The wars and genocide have left Cambodia with a wide array of post-conflict problems, including the destruction of infrastructure and human capital, a lack of basic services and the absolute poverty of millions of its citizens. The U.N. Millennium Development Goals report that 34 percent of Cambodians live on less than $1 per day.

The national Victim Assistance plan states that households headed by a “person disabled by war or landmines lives in poverty at levels almost three times higher than if the disability was due to other causes.” Even though the king of Cambodia signed the Law for the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of People with Disabilities in 2009, social, employment, and education discrimination remain high for persons with disabilities.

Cambodia is a state party to the AP Mine Ban Treaty and is committed to achieving its goal of more effective and coherent service provision for persons with disabilities, including landmine and ERW survivors, their families, and affected communities.

In 2006, CPI and local implementing partner Cambodian Volunteers for Community Development (CVCD) collaborated to determine a location for a victim assistance program. Battambang Province in northwestern Cambodia was targeted for this project due to the high incidence of landmine survivors, remote location from provincial capitals, substandard roads and infrastructure, and lack of economic opportunities.

The Phum Seam Farmers’ Cooperative and Rice Mill were established in 2006 to provide socio-economic and agricultural support to landmine/ERW survivors in three districts in Battambang. The cooperative is located in the K-5 mine belt, which has been identified as having the highest level of mine contamination in the country. The K-5 mine belt represents a 1,046-kilometer stretch of land along Cambodia’s western and northern border with Thailand, and it is estimated that approximately six million landmines were laid in this region between 1979 and 1989. As a result, the region is home to a high population of landmine survivors.

With more than 70 percent of Cambodians living in rural areas and more than 50 percent of the labor force involved in the rice sector, Cambodian agriculture can still be characterized as “subsistence.” Cambodia’s overall crop yield is much lower than its neighbors’, and this low productivity can be attributed to many factors, including a lack of irrigation, fertilizers, pesticides, seed quality and technical knowledge. With low outputs, subsistence farmers barely grow enough to support their families and have little extra to take to market. Rice farmers lose negotiating power because they are at the mercy of only the buyers who are able and willing to transport their rice. A lack of information also leads the rural poor to be unaware of current pricing and vulnerable in the purchasing process.

CPI and CVCD conducted first-hand research among sample groups of landmine accident survivors in the three districts and identified specific needs to promote their socio-economic reintegration. The interviewees consistently cited access to markets for their agro-products, access to credit, seed banks and animal banks as their top priorities. Almost half of the farmers surveyed had used informal moneylenders for loans, which can charge interest rates as high as 100 percent.

The Phum Seam Farmers’ Cooperative aims to address these problems by leveraging its size to provide lower prices for credit, transportation, and agricultural inputs, allowing the farmers to keep more of their earnings. In addition, access to technical training, crop diversification strategies and higher quality inputs help farmers to achieve higher outputs.

Since 2007, CPI has served over 3,000 beneficiaries through the activities of the rice mill, vocational training and micro-credit lending programs. In accordance with the rice mill’s business plan, in 2010 the operation of the mill is being funded through its own revenues, officially removing the mill from donor support and launching the mill as a self-sustaining enterprise.

Although ridden with mines, increasing population and demand for agricultural land continues to prompt Cambodians to move into mine- and UXO-affected areas. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) such as MAG (Mines Advisory Group) are actively demining these lands for reclamation by farmers, deploying manual clearance teams, mine detection dog teams, as well as survey, community liaison, mapping, and research and development teams.

In 2010, CPI and implementing partner CVCD initiated a new micro-credit project in Kamrieng District in Battambang Province, one of the areas recently cleared of mines by MAG. A total of 361,389 square miles in the villages of Tasaen and Ou Chambok was cleared, removing 638 antipersonnel mines and 22 antitank mines and destroying 34 items of unexploded ordnance. This clearance provided safe land for agriculture, resettlement, a school, a road, and new income generating activities.

Within Tasaen and Ou Chambok villages, 497 families, 15 percent of which are disabled, reside. They are preparing to plant the first of two crop cycles this year, growing casaba, corn, and soy beans. However, the farmers still need access to capital for plant starts, agricultural inputs, and rental of farm equipment. Access to capital through loans is difficult to acquire, and informal moneylenders can charge interest rates as high as 100 percent. The farmers need availability of affordable loans. The new micro-credit program will provide affordable loans for these families, serving 250 beneficiaries.