Cambodia: Week 12

It was a busy week last week. It seems like I have been saying that more often lately.

[caption id="attachment_1008" align="alignnone" width="576"] This was a funny picture that Tasha shared from her field visit last week.[/caption]

I spent Monday and Tuesday in the field testing the solar pump on a 650 square meter field.

[caption id="attachment_1009" align="alignnone" width="3024"] On the way to Takeo province, we picked up some frog-kebabs. It was actually pretty yummy![/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1010" align="alignnone" width="4032"] I've wanted to get a photo of the meat stalls for a while. This is how meat is sold in Cambodian communities. While it make me a little squeamish, I have definitely eaten meat from one of these stalls at a local restaurant before.[/caption]

We left in the early afternoon on Monday and spent the rest of the day visiting the Lors Thmey collection points and fixing the solar pump.

[caption id="attachment_1012" align="alignnone" width="4032"] Cucumbers waiting to be collected at a Lors Thmey collection point.[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1014" align="alignnone" width="4032"] The cucumbers are sorted by the farmers in grade one and two. Grade one is on the wooden platform and grade two are on the ground.[/caption]

Grade one cucumbers fetch around 1200 riel (US$ 0.30) per kg and grade two fetches around 600 riel (US$ 0.15) per kg.

[caption id="attachment_1015" align="alignnone" width="3024"] Each farmer gets an invoice for the number of kilograms they sell to Lors Thmey. The farmer then receives the funds from the sale into their bank accounts.[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1017" align="alignnone" width="3024"] In addition to buying and aggregating produce from farmers, Lors Themy also sells agricultural inputs. This is a can of cucumber seads that a farmer bought at the colletion point for the next harvest.[/caption]

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PL2ShZtRFtY&w=560&h=315]

On Tuesday morning we visited a few farms to see which would be suitable for the trial.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJeVVv3lfYQ&w=560&h=315]

We went back to a village that had some mild flooding in the video above where the day before it was totally dry.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIqQy1eKock&w=560&h=315]

The field that we were going to test the pump on was flooded, so we went to another farm.

[caption id="attachment_1018" align="alignnone" width="4032"] Cucumber plants and the solar pump.[/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_1019" align="alignnone" width="3024"] Looking down the row of cucumbers. They were pretty tasty :)[/caption]

 

At first we revved up the diesel pump.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYg4rFXLCTg&w=560&h=315]

Doesn't the solar pump sound better?

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88WNuuf1ySY&w=560&h=315]

After conducting the trial, the plan was to head back into Phnom Penh Tuesday night and then leave again for Prey Veng and Kandal provinces to fully install the solar pumps for the 2-month trial. However, an oversight with my visa prompted me to spend Wednesday and part of Thursday sorting things out.

I didn’t realize that the last 3 pages in your passport was meant for amendments and endorsements and cannot be used for visas. These were the only three untouched pages in my passport, so there was no place to put my visa extension. After much wringing of hands and crawling through the State Department website, I accepted that I needed to apply for a new passport. Since all new passports are printed in the US and then shipped abroad, it would take 10 days to process and for each day I was in Cambodia without a visa, it would cost me $10. Roughly, it would work out to be around $200 before I could get my new passport and visa. This was something that I really didn’t want to happen. Luckily, the Embassy was able to issue me an emergency visa to pick up the next day and I was able to get that to the travel agency handling the visa on Thursday, the day my existing visa expired.

After getting that squared away, Sovanntha, the regional agronomist buddy, and I headed to Prey Veng to install the solar pump on Thursday around noon. Below is a short clip of us crossing a bridge over the Mekong river.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmuNuypktLQ&w=560&h=315]

[caption id="attachment_1020" align="alignnone" width="4032"] The roads can get pretty nasty.[/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_1021" align="alignnone" width="4032"] Rice fields on the way to Prey Veng province.[/caption]

 

We arrived at the farm to install the pump and then test it the following day.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvfdErra20U&w=560&h=315]

Are you sick of videos of the sunflower pump yet??

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWYJmKMzj00&w=560&h=315]

There was some flooding on the way back.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OzaioKc0EA&w=560&h=315]

We were afraid that the road would be close and we would have to take a several hour detour. Back at the hostel, I took a video of the lake and some stormy weather.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwgJlGbpKxY&w=560&h=315]

On the road back out to the farm the next day, I saw a little parade.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7nkXzscGDo&w=560&h=315]

The installation of the pump went fairly well, though we are using a well as a water source and the farmer estimated that the water table is about 6 meters below the surface. This was surprising to me because I remember hearing that the farmer said the water table was “very near” the ground surface. The greater depth provided a bit difficult for the pump to manage and produce a continuous flow when it is cloudy. We will see how the system performs when I check up on it.

Lors Thmey was also conducting a training that day, so I got to see that as well.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Tq5ioJSn6U&w=560&h=315]

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bN2Hpoxp_kU&w=560&h=315]

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34SXyKPiun8&w=560&h=315]

Since we didn’t have time to go to Kandal to install the pump, we headed out on Sunday for the day. On the way out of Phnom Penh, we drove past a rally of the main opposition party, the Cambodian National Rescue Party.

[caption id="attachment_1023" align="alignnone" width="4032"] The rally[/caption]

 

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ks1UCgHJ1MU&w=560&h=315]

Sunday proved to be pretty disappointing since we never found a farm to install the pump, even though the branch manager was supposed to have round three possible locations. All were too far from the farmer’s house and so posed the risk of the solar pump being stolen. Sovanntha was also showing an Austrian fertilizer company a few of the trial farms that they had conducted to test this fertilizer. We spent more of the day dealing with the Austrians than with the solar pump, which was a bit annoying, but it just is what it is.

All in all it was a busy and productive week!