A
panel of four speakers were asked to speak before fellow participants and share
their experiences and initiatives regarding the youth’s role in agricultural investments
and development.
The
first set of speakers, Mr. Duong Nhu
Mung, a member of the Cooperative for Agricultural Production and
Services from Vietnam, discussed the needs of the youth sector to be able
to engage and benefit from agricultural investments, and Mr. Him Noeun, Project Manager of Farmers
and Nature Net and Coordinator of CamboDHRRA.
The
second set of speakers, Mr. Soukaseum
Bodhisane, representing the private sector, is Director of the Lao
Farmer Product (LFP), and Dr. Htet
Kyu, representing CSOs, is the Land Policy Advisor of GRET Myanmar,
discussed the services their respective organizations provide to youth sector.
Mr. Mung, a
farmer and member of a cooperative, shared that they produce seedlings,
livestock, tea and oranges. He cited as
one of the main problems that prevents them from expanding their business or
operations is the inaccessibility of credit due to numerous requirements and
high interest rates. He also cited access
to market information (i.e. what products are in high demand in the market,
where can their products be sold, etc.) as a key need for farmers. Another need he cited was access to better
production technologies.
Mr. Nouen of Farmers
and Nature Net, shared that Cambodia has a large labor force but has been
decreasing mainly due to competition from other sectors (i.e. industrial
sector) and migration to other countries to find better opportunities.
Mr. Nouen
cited the following services they provide to their farmers:
a) Capacity building/training in “agricultural
techniques” for rice, vegetable and fruits production and processing;
b) Organizing members into production groups and then
linking them with private companies that serves as buyers of their products;
c) Assistance in the marketing and packaging of their
products; and
d) Assistance in accessing credit/capital.
Mr.
Nouen also enumerated the following needs of farmers, especially for the young
ones:
a) Greater access to affordable credit (i.e. low or zero
interest);
b) Incentives and support for young farmers who go into new
agribusiness ventures;
c) Marketing support; and
d) Development of vocational/”hard skills” (i.e.
“agricultural techniques,” food processing, accounting, etc.); and “soft
skills” (i.e. communication skills, people skills and community relations/organizing
skills).
Mr. Bodhisane, shared
that LFP is a small agribusiness enterprise that buys raw materials (mainly
organic rice and tea) from small local farmers that they have trained and formed
into organizations, and then “commercialize” these products (i.e. processing, packaging
and marketing). LFP provide officers of
the partner farmers’ organizations technical trainings in business management, accounting,
organic standards, the 10 principles of organic farming and processing, proper storage
and transport of their produce. In addition, LFP also provides the farmers
organizations zero interest and zero collateral loans to finance their infrastructure,
equipment, and funds for buying the produce of the farmers, and cover 50% of
the very high cost of organic certification.
Mr. Bodhisane also
cited the following difficulties they are facing:
a) Their product is not competitive because of the very
high cost of transportation. He cited
that the cost of transporting their products from Vientiane to Bangkok is
equivalent to the cost of transporting to Europe; and
b) Access to local credit remains very difficult. The reason they can provide zero interest and
zero collateral loans to their partner organizations and also why they mainly export
their products to Europe is because of their access to pre-financing from
European.
Dr. Kyu shared their experience in two regional projects he is
involved with. The first project is the Agro-Ecology
Learning Alliances in Southeast Asia to form a strong network among small
holder farmers in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam to support the
introduction of sustainable agriculture farming methods as an alternative to
the existing and dominant chemical-dependent system of farming. Dr. Kyu also shared their major finding that majority of the farmers that are practicing
sustainable agriculture or organic agriculture are young farmers. Thus, with the second phase of the said
project, they will focus on the young farmers.
The second project is the Mekong Regional Land
Governance Project which involves land tenure security for small holders
and ethnic/indigenous peoples. The
project involves working with and providing support to certain civil society
organizations and farmers organizations who are involved in the advocacy for
land governance, in particular the recognition of customary/traditional
tenurial practices in the upland areas.
It also involves the formulation of guidelines for responsible
investments in agriculture to avoid “land grabbing” or the displacement of
small holder farmers by big investors.
Dr. Kyu also expressed surprise with the existence of
the CFS-RAI or of guidelines focusing on the role of youth with regards to responsible
investments in agriculture.
