Siem Reap, KH – Peaksneng Thormacheat garden shop – 30 Nov 2021

Peaksneng Thormacheat garden shop operates a small organic garden farm. The shop team and a few farmers in the the Peaksneng area co-operate to produce fresh and high-quality organic vegetables for the local market, and to create awareness of how organic gardening is good for better health, the environment, and sustainable socio-economic development for the families in the area.

The team and local farmers have produced a few types of vegetable that have adapted to the area’s environment and are demanded by the local people. We have mastered the craft of vegetable gardening from ground preparation, planting, growing, harvesting, and overcoming the many challenges.

The local people buy and enjoy the healthy, tasty and safe vegetables everyday, which provides income for the shop team. However, we face many challenges that include weather, pandemic and market prices.

Rain is always a welcome treat for many plants, but too much rain can cause many problems in the garden. Plant diseases like bacteria and fungi flourish during times of prolonged leaf wetness. Overly wet soil can also limit the accessibility to work and enjoy daily walks in the garden, and it can take several days for the water to drain from heavy soil. In 2021 this all resulted in damaged or delayed crops, causing the garden to produce much lower yields at a time when demand was also low due to the small market size caused by COVID.

Even though the team and our farmers in the community could have supplied good quantities of vegetables during the COVID-19 pandemic, some markets closed their doors and vegetable prices fell. If we could have a predictable fair market price, for example a kilogram of cucumber maintains 1,500 to 2,000 riel / US$0.50 per Kg price, then we should be making an income, but in reality we receive a lower price offered by the middle men who buy from our farm.

This means that transportation of product from farm to market is very important because without proper transport we rely on middle men to come to the farm and we have to accept the prices they can offer for our produce. We believe that good transportation is the key to earning a fair income and becoming self-sufficient.

Rey the farm manager dreams of one day earning more income for the shop and himself, and creating more jobs.