Bottom-up solutions to promote conservation agriculture in Cambodia

Abstract

This policy brief presents the results of a multistakeholder policy dialogue process led by the Cambodia Conservation Agriculture and Sustainable Intensification Consortium (CASIC) with technical support from FAO's Office of Innovation (OIN) in the framework of the EU-funded TAP-AIS project. A series of policy dialogue events, organized from April through September 2022, brought together local and national stakeholders, including farmers and their organizations, private sector businesses, government officials, NGOs, development partners and more, to discuss key issues and potential solutions to promote the expansion of conservation agriculture in Cambodia. Conservation agriculture is an agroecological approach to farming that reduces land degradation and improves yields over time and thus has the potential to decrease poverty and improve long-term environmental and social sustainability of farming systems. This brief provides background information on the development and local experiences with conservation agriculture in Cambodia, outlines major obstacles to the expansion of conservation agriculture and concludes with a list of actionable, bottom-up recommendations to promote conservation agriculture in Cambodia.