IRDEP-KC– Standing near a new walking power tiller that she just bought, Ms. Moeun Mak, expressed her satisfaction with her achievement of 2012 and referred to it as the success from her pig raising business supported by Serei Vong Village Bank in her village. Ms. Mak, 23, from Serei Vong village, Peam commune, Sameakki Meanchey district of Kampong Chhnang province, was one of the outstanding women in the village who made a success in pig raising and farming business.
In early 2008, she was elected by the villagers as Manager for Serei Vong Village Bank, but resigned at the end of the year after she got married because she had to take care of her family and planned for her own pig raising business.
In early 2009, Ms. Mak spent her own savings of $60 buying two young sows to raise, but one was sold out months later due to raising cost reason. As she lacked money to keep the project running, then, she decided to borrow $125 from the village bank for buying pig feeds. At the end of the year, the remaining sow delivered 11 piglets and they were sold at the cost of $500 within the following three months.
In mid-2010, her sow delivered the second litter of the same number as the first time. As she planned to increase her rice yields, she decided to sell all the pigs, including the sow, and took some of the money to have her land cleared.
Ms. Mak has about 2.5 hectares of farming land. But, the arable land size was only half hectare, while the rest was underbrush. To further improve her family living condition, Ms. Mak decided to invest some more money from the second sale of the pigs to clear brush on the remaining land which was left idle for years in order to expand the growing area.
At the same time, she joined the Farmer Field School (FFS) supported by LWF Cambodia (now LWD) to learn about the farming techniques to improve rice crop, plant vegetables and raise chicken. Apart from capacity building, FFS also provided its members with hardware support such as vegetable seeds and farming tools to enable them to start their home garden activities with confidence.
Ms. Mak said with the increased arable land size and the farming skills she gained from the FFS, her rice yields increased from less than 1ton to 2 tons per hectare.
Ms. Mak said combining her savings from the pig business and the income from selling one ton of rice, in late 2010, she could afford to buy a new motorbike, Honda Dream 125, worth $1200. After achieving her rice production plan, she resumed her pig raising business in 2011 and gained an extra income of $125 from the sale of 5 pigs several months later.
In August 2012, in order to speed up her farming work, she decided to buy a new walking power tiller, worth about $2,000, of which $1500 came from the sale of her two cows, $125 was contributed by her parents and some savings from the pig business and sales of rice.
“I believed that my power tiller will help me much in my farm work. It’s fast, and I can rent it to other villagers. I do hope we can gain more money from it,” Ms. Mak said. To stabilize her family economy, she had an idea to turn her chicken raising activity, which was previously just for her family consumption into a business. She planned to build a chicken house and buy some nets to protect her 6 hens and 30 chicks in late 2012.
“My success today came from the strong support of LWF Cambodia,” she said.
Ms. Mak has a son, aged 3. She planned to make more money to support her son’s study and build an extension of the house to better the living environment in the future.
For more information, please, contact Leak Ratna (Mr.), LWD Communication Coordinator | E-mail:ratna@lwd.org.kh | Phone: 012 819 121