This project aims to bring about positive socio-economic change in the Cambodian soybean and maize marketing systems through the use of community-based decision-making where, for each marketing system, the community of interest includes the various participants of that marketing system. It involves three main sub-projects: (i) a macro- and a micro-mapping of the two marketing systems to gain an understanding of the major constraints; (ii) the facilitation of a change process through collaborative problem-solving involving representatives of the various participants of the two marketing systems; and (iii) capacity-building. The year began with a significant capacity-building exercise (sub-project (iii)) for the four Cambodia-based members of the research team. They participated in a two-week research workshop put on by Australian members of the research team - John Spriggs and Barbara Chambers. The workshop covered three subject areas: marketing, supply chain management and group facilitation (see Attachment A - Section 1). An important outcome of the research workshop was the development of a research action plan by the research team (See Attachment A - Section 4.)

Two major decisions made during the workshop and reflected in the research action plan were:
That the research team should focus only on the market catchment (i.e. production) area in eastern Cambodia during 2005, while in 2006 we would focus on the market catchment area in western Cambodia. The eastern catchment area produces primarily soybeans for the South Vietnam market, while the western catchment area produces both maize and soybeans for the Thai market.
That the mapping of the marketing systems should contain both a macro component (looking from the system-wide perspective) and a micro component (looking from the perspective of a particular farmer association trying to develop group marketing). To this end, we divided the four Cambodia-based researchers into two teams: Team A (macro component) and Team B (micro component).

In February 2005, Professor Spriggs visited the two teams. Details of this visit are presented in Attachment B - Cambodia Trip Diary: February 2005. Both teams had produced a preliminary report on their research activities. Team A reported that the most important issues for the eastern catchment area appeared to be: lack of cheap credit, farmers not organized, lack of extension/training, lack of market information, not enough good quality seed and high fuel cost (due to the high fuel tax). Team B reported on their survey of the Ta Ong Soybean Association in Chamcarleu, Kampong Cham. This Association was one of only two such Associations in what is the centre of soybean growing in the eastern catchment area. The main issues for this Association were the lack of good quality seed and the lack of low-interest credit. The Association had attempted, in the past, to access a government-run low-interest credit program but found this a difficult experience. Team B is working with the Association to help them access this and to write up their experience in this as a case study. Team B is also undertaking a survey of buyers of Cambodian soybeans in South Vietnam.

In May 2005, Professors Spriggs and Chambers visited the two teams to plan for the upcoming stakeholder workshop for the eastern catchment area (See Attachment C - Cambodia Trip Report: May 2005). The workshop is planned for July 28-29, 2005. During this visit, the research team agreed that the workshop would be conducted in Khmer with one of the Cambodian-based members of the research team acting as lead facilitator (Sothea), and the others acting as workshop recorder or table facilitators. An interpreter would be hired for Professors Spriggs and Chambers. The workshop would begin with three presentations (See Attachments D1 to D3) :
The Marketing System for Cambodian Soybeans (Team A)
The Market for Cambodian Soybeans in South Vietnam (Team B)
Strengthening the Ta Ong Soybean Development Association (Team B) and then proceed through a process of large and small group discussion to develop a collaboratively-based action plan for socio-economic change for the eastern catchment area.

Following the workshop, the focus of this action research project will shift from research to action as the research team attempts to facilitate implementation of the action plan.

This is the second year of an action research project which aims to bring about positive socio-economic change in the Cambodian maize and soybean marketing systems. In the first year of the project, the focus was on the soybean marketing system of eastern Cambodia, while during the second year, the focus of the project has started to shift to western Cambodia. Our decision to treat the eastern and western marketing systems separately was because the situations in the two parts of the country are very different. Two obvious differences are: (1) the relative importance of soybeans in the east and maize in the west; and (2) the relative importance of Vietnam as a market for the east and Thailand as a market for the west. However, a more fundamental (and perhaps less obvious) difference is that the marketing system in western Cambodia is dynamic while that in eastern Cambodia is not. (A good illustration of the dynamism in western Cambodia is the construction in recent years of 4 modern large scale commercial silos, with a fifth on the way.) Because the situation is so different in these two regions of the country, the nature of the appropriate research and action interventions is also different.

During the second year of this action research project, we moved from a research phase to an action phase in eastern Cambodia. This involved two initiatives:
A macro initiative - writing a concept paper on the idea for an agricultural market development zone for eastern Cambodia and presenting this to a panel of government policy decision-makers (June 2006). The panel gave a strong endorsement to the concept and this is now being further developed in the form of a full feasibility analysis
A micro initiative - develop a successful soybean marketing association in eastern Cambodia. The project team has been working with the Ta Ong soybean Association (TSA) in Kampong Cham province. When we began work with TSA it was a non-functioning association with only 14 members. It now has 160 members (membership has been limited at this level). It is operating successfully as a micro-finance institution, having made low-interest loans to about 1000 farmers and is now looking to build its own dryer-silo and market its members' produce in Vietnam.

During this year, we also began the research phase in western Cambodia (involving mapping research on the marketing systems for maize and soybeans in this region). At the end of the year under review (in June 2006), we held a stakeholder workshop in western Cambodia to present our research findings and also to gain an understanding of what the stakeholders consider to be the major issues facing them. This stakeholder workshop represents the main transition point from research to action in our project in western Cambodia. According to general consensus of the workshop participants, the major issues were: (1) existence of border fees; (2) lack of access to good quality market information; and (3) lack of access to low-interest credit. The main action advocated by the workshop participants was the development of a silo association comprising the 4 new silos of western Cambodia (plus the fifth one when it is built). Such an association was viewed as an important catalyst for positive change on the major issues confronting the industry. Hence, our project team is now focused on facilitating the development of this association.

The original project operated for 2 years from July 2004 to December 2006 with a broad focus on improving the marketing system for maize and soybeans in Cambodia and thereby improving the well-being of rural households and other participants in the non-rice cropping industry. The project was subsequently extended to the period January 2007 to April 2008.

General Approach
The general approach taken in this project has been participatory action research which includes both a research phase and an action (implementation) phase. In this action research process, participants are taken to be representatives of the various types of participants in the relevant value chains. These include farmers, village collectors, district traders, interprovincial traders, exporters, importers, and relevant government officers. As a result of initial research, it was decided to divide the country into two parts: eastern and western Cambodia. This was because we found substantial differences between these regions in the types of crops grown, the nature of the dominant markets involved (i.e. Vietnam and Thailand), and the quality of the production-marketing systems. In particular, the production-marketing system in eastern Cambodia was found to be static and fragmented with relatively old marketing infrastructure and less fertile land, while western Cambodia was found to have highly fertile land, with dynamic and well-organized marketing infrastructure through the development of 5 large grain drying/storage operations throughout the growing area.

Following on from the research phase which included the use of participatory workshops in eastern Cambodia and western Cambodia, we developed action plans that we believe are well-suited to the differing regions. The action plans involved three major initiatives; two in eastern Cambodia and one in western Cambodia.

Major Initiatives (eastern Cambodia)
In eastern Cambodia, we took both a micro and a macro approach. The micro approach was to work with a single farmer association to see what we could do to help this association become more successful in marketing crops on behalf of its members. The macro approach was to explore the potential for developing an Agriculture Marketing Development Zone (AMDZ) for eastern Cambodia.

Major Initiative (western Cambodia)
In western Cambodia, our background research and a participatory workshop revealed that the major concerns of value chain participants (along with credit concerns) were: (a) lack of access to markets; and (b) lack of market information. These are the result of poor communications between different levels of the supply chain. At a Battambang workshop of participants, we proposed to address this issue through the development of an Electronic Marketing Communications System (EMCS) based on the use of SMS technology and mobile phones. The idea of using SMS to communicate is workable in Cambodia where the country enjoys 75 % coverage of mobile phones and 85% coverage of SMS. There was enthusiastic and consensus support at the workshop for a pilot project on the EMCS to be introduced. As a result, and under the direction of Dr. Rob Fitzgerald, we have undertaken a pilot project involving traders in Western Cambodia as well as the Battambang Chamber of Commerce to receive price information via SMS. To make this work, we purchased and established an SMS server at the Price Office, Ministry of Commerce where it is being maintained by Ms. Mam Many. We are now at the stage where we have proof of concept and plans are under way to move to a larger-scale implementation of the EMCS. Dr. Fitzgerald held a second workshop in Phnom Penh in August 2007 with traders, producers, government and local university representatives to initiate the design and development of the information structure for the EMCS. This workshop addressed: (a) identifying basic stakeholder information including regions, supply chain roles, language capabilities and SMS skill levels (self assessed); (b) determining stakeholder needs regarding market information (What price information do you need?; How could this be conveyed via alphanumeric code?; How will we link buyers and sellers?; What farm/production information do you want?); and (c) obtaining stakeholder views on the nature of the training and extension work that should be considered. A series of EMCS training workshops are tentatively scheduled for November 2007 to help familiarise users with the system and training materials in English and Khmer are currently under development.