Sister Hien Boeun is a member of a target household living in Andong Trach Village, Chres Commune, Mesang District, Prey Veng Province. She is 59-years-old and her husband, Hul Hoeun, is 58 years old. Their niece who is married with a 3-year-old son live with Sister Hien Boeun’s family. Her family was categorized as poor II.
In 2014-2015, Sister Hien Boeun’s parents and nephew became seriously ill and she decided to take 1.50 hectares of her 2 hectare farming fields to pawn in order to receive money for their medical expenses. Sadly, they all passed away. Since then, the rice crops her family grew was inadequate to meet their needs due to the size of their farmland. The family living conditions deteriorated and the family needed to work hard in order to earn enough money to buy rice for 4 to 5 months every year. Due to the challenging living conditions caused by agricultural and medical debt, she decided to sell her land to pay off her debt.
In June 2016, ODOV project called “Improve Household Food Security” supported by MCC-CFGB had worked in her community and selected poor families to participate in the project. Sister Hien Boeun’s family was one of target households who was selected to participate in the project. Since sister Boeun began participating in the project, she has received training on sustainable agriculture and agricultural inputs. After she returned from the training, sister Bouen‘s family grew vegetables, raised chickens, and implemented the techniques that she has obtained from the training with ODOV. She has seen good success from growing vegetables and raising chickens. Her family has harvested vegetables and chicken for household consumption and received additional income from selling the surplus she produced.
Sister Boeun is a hard-working farmer and she is very committed to using the techniques learned in the project. Seeing her efforts and commitment, ODOV staff invited her to be involved with a chicken Producer Group Members. Through participation in the Chicken Producer Group, sister Beoun was able to receive opportunities learn about the chicken raising from other successful farmers at other ODOV project areas.
Sister Boeun was invited to participate few exposure visits at other ODOV target areas where they raised chickens successfully. Through the exposure visits, she has learned new knowledge about chicken raising: including electrical egg hatching, making natural vaccines for chickens, combining natural feed for chickens and preparing shelter for chicks, and she has implemented all these techniques when she returned home.
Sister Boeun has bought an electrical hatching cabinet which cost $ 200. Now, she has started hatching chicken eggs in this electrical hatching cabinet. She has been able to hatch around 100-150 chicks per month. The chicks that she produces can either be sold to nearby villagers to raise or she keeps them to raise herself when the chicks go unsold. A chick between 15-18 days of age is sold for $1-$1.25 per chick. Currently, sister Boeun is able to generate income of about $100 per months from selling chicken meat and chicks with an additional income of about $2-$2.5 per day from surplus vegetables.
“I am very happy that I received success in raising chickens and growing vegetables. I have enough food to eat and my living conditions are much better than before. In the future, I decide on the choice of growing vegetables and raising chicken as my main work on of generating income. I will expand and grow my income and production”, explains sister Boeun.
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