SRI Training: Improved
Rice Yields

In August 2017, 25 village farmers were trained by CEDAC, a French NGO (http://www.cedac.org.kh/ ), to grow rice using CEDAC's SRI (System of Rice Intensification) techniques which routinely increase yields by over 50% without the use of expensive fertilizer. 

Twenty-six of the 41 middle school and high school girls we currently provide scholarships for who had all dropped out of 7th grade own less than a hectare of land--too little to grow enough rice on to sustain themselves. Growing rice using CEDAC's SRI techniques can dramatically improve their lives in a sustainable way.

Sofie Gmerek, a Leland High School San Jose sophomore, raised money to fund CEDAC's SRI training of the 25 local farmers as a part of her Girl Scout Gold Award project. In February 2018, she will travel to our school to work with the farmers who were trained to plant a demonstration garden. The garden will be planted with plots of rice grown using SRI techniques next to rice grown using traditional methods. As both plots grow, other farmers can readily witness the benefits of employing the SRI method. During the rice-planting season, which begins in May, the trained farmers will train interested farmers in the SRI techniques.