ASIA HUB

The Asia Regional Innovation Hub (RIH) on conservation agriculture (CA) for Sustainable Intensification (SI) is located in Cambodia. The existing Innovation Hub situated in Bangladesh will be linked to the RIH. The Asia RIH will work closely with a wide range of entities, including government, the private sector, nongovernmental organizations, manufacturers, dealers, agricultural supply stores, farmers, universities, and research/Extension sectors. For example, SwissContact will provide private sector engagement and other groups such as CE SAIN and CIRAD will provide aid for promoting scale up of technologies in the Asia region. These organizations will collaborate with ASMC to advance conservation policies in Asia that will enable farmers to adopt farming systems to transform soil-degrading, yield-decreasing and soil carbon-releasing conventional tillage production systems to soil health-enhancing, yield-increasing, and soil carbon-sequestering CA production systems.

Cambodia has a well-established, active, and prominent CA focus. Transfer, adoption and scaling up of appropriate CA practices in the region will be very beneficial, including highlighting suitable technologies to support such practices. The Bangladesh Innovation Hub has made significant progress in identifying, evaluating, and promoting small to medium-combine rice harvesters, which increase the rate and quality of harvesting and reduces the labor requirement. The Bangladesh group has also developed, manufactured, and used the BAU-STR dryer for grain drying, which has reduced postharvest grain losses. If a need for post-harvest technologies arises, the Cambodia hub will recommend engagement with the innovation hub in Bangladesh.

Current & Upcoming Activities

Partners in Cambodia plan to implement the GoNative Battambang App to connect rural vegetable farmers with tuktuk drivers. The GoNative App will enable farmers to directly sell vegetables to consumers by using tuktuk drivers to deliver the products to consumers. The consumers will then pay by credit card and the app will automatically credit the farmer’s bank account upon payment for vegetables purchased. The tuktuk drivers receive percentages of the vegetables sold. The app will be managed by the App management team at the University of Battambang (UBB), and the App management team in the USA.
In Cambodia, partners are reviewing and revising E-learning modules for the No-till planter, Direct seeder, and Roller crimper.

Past Activities

As a result of the project, the government of Bangladesh will subsidize the purchase of combine harvesters. Click here to read more.
In Cambodia, a field survey was conducted to collect data for developing economic model for bucket scraper for laser land leveling and for seed broadcasters.
In Cambodia, 6 new interns were assigned for 3 months (June-September 2020) at Bun Y's workshop, YJI Agricultural Machinery Co., LTD, and FAE's workshop
In Bangladesh, four, two-day long refresher advanced hands-on training for operators, mechanics and workshop owners were conducted at Subarnachar, Noakhali; Wazirpur, Barishal; Dumuria, Khulna and Kalapara, Patuakhali. Total participants were 41 (Male-39, Female-2). In each location, sub-assistant agricultural officer and lead farmers were also joined in the training program. In addition to these, field demonstration of harvesting machines was also conducted at four locations for building awareness among the farmers and entrepreneurs. Training modules and leaflet were distributed among the participants during the training and demonstration programs.
In Bangladesh, three field days were conducted at Dumuria, Khulna and Wazirpur, Barishal with Farmers and a women farmers group. One training on rice transplanter seedling raising was done at Baratia, Dumuria, Khulna; where, farmers and women farmers and new entrepreneurs were the participants. Total participants were 79 (Male-56, Female-23).