Mekong gets Waterwise
From the May 2007 edition of Agriculture Today.
Cambodian farmers on the floodplain of the Mekong River are benefiting from the original Waterwise program developed by NSW Department of Primary Industries staff.
Tropical Cambodia has distinct wet and dry seasons, with rain falling very infrequently between November and May.
This means vegetable crops grown in the dry season are totally dependant on irrigation.
Research showed one of the main constraints to improving vegetable production systems was irrigation management, so technicians and researchers involved with vegetable growers needed training.
Yanco-based irrigation officer, Robert Hoogers, conducted two irrigation management workshops in southern Cambodia, with about 55 government and non-government (NGO) technicians, in the first training course of its kind there.
“Hand watering with cans is still the standard method for vegetables, but a low tech drip irrigation system introduced by an organisation called International Development Enterprises (IDE) is now being tested by CARE, one of the NGOs operating in the district,” Mr Hoogers said.
Timing could not have been better for the CARE workers.
The weeks following the training course, more than 300 low tech drip units were to be installed on farmers’ fields in the project area to grow vegetables, and the technicians came away with much more confidence to help the farmers manage the systems.
According to Dr Phil Charlesworth, the CARE project manager, Mr Hoogers’ practical training was invaluable to course participants.
Following a preliminary visit to Cambodia last year, Mr Hoogers modified the original Waterwise courses, developed in Western Sydney by NSW DPI for farmers with English as a second language, to suit Cambodian conditions and technology.
For many of the beneficiaries this time around, it was the first time they had been trained in making irrigation decisions based on objective measurements.
“At the end, people could work out the RAW (readily available water), system application rate and distribution, plant requirement and hence form a simple schedule," Dr Charlesworth said.
“Then we compared a crop requirement with size of storage ponds for resource planning.”
The course used the train-thetrainer approach with the notes reprinted for wider circulation in both English and Khmer.
Waterwise will have further applications in Cambodia.
The workshops were part of a project funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research.
Contact Rob Hoogers, Yanco, (02) 6951 2628, robert.hoogers@dpi.nsw.gov.au
