Horticulture is an important part of the agricultural economy of Cambodia due to a rapidly increasing urban consumption demand for fruits and vegetables. More than 50% of all vegetables used to be imported from neighbouring countries due to price competitiveness, challenges in logistics, and the ability for year-round production. Imported vegetables have serious pesticide residue related food-safety issues. In phase one and 2 (2014 – 2020), CHAIN worked on promoting safe locally-produced vegetables and contributed to increasing local supply from 50% to 60% in the provinces. CHAIN began with a push approach to create a critical mass of producers and technologies reaching over 10,000 vegetable producing households. Later on, the programme focussed on a B2B approach improving the services for inputs, extension and the busines relationships, enabling 6000 farmers to graduate to semi-commercial or commercial producers. The last two years of the programme will consolidate these results, working in close collaboration with the national and provincial government on improving the enabling environment, including national policy and provincial strategies. Additionally, the programme will help develop greater climate resilience through promoting year-round production, smart water solutions, and water resource management in selected districts.
CHAIN applies various successful cornerstone interventions for market development:
CHAIN will document the lessons and experiences of the programme into various knowledge products for local actors to use, and for practitioners/donors on markets systems.