1.2 Contact details of resource persons and institutions involved in the assessment and documentation of the Technology

Name of project which facilitated the documentation/ evaluation of the Technology (if relevant)

Scaling-up SLM practices by smallholder farmers (IFAD)

Name of the institution(s) which facilitated the documentation/ evaluation of the Technology (if relevant)

Royal University of Agriculture (RUA) - Cambodia

1.3 Conditions regarding the use of data documented through WOCAT

When were the data compiled (in the field)?

09/04/2017

The compiler and key resource person(s) accept the conditions regarding the use of data documented through WOCAT:

Yes

1.4 Declaration on sustainability of the described Technology

Is the Technology described here problematic with regard to land degradation, so that it cannot be declared a sustainable land management technology?

No

2.1 Short description of the Technology

Definition of the Technology:

Intercropping of eggplants between mango trees and the application of straw mulching on the plants’ roots and the land so as to retain soil moisture by reducing heat-induced evaporation. When the rice straw rots, it provides organic matter and makes soil less compact. The farmer can benefit from the short-term crop for a period of three years before the mango trees fully produce fruits.

2.2 Detailed description of the Technology

Description:

Intercropping of a short term crop between the fruit trees which are the long term crop (mango trees which will provide fruit in their third year depending on the species variety and maintenance) is a best agroforestry practice which provides both economic and environmental benefits. When the mango trees are still young and have not yet produced fruit, there is also free space between the trees. In order to gain additional benefits and to avoid weeds growing that could be harmful to the mango trees, the growing of eggplants with rice straw mulching could provide co-benefits in the form of maintaining, weed control, watering, and the application of fertilizer for the mango trees. The eggplants could produce fruit within three months after having been planted and they can be harvested for several months in a year. In this way farmers can generate income for their daily expenditure before the mango trees produce fruit. By using this technology, farmers are able to improve their livelihoods compared with before.

In this SLM technology, the mango trees, eggplants and mulched rice straw interact beneficially. In the dry season, the trees provide some shade for the eggplants and the rice straw on the eggplants' roots and land helps retain soil moisture reducing evaporation, and this prevents the crops from withering during hot days. In addition, when the farmer waters the eggplant,it also provides water to the trees. In rainy season, the rice straw and the eggplants act as an important vegetation cover for the prevention of soil erosion through surface run-off during heavy rainfall. Besides the rice straw and its decayed materials are a crucial food source for micro-organisms in the soil that improve the cycling of nutrients and the soil less compact, enabling a better growth of the crops.

In this technology, the mango trees are planted in row with an interval of six metres and the eggplants are transplanted among the rows of trees ensuring that there is a distance of one metre between each plant within a row, and a distance of 1.5 metres between one row and another. The pit for each mango tree is 70x70x70cm and a mixture of burned rice husk, cow manure and woody herb is added as fertilizer in the bottom of the pit. When planting, the compost or slurry from the of the bio-digester is also mixed in with the soil. Eggplant seedlings are transplanted in 10-cm holes using 20-30 day-old seedlings. Then the farmer applied rice straw mulching on the roots of eggplant and mango trees' roots and applied on the free space of the land. The transplanted eggplants are watered on a daily basis, while the watering of the mango trees is carried out twice per week.
Weeding is done regularly so that the weeds do not absorb too many nutrients from the soil even there is no much weed. The farmer applies compost twice a year, usually once at the beginning of the rainy season in May, and also in October.

When the eggplants start to produce fruit, it takes around one hour for the farmer to harvest the crop on a daily basis. Weeding is sometimes carried out during the harvest. It is suggested that one should consider a rotation of short-term crops in order to maximize the benefits of this SLM technology, because growing one type of crop could absorb exact the same nutrients from the soil so the second crop growing are not very good and could cause disease outbreak on the crop. The rotation of crops in this case could include eggplants, mung beans, sweet corn or cucumbers. However it should examining the market demands as well.

2.3 Photos of the Technology

2.5 Country/ region/ locations where the Technology has been applied and which are covered by this assessment

2.6 Date of implementation

Indicate year of implementation:

2012

2.7 Introduction of the Technology

Specify how the Technology was introduced:

• through projects/ external interventions

Comments (type of project, etc.):

The farmer used to join a field visit to Battambang province supported by SNV in CHAIN project coordinated by Chetr Borei District Office of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.

3.1 Main purpose(s) of the Technology

• improve production
• reduce, prevent, restore land degradation
• create beneficial economic impact

• Obtaining economic benefits from the short-term crops while the mango is not ready to produce fruits, and the rice straw helps reduce evaporation maintaining soil moisture.

3.2 Current land use type(s) where the Technology is applied

If land use has changed due to the implementation of the Technology, indicate land use before implementation of the Technology:

Degraded forest

3.3 Further information about land use

Water supply for the land on which the Technology is applied:

• mixed rainfed-irrigated

Comments:

Pond and wells, but the wells went dry in 2016.

Number of growing seasons per year:

• 1

Specify:

Mango is a long-term crop, eggplant (4 months), sweet corn (2 months), mung bean (2 months)

Livestock density (if relevant):

19 cows and the manure is used in biodigester production​​ and slurry from biodigester is used for cultivation crops. Those number of cows are enought for biodigester production everyday.

3.4 SLM group to which the Technology belongs

• agroforestry
• improved ground/ vegetation cover
• integrated soil fertility management

3.5 Spread of the Technology

Specify the spread of the Technology:

• evenly spread over an area

If the Technology is evenly spread over an area, indicate approximate area covered:

• < 0.1 km2 (10 ha)

Comments:

Land area for applying the technology is 18m x 30 m = 540 square meter.

3.6 SLM measures comprising the Technology

3.7 Main types of land degradation addressed by the Technology

3.8 Prevention, reduction, or restoration of land degradation

Specify the goal of the Technology with regard to land degradation:

• reduce land degradation
• restore/ rehabilitate severely degraded land

Comments:

In this area, the soil has low fertility. The use of compost from the biodigester and rotating the short-term crops helps improve soil quality.

4.1 Technical drawing of the Technology

4.2 Technical specifications/ explanations of technical drawing

The technology contains the 25 total planted mango trees and 350 eggplants.​ The area of applying this technology is 540square meters( width 18 meters and length 30 meters).

4.3 General information regarding the calculation of inputs and costs

Specify how costs and inputs were calculated:

• per Technology area

other/ national currency (specify):

Khmer Riel

Indicate exchange rate from USD to local currency (if relevant): 1 USD =:

4000.0

4.4 Establishment activities

	Activity	Type of measure	Timing
1.	Ploughing the soil to sun dry	Agronomic	May
2.	Digging the pits for mango trees	Structural	May
3.	Applying the mixture of cow manure, burned rice hush and woody herb in the pits	Agronomic	May
4.	Planting the mango trees	Agronomic	May
5.	Applying slurry from biodigester on the plant roots.	Agronomic	June
6.	Prepare the soil mixing with cow manure, apply lime to grow the crops.	Agronomic	June
7.	Digging holes and transplant eggplant	Agronomic	June
8.	Spreading the rice straw	Agronomic	June

4.5 Costs and inputs needed for establishment

	Specify input	Unit	Quantity	Costs per Unit	Total costs per input	% of costs borne by land users
Labour	Ploughing the soil to sun dry	Peson-day	0.35	30000.0	10500.0	100.0
Labour	Digging the pits for mango trees	Peson-day	5.8	30000.0	174000.0	100.0
Labour	Applying fertilizers​ and lime	Peson-day	0.35	30000.0	10500.0	100.0
Plant material	Mango trees	Tree	25.0	8000.0	200000.0	100.0
Plant material	Eggplant seeds	Bag	1.0	8000.0	8000.0	100.0
Fertilizers and biocides	lime	kg	25.0	2000.0	50000.0	100.0
Fertilizers and biocides	Compost from biodigester	Tank	50.0	2000.0	100000.0	100.0
Construction material	Hoe	Piece	2.0	20000.0	40000.0	100.0
Construction material	Handle basket	Paire	1.0	7000.0	7000.0	100.0
Construction material	Soil digger	Piece	1.0	25000.0	25000.0	100.0
Total costs for establishment of the Technology					625000.0

Comments:

The farmer pays for the expense to create the technology using his own saving, the compost is own produced from the biodigester, which was supported by a project.

4.6 Maintenance/ recurrent activities

	Activity	Type of measure	Timing/ frequency
1.	Check the crops regularly to make sure the crops not fall down or demage by insects.	Management	Once every 5 days
2.	Soil preparation after each short-term crop's harvest	Agronomic	After harvest
3.	Making small pit around the mango tree	Structural	When mango tree getting bigger
4.	Apply compost and fertilzer KCL(15-15-15)	Agronomic	May and October
5.	Watering the crops	Agronomic	Daily especially in dry season
6.	Purchase water pumping machine	Other measures	After growing mango trees

Comments:

The pumping machine costs 1,600,000 Riel

4.7 Costs and inputs needed for maintenance/ recurrent activities (per year)

If possible, break down the costs of maintenance according to the following table, specifying inputs and costs per input. If you are unable to break down the costs, give an estimation of the total costs of maintaining the Technology:

2800000.0

Comments:

The pumping machine costs 1,600,000 Riel.

4.8 Most important factors affecting the costs

Describe the most determinate factors affecting the costs:

The cost of water pumping machine is high, cost of mango trees and eggplant seeds, cost of hiring labor to plough the soil. But she doesn't expend on buying fertilizer because she use her own cow manure.

5.1 Climate

5.2 Topography

Indicate if the Technology is specifically applied in:

• not relevant

5.3 Soils

If available, attach full soil description or specify the available information, e.g. soil type, soil PH/ acidity, Cation Exchange Capacity, nitrogen, salinity etc.

In the past, this area was degraded forest. Soil quality is low and contains some stone. After using compost and applying the technology the soil quality has improved.

5.4 Water availability and quality

Is water salinity a problem?

No

Is flooding of the area occurring?

No

Comments and further specifications on water quality and quantity:

Groundwater in this area contains some minerals, so the farmer store it in a pond before irrigating the crops. Rainwater and tap water from other areas is the source of drinking water.

5.5 Biodiversity

5.6 Characteristics of land users applying the Technology

Indicate other relevant characteristics of the land users:

He is 45 years old.

5.7 Average area of land owned or leased by land users applying the Technology

5.8 Land ownership, land use rights, and water use rights

Land ownership:

• individual, titled

Land use rights:

• individual

Water use rights:

• individual

5.9 Access to services and infrastructure

6.1 On-site impacts the Technology has shown

Socio-economic impacts

Production

Water availability and quality

Income and costs

Socio-cultural impacts

Ecological impacts

Water cycle/ runoff

Soil

Biodiversity: vegetation, animals

Climate and disaster risk reduction

6.3 Exposure and sensitivity of the Technology to gradual climate change and climate-related extremes/ disasters (as perceived by land users)

Gradual climate change

Gradual climate change

	Season	Type of climatic change/ extreme	How does the Technology cope with it?
annual temperature		increase	well
seasonal temperature	dry season	increase	well
seasonal rainfall	wet/ rainy season	decrease	well
other gradual climate change	Variation in rainfall pattern	increase	moderately

Climate-related extremes (disasters)

Meteorological disasters

	How does the Technology cope with it?
local rainstorm	moderately

Climatological disasters

	How does the Technology cope with it?
heatwave	well
drought	well

Biological disasters

	How does the Technology cope with it?
epidemic diseases	well
insect/ worm infestation	moderately

6.4 Cost-benefit analysis

How do the benefits compare with the establishment costs (from land users’ perspective)?

How do the benefits compare with the maintenance/ recurrent costs (from land users' perspective)?

Comments:

While the mango has not produce fruits, harvest is done with the short-term crops.

6.5 Adoption of the Technology

• 1-10%

Of all those who have adopted the Technology, how many have did so spontaneously, i.e. without receiving any material incentives/ payments?

• 0-10%

Comments:

There are 6 households who want to adopt the practice to generate more income. Even if they cannot follow all activities they still select some activities from this technology to implement.

6.6 Adaptation

Has the Technology been modified recently to adapt to changing conditions?

Yes

If yes, indicate to which changing conditions it was adapted:

• climatic change/ extremes

Specify adaptation of the Technology (design, material/ species, etc.):

Rice straw mulching reduces evaporation.

6.7 Strengths/ advantages/ opportunities of the Technology

Strengths/ advantages/ opportunities in the land user’s view
Possibility to grow other crops with the mango trees.
When watering the eggplants, it also benefits the mango trees.

Strengths/ advantages/ opportunities in the compiler’s or other key resource person’s view
The land is used effectively as it will take at least three years before the mango trees start to provide a harvest.
Rice straw helps to retain soil moisture, reduces evaporation and improves nutrient cycling.
Generation of a substantial income for the family.
The soil is not degraded by growing short term crops, crop rotation and using cow manure, composting and slurry from biodigester.

6.8 Weaknesses/ disadvantages/ risks of the Technology and ways of overcoming them

Weaknesses/ disadvantages/ risks in the land user’s view	How can they be overcome?
Some carterpillars could damage the eggplants.	Manually pick off the insects' eggs and do not apply pesticide which could cause health risks.
Insecure market demand; while eggplants are in peak production.	Try to access various markets and mobile sale of the product at other people's households.

Weaknesses/ disadvantages/ risks in the compiler’s or other key resource person’s view	How can they be overcome?
When the mango trees are quite mature could not grow eggplant between trees.	Select short-term crops that only need a smaller amount of light such as turmeric galanga.
Require compost and a biodigester	Promote animal husbandry including cows, pigs and poultry.

7.1 Methods/ sources of information