2013 年 4 巻 2 号 p. 109-114
In Cambodia, 71% of labor force engage in agricultural sector and contribute for creating 36% of Gross Domestic Products on 2010. Besides, Cambodia suits for agriculture because Mekong River and Tonle Sap Lake provide fertile soil. In the research site, Samroung commune in Kampong Cham province, agriculture is the source of income for farmers. Eleven villages are located in this commune and 1,792 families present. Main crop in the commune is rice. Also, some farmers grow vegetables such as cucumber or morning glory in this area. In this country, conventional farming system based on agro- chemicals application becomes a major farming style in recent years. But the ways how to apply the purchased agricultural inputs of farmers, especially chemical pesticides, are not appropriate from a point of view of rural sustainability. It means popular farming systems depending on agro-chemicals are not only deteriorating natural environment and ecosystem but also affecting health of humans. For preventing these impacts, attention has been paid to sustainable farming system. But it also has difficulties for applying. For example, especially in the beginning, it may difficult for farmers to apply its techniques effectively because techniques of sustainable farming system are new techniques. In addition, these techniques needs more care, load and time period for getting the maximum effects compared to applying agro-chemicals. So farmers may be difficult to keep their motivation for adapting sustainable farming system. So, this study dealt with the awareness of conversion from conventional farming system to sustainable farming system, based on the questionnaire and interview survey conducted in Samroung commune of Kampong Cham province, Cambodia. This study concluded that extension approaches which are applied in Samroung commune are effective in order to change farmer’s awareness of convert farming system. Addition to this, possibility of reducing the amount of agro-chemicals used was also observed.
