Technologies and Practices

To strengthen the commercialization of technologies and practices related to Regenerative Agriculture, multiple initiatives have been established. The initiatives include internal Swisscontact tools and approaches, and practices that aim to be institutionalized within the government systems.  

Background

The Royal Government of Cambodia’s (RGC) vision to modernize the country’s agriculture recognizes that sustainable intensification “primarily depends on the application of techniques, new technologies, R&D, mechanization, and increased capacity of irrigation to improve productivity.” Furthermore, research has shown that technologies play a key role in the promotion of the three principles of CA and regenerative agriculture. However, the commercialization of sustainable practices and technologies is still nascent in Cambodia. Swisscontact has been working on multiple initiatives to commercialize technologies and practices that support the transition towards regenerative agriculture. These initiatives include internal Swisscontact tools and approaches, and practices that aim to be institutionalized within the government systems.

Tools and Approaches

The tools and approaches are internal products of Swisscontact that aim to support private sector in commercializing CA machinery and technologies. These tools and approaches include:

Pathways to Commercialization
Pathways to Commercialization introduces four strategic pathways to commercialize regenerative agriculture technologies. These pathways include i) Passporting Technology, ii) Research to Commercialization, iii) Working with Local Workshops and iv) Working with Technology Importers.
4S Model
The 4S model is a tool developed by Swisscontact Cambodia that provides a step-by-step guideline on how to commercialize sustainable technologies and practices and promote the adoption of innovative and appropriate scale agriculture technologies through the application of 4 stages: i) Search, ii) Set-Up, iii) Service (workshop) and iv) Showcase.

Practices

The practices reflect the initiatives that are currently implemented through public-private coordination, and support from development partners, however, aim to be fully embedded within the government systems. These practices include:

SevaKasekor
SevaKasekor (Service to farmers), envisaged as a product of Department of Agriculture Engineering aims to set up a steering mechanism that focuses on introducing and promoting CA machinery and implements to smallholder farmers. This will be launched end of 2022. As of August 2022, discussions are ongoing with the Department of Agriculture Engineering.
KropuchKasekor
KropuchKasekor (Seed of farmers), envisaged as a product of the Department of Crop Seed aims to support smallholder farmers with the local production and supply system for cover crop to address the challenges around accessibility and price of cover crops. This will be launched end of 2022. As of August 2022, discussions are ongoing with the Department of Crop Seeds.
Cambodia Chapter of the Sustainable Rice Platform (SRP)
ustainable Rice Platform (SRP) Cambodia National Chapter aims to develop and promote outreach models that enable largescale adoption of climate-smart best practices with broad participation and leadership from all actors throughout the value chain, government agencies and non-profit organizations. It is envisaged that the Cambodia Chapter will be established in November 2022, General Directorate of Agriculture (GDA), Cambodian Rice Federation (CRF), Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), CIRAD and Swisscontact in coordination with the SRP Global have been actively working to establish the Cambodia Chapter.