Food secur­ity means sup­port­ing live­stock, aquacul­ture and veget­able pro­duc­tion, and increas­ing the yield of rice crops in order to ensure com­munit­ies have access to a protein-rich and var­ied diet, and to diver­sify food sources to equip vil­la­gers to adapt to a chan­ging climate.

Live­li­hoods in Cam­bodia are climate-dependent, espe­cially as the rural poor over­whelm­ingly rely on a single crop: Rice. In 2011 dis­astrous flood­ing has des­troyed thou­sands of people’s live­li­hoods. With a future of increas­ing cli­matic uncer­tainty, we strive to diver­sify incomes to insu­late against dis­aster if rice crops fail.

Diver­si­fic­a­tion means more choice for farm­ers. We train com­munit­ies in mar­ket value chains and how they can take advant­age of price fluc­tu­ations. Only very small plots of land are needed to grow large vari­et­ies of veget­ables and they can be grown accord­ing to soil, price or preference.

The work also has to break an unhealthy depend­ency on rap­idly deplet­ing nat­ural resources. Over­fish­ing and defor­est­a­tion are real­it­ies that rural Cam­bod­i­ans are facing now. They are spend­ing more and more time catch­ing less and less fish, and walk­ing fur­ther to fell fewer trees (in par­tic­u­lar, this effects the lives of women). There are also external threats com­ing from the threat of dams on the Mekong, and eco­nomic land con­ces­sions made to large com­pan­ies to turn com­munal forest land into plant­a­tions. There is mar­ket pres­sure to grow destruct­ive crops such as cas­sava that leech the soil. Sus­tain­able altern­at­ives empower rural com­munit­ies with choices over their own live­li­hoods, nat­ural resources and futures. That’s resi­li­ence. That’s security.

Read more about just one of the spe­cies we’re try­ing to pro­tect from destruc­tion with our work along the Mekong — the Irrawaddy Dol­phin.