Upgrading a Farmer’s Nursery in Pursat province, Cambodia

Year-old seedlings of Siamese Rosewood in Cambodia sell for 0.50 to 1 US$, making them a potentially important addition to local farmers’ livelihoods. From December 2019 to February 2020, the project team at the Institute of Forest and Wildlife Research and Development in Cambodia, helped a local farmer in Pursat province to upgrade his nursery to increase seedling production and job generation.

The farmer, Mr. Sok Em, had constructed the nursery in 2017 with the capacity to produce up to 40,000 seedlings per year of Dalbergia cochinchinensis, D. oliveri, and Pterocarpus macrocarpus. Unfortunately, the nursery had fallen in decay due to lack of funds for maintenance. In 2019 Mr Sok Em managed to obtain four contracts to supply a total of 90,000 seedlings of Dalbergia cochinchinensis and Pterocarpus macrocarpus for public and private nurseries. Therefore, he decided to build a bigger, long term nursery with his own funding and support from the contractors and the Darwin Initiative project. The project contributed wooded poles, iron frame, cover mesh and signboard, and in 2020, there are up to 15 local people working in this nursery.