In rural Mesang district, Prey Veng province Mennonite Central Committee partner Organization to Develop Our Villages (ODOV) supports rural Agricultural Cooperatives across 90 villages in adapting sustainable agriculture practices, healthy food preparation, conflict resolution, gender and domestic violence prevention, and organizational capacity. In a recent interview, one farmer told ODOV about how life has changed in her village since she was a child and how ODOV’s program has directly impacted her.

MCC funds the ODOV project featured in this post and supports ODOV with capacity building and a SALT/YAMEN secondment. ODOV was, originally, the MCC Mesang Integrated Community Development Project but localized into a Cambodian-led NGO in 2004.

Note: In the narrative below, the ODOV staff call Chhin Ya ‘Aunt’ and ‘Auntie’. I just want to clarify that she is not a relative of any ODOV staff. In Khmer, Ming is the respectful title to use when addressing a ‘woman as old as your parents’ and here it’s translated as ‘Aunt’ and ‘Auntie’.

What follows is Chhin Ya’s ‘story of change’ as collected by ODOV.

ODOV staff arrived at the home of a target household. Staff saw the owner was busy catching fish in the fish pond. The ODOV staff said, “Hello, Aunt, how are you? Your fish are big, Aunt. Do you catch fish to sell to villagers, Aunt?” When Aunt saw the ODOV staff, she replied with a smile, “I am fine, teacher. Today I harvested some fish to sell.”

When Aunt had some free time from her work harvesting fish, the ODOV staff asked her for permission to interview her about growing vegetables and raising fish, as well as her living conditions and the impacts of climate change on her family. Aunt explained that her name is Chhin Ya, age 49, who lives in Samrong Veal village, Chi Pok commune, Mesang district, Prey Veng province, and her husband’s name is Yet Kheng, 54. She is caring for two grandchildren because their parents migrated to look for work outside the district. The Royal Government of Cambodia classifies Aunt’s family as Poor 2.

In the past, Aunt’s family relied on 0.6 hectares of land for farming rice but the yield was not sufficient to meet the family’s needs. She said that when she was young, the weather was very favorable for growing vegetables, rice and raising animals. At that time, there was a separation between the dry season and the rainy season. The natural lakes, ponds, and canals also had lot of wild fish which villagers could easily harvest to supplement their household’s diet. During that time all of the farmers in the area, including her family, cultivated rice using rainfall for irrigation. From the time when she was young until now she has lived in the same village. When she was a child, her parents grew rice using cattle to plough the rice fields, used manure instead of chemical fertilizers, and relied on rainwater for irrigation. The rice yield was good, around 1,800 kilograms a year, from 0.6 hectares of cultivated land, and her family could have rice to eat all year round. The family also had no debt during this time.

“Now the weather is very different,” she added. She remembered that in the past the weather was better, with regular rainfall in the rainy season, and in the dry season the weather was not as hot as it is now. Droughts are now occurring all over the area. Ponds, lakes, and canals are being completely dried up in the dry season as people drain them for water. This is because they are being drained by farmers who cultivate dry season rice. In some areas, wells that had been drilled have dried up as the groundwater has receded [due to deforestation and the impact of climate change on seasonal rain/flood cycles] and people face difficulty accessing water for their needs.

In recent years, Aunt Chhin Ya’s family was negatively affected by drought. Drought damaged their crops. With no water to irrigate, their vegetables withered and died. Her rice plants withered and dried out due to no water for irrigation; eventually they were only good to be cut and fed to cows. The increased heat led to more animals getting diseases and infections. Some animals died simply because the temperature was so hot. Because of these issues, Aunt Chhin Ya’s family suffered with food shortages almost year round. The family’s living condition was very difficult. To supplement the needs of the family, Aunt’s family began to borrow money from neighbors to buy food or they traded their labor for food, sometimes working to harvest rice for other people or washing dishes at weddings and festivals in nearby villages. Aunt’s family fell deeper into debt because of farming expenses such as buying fertilizers, hiring a tractor to plough, purchasing animal feed, etc. Due to these poor living conditions, her daughter decided to drop out of school and migrate to work as a garment factory worker in the city to earn money to support the family and to repay debt. Her husband also migrated to find work outside of the district. Left behind in the village, Aunt had a large workload as she handled all of the production and reproduction roles by herself.

In April 2020, Chhin Ya learned about ODOV’s project in the area and expressed her interest in joining. Through the project, Chhin Ya was eligible to receive various trainings from ODOV including training on sustainable agricultural techniques, climate change adaptation techniques, the causes and effects of climate change, essential nutrition, and more. ODOV also supported Aunt Chhin Ya to construct a fish pond (10m x 15m x 2m) behind her house. After digging the fish pond and being trained by the ODOV staff, Aunt and her family prepared the fish pond to raise fish. She applied all techniques that she learned from the training such as planting grass and lemon grass around the pond, and installing a fencing net surrounding the pond to prevent animals from falling in and the fish from escaping.* She also applied various methods of improving the water quality like liming and applying fertilizer. When this process was complete, she placed 1,500 catfish fingerlings in the pond and she followed every single technique of fish raising.

Along with raising fish, Aunt Chhin Ya also started a home garden following ODOV’s cyclical farming model. She grows vegetables around the fish pond and her house. She applies all the techniques that she learned like using a crop calendar, mulching, crop rotation, crop diversity, compost making, natural pest management, etc. ODOV staff regularly conduct field visits to her house to check her progress and to provide specific advice and training on advanced techniques as required. Through her efforts and commitment, Aunt Chhin Ya is able to successfully raise fish and grow vegetables. This means that she has enough vegetables and fish to meet her household’s food needs. This also has reduced her living expenses.

In addition to providing food for her own household, Aunt Chhin Ya also earns extra income from selling fish and vegetables. She said that she earns up to 1,400,000 Khmer Riels ($350) seasonally from selling fish and 15,000-20,000 Khmer Riels ($3.5-$5) per day from selling vegetables. This income has become an important part of Aunt’s household budget and allows her to meet needs such as buying clothes for her grandchildren, buying other groceries and household items, buying agriculture inputs and covering expenses for various social events (weddings or ceremonies). Seeing the results of her efforts, Aunt’s husband stopped migrating to the outside and stays home to help grow vegetables and raise fish. The family’s living condition is much better now.

Aunt Chhin Ya also received training on gender and women’s rights, peacebuilding, and Cambodian laws on the prevention of domestic violence against women. Through the knowledge gained from ODOV, Aunt Chhin Ya’s family has changed their attitudes and behavior in these areas.

“Now my husband understands my business/concerns better than before. Now he helps share my workload (housework) without any prejudice and he is more respectful of my input on decision making.”

Chhin Ya’s feedback on the results of ODOV’s gender rights workshops

When asked “What concerns do you have for the future?” Aunt Chhin Ya responded that in the future, her community may face more challenges from extreme climate change, even worse than nowadays such as facing extreme drought, too much rainfall, flooding, more severe typhoons, and that the earth will get hotter, leading to the new diseases that harm human and animals. She said that it is important that community members obtain knowledge on adaptations techniques so that they can be resilient to the changes in the environmental context. Aunt mentioned that the community needed to develop a Disaster Risk Reduction Plan to reduce the vulnerability of community members when a crisis eventually occurs.

Finally, Aunt Chhin Ya said thank you to ODOV and donors, MCC and CFGB who helped her family improve their living condition. In turn, ODOV appreciated her progress and success, and encouraged her to continue to raise fish and vegetables successfully.