From Subsistence to Success: a Story of Change

Mr. Choub Phan is 68 years old. He and his wife Mrs. Soy Rong are currently living with 3 young grandchildren in the family. Family is settled in a village of Koh Peam raing, Koh Chek commune, Peam Chor district, Prey Veng Province. Mr. Choub Phan has a small land to produce the agricultural production such as sweet corn, eggplant, pepper and rice.

His income reaches 1,000 USD/year and is spend for food and other social activities. He shared that because of his old age it was becoming very difficult to earn enough money to be able to support his family. His wife took the initiative and borrowed money from a local micro finance firm to support their agriculture activity.  Mr. Choub Phan had previously tended a small home garden in which he grew few vegetables primarily for the family consumption. However, without adequate materials and technical know-how, and using only traditional methods to grow his vegetables, Mr. Choub Phan’s efforts never produced sufficient yields.

His limited experience in growing vegetables, albeit on a small scale, made him a perfect candidate to join the Market and Capacity Development project. A keen entrepreneur, Choub Phan desired to expand his garden to grow the organic vegetables. He became a producer member in 2018 and is since then growing organic vegetables. He attended several trainings such as organic requirement and standard understanding, farm management, post-harvest management, technical assistance at farm level and environmental education offered by the project under the support from Heifer International Cambodia. Under technical support by Khmer Organic, Mr. Choub Phan has learned how to greatly improve his vegetable growing techniques and better yields followed. Mr. Choub Phan is thrilled with the results of his endeavor. Mr. Choub Phan is one of our 17 producer members certified with the international certification by Control Union (NOP regulation).  Mr. Choub Phan has successfully established 600 m² commercial vegetable farm. He can now produce 40 kg of leafy vegetables three times a week to supply to the market.   The results of participating in the Market and Capacity Development project have been remarkable. Thanks to the improved farming techniques and continued support by the project, Mr. Choub Phan understands how to manage and crowing organic vegetable as well, he can earn income around 120 USD per month and make 100 USD of net profits per month from producing organic vegetables.  The extra income has made a huge difference to Choub Phan and his family. He and his wife have invested their profits to support their grandchild to continue studying up grad level in the future.  He also started to understand the environmental problems and consequences. His family collects the organic waste as a resources for compost making. Other garbage is disposed of properly. The farmer stopped using chemical fertilizers and pesticides and is instead using compost and natural pesticides. Family’s living conditions improved. They have access to healthy food and also cleaner environment and better sanitation. It is Choub Phan’s hope in life that his grandchildren get a good education so they can find well-paying jobs in the future and live better lives. This goal motivates him to do all that he can to improve his family’s standards of living. Mr. Choub Phan has big plans for the future and thanks to the Market and Capacity Development project he is now well on the way to realizing those goals.