waste and fodder management for chicken, cattle, and small ruminants.
To support income generation activities for women, the project will explore both the poultry and cattle production value chains as well as target female community members to train as Community Animal Health Workers.
CAHWs are selected by the community as animal health care champions and are then provided training by volunteers that enables them to provide much-needed local veterinary services in areas where there are no veterinarians. These CAHWs earn a small income from their animal health care services, while animal health and welfare are improved, and the smallholder farmer receives greater animal by-production returns.
AVSF Cambodia (Agronomes et Vétérinaires Sans Frontières AVSF) is part of an international coalition of locally-ran NGOs that has an overarching focus to increase agriculture education, health, animal health and welfare.
AVSF has operated in Cambodia since 1991, providing technical support to the Chamkar Dong Royal University of Agriculture.
Since 1998, AVSF in Cambodia has focused its activities on animal husbandry and improving food security for rural farm families, while also promoting agroecology and natural resource preservation.
AVSF also offers services relevant to smallholder families, such: reparation of small irrigation systems, creation of village rice banks, market gardening production, creation of small shops, small-scale processing, and the spreading of agroecological techniques.
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