Agriculture Livelihood Improvements through
Village Empowerment (ALIVE)

01 July 2011 to 30 June 2014 *Bakan district, Pursat Province
* Primary beneficiaries: 2,400 community members
* Secondary beneficiaries: 3,600 community members
* Budget: $462,800
Donor/s: AusAID, ADRA Australia and Community Contributions

The Agriculture Livelihood Improvements through Village Empowerment (ALIVE) project targets 22 underserved communities from 156 villages of Bakan district. Working through 138 community volunteers, it works in a holistic manner emphasizing the need for local ownership and self initiation in the change process. It allows households, especially women, to better assess current agriculture and livelihood practices, new appropriate technologies and opportunities and be able to act on identified areas of potential improvement. As agriculture is the backbone of the rural target communities, ALIVE builds on this base of knowledge in rice, vegetable and fruit, animal production and other rural livelihoods and gives households the opportunity to make improvements and changes that will result in increased value of products and incomes in a sustainable manner. A particular emphasis will be placed on increasing the positive contributions of women in family livelihood choices and production.

ALIVE facilitates community members to identify, share and make the choice to seek out new skills and behavior practices using an adaptation of the REFLECT methodology¹ with inclusion of development principles and techniques from the Participatory Extension Approach². Community groups, facilitated by trained community partners, share locally successful solutions, identify opportunities and mobilize themselves to seek additional external technical assistance. Women's groups meet on a weekly basis and men's groups meet once or twice per month. Joint sessions are facilitated when making plans for external training to ensure that the appropriate household members will be involved for sustainable action. Regular group sessions continue after techical training to maximize solidification of skills and learning from results, especially by those not attending the main training sessions to develop village-wide skills.

Where 90% of the population is rural farming households, agriculture and livelihood technical training is facilitated by ALIVE staff and local government partners. Training options include Rice Improvement Program techniques including improved field leveling and fertilization, improved rice seed management, younger seedlings etc.. Particular opportunities to expand/improve second-dry season rice crop production are promoted and supported since local management and usage has been chronically poor even after there has been increased irrigation construction in some areas. Farmer cross learning is improving methods of post-harvest storage and marketing to maximize incomes.

Capacity building in vegetable and fruit production techniques assists households to gain skills on improved soil preparation, seed/seedling selection, and appropriate usage of organic and chemical fertilizers, pest management and moisture control. Discussions also lead to improve market planning and access to better information. ALIVE is training local Farmer Business Advisors who work with farmers in their network to better plan and meet market demand for increased sales and value of products. Additional water access is supported based on needs identified during implementation through wells and ponds.

Training of interested HH in animal raising is leading to increased skills in cattle husbandry, chicken raising, fish or other livestock. Improved methods and linkages to the local Village Animal Health Workers and marketing services lead to reduced illness and death, higher sale values and improved marketing linkages.

Identification of other livelihood skills by Reflect Circle members leads to custom training where possible such as food production, sewing, local handicrafts construction techniques etc. to supplement agriculture production incomes and reduce migration. Ongoing group activities promotes broader knowledge for members, particularly women, in each of these key agriculture areas and will address household decision making practices. Planning, financial management and marketing is learned with cross visits to successful model farmers and businesses arranged. Women’s vocational literacy and numeracy skills are built to provide long term access to information and improved record keeping and additional community driven economic based initiatives will also be supported.

1 REgenerated Freirean Literacy through Empowering Community Techniques - for additional information see www.reflect-action.org
2 http://www.adracambodia.org/projects/harvest.htm

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