It’s an incredibly productive summer at the Community First farm school in Sen Sok. As with the past five years, we had the pleasure of hosting a volunteer team from the University of Edinburgh, Engineering. Thanks to our donors and supporters, we were able to build three additional family systems in the village of Angkaol and people are excited to get started growing vegetables and raising fish year-round! Families are farming Chinese cabbage and morning glory for their own consumption, and the Tap family has started making some money from their cucumber farming. Thanks to our drought-resistant systems, they’re able to sell their crop for $2.50 per kilogram at the local market! The Rath family, on the other hand, has been able to feed their family which includes seven children by focusing on the aforementioned fast-growing crops. Whether a family seeks to be economically empowered or the ability to feed themselves year-round in a country where 40% of children have their growth stunted because of malnutrition, our aquaponic systems get the job done! In addition to expanding our outreach program, we were able to expand the farm school’s main aquaponic system. Thanks to the support of the Rotary Club of San Marino, we were able to build concrete fish tanks that will bring our overall capacity from 2,700 liters to 20,000 liters! Volume aside, the fact that these brand new tanks are compartmentalized also means that we will be able to diversify the fish farming side of our aquaponic activities. We’re eager to experiment with new species like prawns and crayfish to change things up a bit. These aquatic animals being bottom feeders will also play a role in keeping our water clean. The rosenbergii variety of freshwater prawn is actually found throughout the Mekong river and is considered a delicacy here in Cambodia. If you want to get involved, you can help by becoming a sustaining donor. $30 a month helps us fund our introductory training program for a family while $50 per month will us lift families out of subsistence and into abundance with advanced training. $75 per month helps us coach farmers like the Tap family to turn their aquaponic activity in a small business. Consider becoming a donor today and become a patron of social innovation and climate change adaptation! If you’d like to learn more and are based in the greater Pasadena area, consider visiting our demonstration system at the Huntington Library and Gardens in San Marino. Our team is there every week at the Ranch’s open house on Saturdays from 10 AM to 1 PM (learn more).
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
8/1/2019
0 Comments