Empowering Farming Community Leaders Through Practical Learning
How a Hands-On Adoption Approach Strengthens Farmers and Their Cooperatives.
Dive into the stories of three ventures we visited in Preah Vihear and Oddar Meanchey, where capacity building turns into real change on the ground.
- Huyly Hour
Far north in Preah Vihear province, just about 30 kilometers from the Thai border, is home to the Tekkrohorm Kelom Or Chivapheab Agricultural Cooperative (TKCAC). Look in any direction, and you’ll mostly see rice fields and palm trees. When our team member Panha and agri-business mentor Alyny were there a few weeks ago, the rice fields in Tekkrohorm is more like bright green and gold, because they’re ripening as it’s the end of the rainy season and approaching harvesting season.
Panha and Alyny recently spent a few days with Tekkrohorm Kelom Or Chivapheab Agricultural Cooperative (TKCAC) as part of our hands-on support to the cooperative through our Khmer Agriculture for the Future Incubator.
One of our most important goals was to help the cooperative calculate its cost of goods sold (COGS) — essentially, the total cost to produce one kilogram of rice. Before this exercise, most of the cooperative members had never clearly known how much they needed to spend to produce their rice, or how to determine the right selling price to make a profit. This is critical for the AC because with this price strategy, they can negotiate more effectively with their contract-farming buyers, and when buyers ask what price they want to sell their rice at, they previously did not know how to respond before adopting this approach.
Rather than simply teaching or presenting, we took a facilitation approach to make sure that the cooperative members themselves were in the driver’s seat.
“I think the cooperative members showed up in the morning expecting to sit back and be lectured at,” shares Panha, smiling. After all, that’s what they had mostly experienced in the past. But Panha and our agri-business mentor Alyny had a different plan. Under the shaded awning by the cooperative’s office, Panha laid out a big flipchart paper and uncapped a marker. “Bong Chanra, could you be our scribe this morning?” he asked one of the cooperative members.
From there, they got down to work. With Panha and Alyny asking strategic questions and sharing examples, the group discussed, debated, wrote numbers on the flipcharts, and calculated the figures. No one sat back or yawned; everyone participated with energy and curiosity. By the end, the members had not only learned how to calculate COGS, but they also gained confidence in their ability to manage their business with data-informed decisions.
The cooperative’s leaders shared that this was the first time they felt someone had come to their community not just to train them, but to help them solve a real business problem together. “I’ll never forget what one of the members shared with me as we were leaving,” reflects Panha. “The member said, ‘Before, when the trainers left, the knowledge left too. This time, we realized we can hold on to this knowledge ourselves, and I have such a different mindset about how to improve the business now.’” The experience was confidence-boosting for Panha, too. “For me and Alyny, we’re just trying to provide concrete value to the AC. I didn’t realize how transformative our approach could be.”
Now, Tekkrohorm Kelom Or Chivapheab Agricultural Cooperative (TKCAC) members can confidently explain their cost structure, discuss profit margins, and be able to share this knowledge with other members to encourage wider participation in the rice business. And more importantly, they built ownership and confidence in their journey toward becoming a more sustainable, self-reliant agricultural cooperative.
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