In 2002, The St. Paul Foundation awarded Partners for Development (PfD) a grant of $ 79,230 to improve agricultural extension efforts in northeastern Cambodia for the 12-month period, 01 October 2002 – 30 September 2003. The project’s goal was to improve food security through the continued technical, administrative, and financial support to the provincial Agricultural Extension (OAE) and Animal Health and Production (OAHP) Offices in Kratie and Stung Treng Provinces in Cambodia’s underserved northeast.

One of the keys to food security in Cambodia is consistent, sustainable harvests of the staple crop: rice. PfD collaborated with the Office of Agricultural Extension in both Kratie and Stung Treng to teach improved rice growing methods to local farmers, introducing new, high-yield varieties of rice, as well as fertilizers and pesticides. Over the course of the project year, PfD and its partners trained over 1,000 farmers in better ways to grow rice.

In cooperation with the Office of Animal Health and Production, PfD trained 110 community members in the techniques of veterinary medicine for agriculture to provide health services to the livestock of Kratie and Stung Treng. By the end of the project, nearly 100% of Kratie had coverage for farmers requiring veterinary services for their animals.

In addition to these two key interventions, PfD also:

• Scaled-up a local duck-raising program to include 220 families;
• Provided 25,000 doses of vaccine for cattle and buffalo;
• Reached 780 farmers through “farmer field days” extension services;
• Facilitated the sale of over 10 tonnes of modern varieties of rice seed to farmers.