Interview with Ratt Morn, a farmer

Transcribed by Imm Sokea, MCC Cambodia Connecting Peoples CoordinatorPhotos by Isaac Alderfer, 2022-2023 SALT participant at ODOV My name is Rath Morn. When I was a child living with my parents, there were two seasons – dry season and rainy season. There were no changes within the seasons unlike nowadays. I was able to support…

Visiting Sokhim’s Vegetable Garden

During my visit to Kratie in January 2023, I meet with a poor farmer named Sokhim who lives along the Mekong river in Kratie province. She is a recent widow whose husband passed away after a lengthy illness leaving her to raise five children on her own. Sokhim’s husband was building a new house for the…

Three Sisters on an island in Kratie province

In November 2022, I visited one of the MCC/Cambodian Rural Development Team project participants on a remote island in Sambour district, Kratie province. She is a poor farmer named Sopheat. She’s part of the local vegetable producer group and village savings bank. She had started a tremendous vegetable garden and I asked her why she…

Kratie Project Visit – April 2022

Late in April 2022, our family was finally – after two long years of COVID travel restrictions – able to make the trip to the remote Northeast and visit the project in Kratie province. When we came to Cambodia in 2019 I had planned to take the girls along on field visits regularly but due…

Visiting Mok Samun’s Farm

Early this month we took an all-team trip out to Prey Veng province for the first time since March 2020. I think it’s very important for our short term volunteers in the city to understand what life is like for the majority of Cambodians and it means a lot to our Cambodian staff to see…

Impacts of climate change in Mondulkiri province

I wanted to share this story that was written by one of our YAMEN participants, Jacksha from Malawi, who is working with our local partner the Cambodian Rural Development Team (CRDT). She had a wonderful time traveling out to Mondulkiri province, which is in the northeast highlands, to meet with the farmer in the story…

Chhin Ya’s Garden and Fishpond

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…

2019 Drought in Cambodia

In 2009, there was a two week drought during the rainy season that resulted in 5,000 hectares of rice being lost in Prey Veng province. This year, Cambodia is just coming out of a prolonged drought that had the Prime Minister call on farmers to plant rice only once in the dry season. Prime Minister…