Aoral, Kampong Speu (March 28, 2014) – Life With Dignity (LWD) today distributed 16 walking power tillers worth $44,000 to 400 poor families living in the social land concession area in Reaksmei Sameakki commune of Aoral district in Kampong Speu province.
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The 16 hand tractors were donated by Australian Aid and Australian Lutheran World Service (ALWS) through LWD, aiming to increase farming activities of poor farmers living in Prey Thom, a new village established under the government’s Social Land Concession Project, funded by Japan Social Development Fund/World Bank.
Lok Chumteav Tim Savath, Deputy Governor for Kampong Speu, who presided over the distribution ceremony, expressed her deep thanks to ALWS and the Australian government as well as the Australian people for their generous support to the poor families in rural Cambodia.
She advised the community to make every effort to increase their farming activities and take good care of the hand tractors.
Addressing to the target families at the ceremony, Ms. Anne Fitzpatrick, Program Officer for ALWS, highlighted great efforts made by ALWS and its back donors in mobilizing resources to support the poor community in rural Cambodia, especially in Prey Thom village.
She suggested that farmers in Prey Thom have good agricultural planning and work hard to increase agricultural production towards improving their livelihoods. ALWS and its back donors, as well as the Australian government would love to see growth in the community where they supported, she said.
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Mr. Nuon Borin, LWD Area Program Manager, deeply thanked the Australian Government and ALWS for their generous support to help the poor community in the area to rebuild their new lives.
Mr. Borin said that though many achievements have been made in the area under the support from key donors, government and other concerned stakeholders, the community still faced major challenges. Those included (i) food insecurity; (ii) lack of public health service, clean water and sanitation, farming tools, and irrigation system; (iii) migration; (iv) most villagers still lack resources to build proper houses to live; (v) some children failed to attend school as they had to migrate with their parents to find jobs outside the village; and (vi) lack of school building.
To address these challenges, LWD plans for more infrastructure development in the area. The plan included (i) construction of 9km of soil road in the village, 15 connections of culverts, two more meeting halls, 25 deep wells for 25 more families, two dams to catch water for agricultural activities, two more community ponds and two community pre-school buildings; and complete the preparation of the rest of the bushy-covered agricultural land for all the families.
Mr. Borin said to ensure the sustainability in use of the walking tractors, LWD facilitated the preparation of a guideline, requiring all members of the groups to contribute some amount of money annually for maintenance. The guideline also included the rights to withdrawal if poor management and illegal use of the tractors, such as deforestration, were found, he said.
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Mr. Muong Thy, District Deputy Governor of Aoral, said the donation was a momentous contribution to improving the livelihoods of the 400 families living in the village. “This meets the essential needs of the farmers here,” he said.
As the number of tractors is limited, a group of 25 families was formed to own a tractor and a set of accessories which included a single-furrow plough, 2-dics plough, a rake and 2 anti-skid wheels. A committee of 3 members (Chairperson, deputy chairperson and treasurer) was also created. The committee is responsible for the management and maintenance of the tractor and ensures that each member of the group fairly benefits from the tractor. Each family also agreed to contribute 30,000 riels ($7.5) annual for maintenance.
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Mr. Ou Chhorn, 53, Chief of the Committee of Group 1, said a lottery practice would be applied in the group to avoid criticism of partiality. Any of the group who got lottery No. 1, is eligible to use the tractor first.
“I am very excited to get this hand tractor. I hope that it will help ease difficulties of the farmers in this village,” he said.
Mr. Chhorn said with those tractors, farmers of Prey Thom would be able to save some money from not renting tractors from other people. Last year, he spent 300,000 riels ($75) renting a hand tractor to plough his land, he said.