The Cambodian (rural) economy is still very much driven by income and employment from agriculture or (seasonal) off-farm activities. Despite rapid growth in industrial sectors like construction and textiles the majority of the workforce remains active in agriculture. Much of this is still for a large part self sufficiency agriculture which can be described as low skilled, little connected small scale activities. With around 80% of the population and only about 20% as “consumers” for food products, market development goes slow. Entrepreneurship, networks, value chain linkages and general agricultural skills are low developed. For the development of commercial cash crop agriculture still a lot needs to happen in Cambodia.
 
In order to address the challenges in Smallholder Cash Crop sector, SNV has put together a smallholder cash crop sector strategy. We aim to improve income and employment from fresh vegetables and fruits cultivation for domestic (and where potential, export) market supply.

Our aim aligns with the current Cambodian strategic framework for Food Security and Nutrition in Cambodia 2008 – 2012 (May 2008), improving food security and nutrition is defined as one of the key objectives to reach the MDG’s.

With our intervention, it is expected that 2,500 small-holder households have increased their income from fruits and vegetables (average from USD 222/year to USD 1,900/year) and 100 new jobs created in the fruits and vegetables business. We also work to improve the government capacity, especially in relation to smallholder cash crop business promotion.

SNV provides both national and international expertise working directly with local governmental institutions, private sectors and local actors to improve income, employment and market access for the poor by addressing some concern areas such as:

• Input markets for seeds, fertilisers, pesticides
• Agricultural knowledge services for primary producers
• Market connections and networks
• Consumer awareness and consumer feedback.

Until 2012, our activities and service delivery in the smallholder cash crop sector in Cambodia will focus on the following:

• Improve input access for farmers to access to quality crops/seeds.
• Improve market access for farmers
• Upscale market information services through modern communication systems.
• Enhance productivities by upgrading sector knowledge and skills
• Improve quality standards/control, price incentives for better performance
• Foster enabling environment and multi-stakeholder collaboration, to ensure effective service delivery and allow for further pro-poor development of smallholder cash crop sector and social inclusion (income, jobs) form the governance components.
• Promote sustainable cash crops,
• Building capacity to ensure that governance, gender and social inclusion practices are integrated into the sector.