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The contribution of multi-purpose farming to the food security of small-scale farmers: An agro-economic analysis in the lowland Mekong alluvial plain
Tong, Chantheang; Diepart, Jean-Christophe
2015In Diepart, Jean-Christophe (Ed.) Learning for resilience: Insights from Cambodia’s rural communities
Peer reviewed
 

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Keywords :
multi-purpose farming; agriculture; food security; agro-ecology
Abstract :
[en] Agricultural development models are the focus of intense debate in the Cambodian policy-making arenas. A model inspired by the ‘Green Revolution’, which promotes industrialization of rice cropping systems and is mainly dependent on external inputs, is usually contrasted with multi-purpose farming (MPF) in which rice cropping is integrated with other production to maximize their interactions and complementarities. The purpose of this research is to present some economic arguments based on the experience in promoting MPF of CEDAC (Centre d’Etude et de Dévelopement Agricole Cambodgien, also known as the Cambodian Center for Study and Development in Agriculture). We develop a comparative analysis between conventional rice cropping systems and MPF to analyze the production economics and the overall patterns of household labor diversification. Focusing primarily on rainy-season rice production, we attribute significant advantage to MPF against non-MPF practices. These differences are perceptible in higher rice yield, lower cash-paid costs, and higher value-added per hectare. However, these differences become less significant when multi-purpose farming is only partially implemented, i.e. if some elements of the system are missing. MPF provides employment opportunities that represent a reliable alternative to job migration. Under MPF, family labor is used more on-farm than is the case with non- MPF farms and is more homogenously distributed throughout the year. However, we identify barriers that curb the scaling-up of this innovation, which include limited access to information, anticipated lack of labor, lack of capacity or technical skills, lack of up-front capital to make the initial investment in land conversion to MPF, and land plot sizes that are too small to be converted to this model. We also discuss the opportunities to create markets for products of differentiated quality produced under multi-purpose farming.
Disciplines :
Agriculture & agronomy
Author, co-author :
Tong, Chantheang
Diepart, Jean-Christophe  ;  Université de Liège - ULiège > Sciences agronomiques > Economie et développement rural
Language :
English
Title :
The contribution of multi-purpose farming to the food security of small-scale farmers: An agro-economic analysis in the lowland Mekong alluvial plain
Publication date :
2015
Main work title :
Learning for resilience: Insights from Cambodia’s rural communities
Editor :
Diepart, Jean-Christophe  ;  Université de Liège - ULiège > Département GxABT > Modélisation et développement
Publisher :
The Learning Institute, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
ISBN/EAN :
9789996310171
Pages :
79-100
Peer reviewed :
Peer reviewed
Funders :
CRDI - Centre de Recherches pour le Développement International [CA]
Available on ORBi :
since 12 March 2015

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