Short biographies of 100 women farmers champions demonstrate the vital role and tremendous contribution women have made to the Cambodian agriculture sector. The individual stories also act as a source of information, communicating ideas, perspectives ad experiences about farming. This book is not only aiming at providing the 100 farmers’ biography, but also showing their tremendous roles and contribution to agriculture as a whole. In addition, each article in this book will be a voice to show their idea, perspective, and good experiences on agriculture.
Women farmers championsThe Women Farmer Champions Forum is a joint project between the Ministry of Agriculture Forest and Fisheries’ Gender and Child Protection Unit , non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and Oxfam’s partners. The network was established to create a platform where female farmers could share experiences, learn from each other and discuss future plans that include agriculture development as a way to improve rural living standards.
The Women Farmers Champion Forum is divided into two steps, the subnational level and the national level. In sub-national forum, the participations are 521 women farmers from all the provinces across the country, which were divided into 5 regions such as: Mekong River region, southern Tonle Sap region, northern Tonle Sap region, lowland region, and coastal region. They were facilitated to discuss about their opinions on agriculture, to share their successful experiences, and the challenges they are facing in agriculture such as water issues, capital, and market. All the women farmers from the 5 regions, then, elected their representatives to proceed to the national forum. 20 farmers from each region was elected and chosen to participate the national Women Farmers Champion forum.
The two phases forum are expected to illustrate indispensable roles of women in Cambodia agriculture. Women are the cells of society. Through out this networking, online women farmers will be able to sharing their best practices, experiences, knowledge, and skills in farming to one another. This would be a great asset to prosper agricultural sector in the country as well as promoting farmer livelihood.