Note: The Don Bosco Foundation, Cambodia, has grown extensively, almost under our noses so to speak! There are now 8 establishments actively at work in a vast array of educational activities. One of these is the Don Bosco Agro-vocational School at Battambang, the subject of the following article. The Salesian presence in Cambodia comes under the THA province. The Salesian Sisters are also in the country, and run the Mother Mazzarello House at Battambang amongst other works, a literacy and sewing skills centre for young women.
BATTAMBANG: 11 December 2011 -- Cambodian rice farmers are back on track to get flatter rice fields that make water management easier and can boost production thanks to a renewed effort to reintroduce laser levelling equipment into the country.
The ADB-IRRI (International Rice Research Institute) Postharvest Project from the Philippines teamed up with the Don Bosco School in Salabalath, Battambang, Cambodia, and held a seminar and demonstration of laser levelling technology last month.
More than 100 people attended, made up of farmers, students, millers, extension workers, representatives from the private sector, and staff from the Department of Agricultural Machinery (DAM) and Department of Agricultural Extension, Cambodia.
IRRI introduced laser levelling in Cambodia in 1997, when more than 200 hectares of rice fields were levelled. Farmers did not adopt the technology then, however, due to the unavailability of laser levelling equipment..
Awareness of the importance of well-levelled fields as a condition for high yields and good quality paddy has increased in the country and several private sector partners have approached members of the Postharvest Project for levelling assistance. This prompted the Postharvest Project to revisit laser levelling in Cambodia. IRRI provided one set of laser levelling equipment for demonstrations, and then Pen Nov from DAM, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, constructed a drag bucket based on the IRRI design.
Today yields have increased, and a Cambodian government policy aims to export 1 million tons of good quality milled rice by 2015.
Other topics do with rice-growing and especially post-harvest management were tackled during the Seminar. Don Bosco Mission, Bonn, (Germany), consultant Walter Zwick shared the results of their farm trials on nutrient and pest management.
IRRI communications specialist Trina Mendoza conducted interviews and shot footage in Battambang (and in Bac Lieu and An Giang, Vietnam), as part of a promotional video on laser levelling which will be released early next year.
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