Project News

Photo 1: Ms. Imai visiting one pesticide shop with a staff of Kandal Provincial Department of Agriculture.

Project of Capacity Building of Quality Standard Control of Agricultural Materials (Chemical Fertilizers and Pesticides) (QCAM Project) has started handing out "Guide Book for Pest Management (Part1)" to all licensed retailers in the project pilot areas, Kien Svay and Koh Thom Districts of Kandal Province since August 30th, 2011. With staff of the Provincial Agricultural Legislation Office of Kandal Provincial Department of Agriculture, two Japanese experts and an intern from Waseda University, Ms. Kaori Imai, who was working for the QCAM Project from August 24th to September 2nd, visited retailers, and presented the Guide Book, explaining its contents and usage.

It was observed that a lot of licensed retailers had their interests in the Guide Book for Pest Management, and one retailer said that since it is very useful for him to properly sell pesticides to farmers, he would like to request the QCAM Project to make another Guide Book for other major crops. Furthermore, it was also found out that the banned pesticides have disappeared from most of the licensed pesticide shops, thanks to the Nation-wide Campaign on Eradicating the Banned Pesticides in April, 2011 and other activities. However, on the other hand, the Project Team realized that it was difficult for some illiterate farmers to understand the contents of the Guide Book. Therefore, it is necessary to have photos of pesticide products in the Guide Book for Pest Management (Part 2) of which the QCAM Project will solicit the cooperation to the licensed distributors for the development so that all end-users can easily understand the contents and identify proper pesticide products.

Ms. Imai, who visited Cambodia and involved in the QCAM project for the first time, said, "Doing the awareness raising activities in the fields required a lot of physical strength. I felt the success of the QCAM Project by seeing a large number of counterparts and retailers who were cooperative and listened to our explanation with interest."

From now on, the QCAM Project will request and logistically support local licensed distributors and agents of pesticide products to compile a document as Guide Book Part 2, which enables the retailers and farmers to identify a product to buy and the proper way to use by referring to the active ingredients identified in the Guide Book Part 1. We hope that the Guide Book Part 2 will be completed soonest with their positive support, and as many farmers as possible will be able to enhance their agricultural productivity by using our Guide Book for Pest Management. At the same time, we hope that those local licensed distributors and agents of pesticides can contribute more to sustainable development and environment of Cambodia by playing more active roles in eradicating the banned and illegal pesticides, hand in hand with central and local authorities and private sectors.

Thus, the QCAM Project has been operated under "Triangle Cooperation" scheme by dispatching experts who were once involved in JICA's projects as counterpart staff. Although the number of the Triangle Cooperation projects is still small, the importance of the Triangle Cooperation will surely rise, considering its efficiency in Overseas Development Assistance (ODA). Since the JICA has been one of the major donors to Asian countries and has built up good mutual understanding and relationships with them, there are strong needs for the Triangle Cooperation in the world that only the JICA can implement. As one of the Japanese experts who is experiencing collaboration with Cambodian and Filipino people through the QCAM Project, I sincerely hope that the friendship and cooperation between those two countries and Japan will be further strengthened and that the JICA will contribute to establish a globally contributing development cooperation system through successful implementation of the Triangle Cooperation projects.

Photo 2&3: Staff of Kandal Provincial Department of Agriculture explaining about the Guide Book for Pest Management to licensed retailers.

Written by Toshinori Hamaguchi, JICA Expert