Green Cashew Nuts Project: Yields and Return on Investment Assessment
ECOLAND, Email: ecoland@rua.edu.kh, To be submitted to HUSK Venture and HEKS Cambodia
2024-06-14
1. Introduction
1.1 Rationale
Recent efforts led by development stakeholders have been dedicated to enhancing the sustainability of Cambodian agriculture. The HEKS/EPER is a non-profit foundation to promote the dignity of vulnerable people in Cambodia to lead a life that is socially, economically and politically secure. The research aims to analyze and compare the yields of cashew and return on investment (ROI) of farmers under 2 different contexts (applications of HUSK’s products and conventional practices) in two provinces, namely Kampong Thom and Preah Vihear. The study will produce the descriptive document of the current cashew practices, yield, and return on investment in the target areas. The study will also use data collection tools to collect data from 5 farms including 3 farms in Kampong Thom and 2 farms from Preah Vihear with a total of 100 cashew trees. There would be 50 treated cashew trees and 50 conventional cashew trees. With treatment trees, it will be applied with 10% and 50% of mixing with HUSK’s organic fertilizer products in order to know the efficiency. Data will be analyzed using quantitative and qualitative tools. The study will produce a descriptive document of the baseline data on current cashew practices, yields, and return on investment in the study area.
The recent event of COVID-19 pandemic confirmed agriculture activities remain an important source of income for many Cambodian living in rural areas, lifting many people out of poverty and hunger and still be one of the mainstays of the Cambodian economy. However, according to the United States Agency for International Development (USAIDs), some key challenges persist in Cambodian rural lives of nearly 61 percent of whom live in rural areas, and 77 percent of rural households rely on agriculture, fisheries, and forestry for their livelihoods. Cambodian farmers are extremely vulnerable to climate change-induced increases in temperatures, changes in rainfall patterns, and extreme weather events. There has been an increased consciousness and awareness on environmental issues both at the local and international level as well as the acknowledgement for the need for environmental action and to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). While knowledge on the environment and sustainability has become more widely available, there are still gaps that need to be filled to facilitate the right conditions for action. Likewise, HUSK venture and HEKS Cambodia, Kampong Thom and Preah Vihear are the target areas for testing the HUSK’s products and HEKS’s technique with cashew trees which aims to assess the yields and return on investment of cashew production using HUSK’s organic fertilizer products and the technique that provides by HEKS Cambodia.
1.2 Objectives
To scientifically assess the yield and return on investment (ROI) of cashew productions using HUSK’s organic fertilizer products. 2.1 Specific objectives To compare yield of cashew nut production among target farmers in Kampong Thom and Preah Vihear provinces to the conventional production. To analyze the performance of Return on Investment (ROI) of cashew treatments.
1.3 Scope of Study
2. Methodology
2.1 Site
By consulting with relevant stakeholders, this study was be conducted in Kampong Thom and Preah Vihear provinces, Cambodia; covering 2 main criterias in cashew nuts yield and return on investment; totally 5 farms where 7 farms locate in Kampong Thom province and 1 farm in Preah Vihear province. 3 additional farm plots (in Kampong Thom) tested with AgriSmart’s techniques i.e. pole digging for composting, bodoux mix and seaweed solutions are to be included in the assessment.
2.2 Materials
2.2.1 Study Design
The targeted farms were selected through purposive sampling for the evaluation, focusing on four trial activities. From approximately 160 cashew trees across 8 farmers in two provinces, 80 trees were treated and 80 were conventional. Individual sampling of farmers was done on volunteer basis during the first visit with the farmers, using farm layouts to number the trees from 1 to 10 for both treatment and control per farm. Trial sample tree used including:
- BCF: mixing of HUSK’s organic fertilizer, while conventional trees served as controls.
- BCF and NRI:
- Seaweed
- Compost
2.2.2 Data Collection Tools
The data collection handbook consists of
- Yields: number of nuts per tree and weight of nuts per tree (fresh nuts)
- Input costs and volume: fertilizers, pesticides, hormones and supplement, irrigation, gasoline, electricity and solar, seeds/seedling, and any agronomic practices
- Labour and service (planting, fertilizing, pesticides &
herbicide application, harvesting), transportation, loan and interest,
equipment rent or depreciation, subsidies, rental lands
- Revenue: price and volume sold, gift, donation, spoil nuts per tree.
2.2.3 Training on Recording Data
Record keeping is a crucial aspect of farm management, particularly in cashew nut cultivation. Effective record keeping helps farmers track their yields, expenses, and revenues, enabling better decision-making, financial management, and future planning. This training program aims to empower cashew nut farmers with the knowledge and skills required to maintain accurate records of their yield and financial transactions. The training will be interactive, with a focus on hands-on Activity to ensure practical understanding and application of how to keep records relating to the necessary variables.
The objective of this training is:
- To familiarize farmers with the importance of record keeping in cashew nut cultivation.
- To instruct farmers on the types of records to maintain for cashew nut yield and financial information.
- To equip farmers with practical tools and techniques for effective record keeping.
- To enable project staff to effectively support farmers in data collection.
Data recording training was conducted in Russei Duch village, Sala Visai commune, Balang district, Kampong Thom province. There are 23 participants, one of the Balang district agriculture officers, 16 farmers from 8 farms in both Kampong Thom and Presh Vihear province, and 3 staffs from HUSK and HEKS.
Result of the training was good to see the understanding and commitment of farmers in participating in the study. Through the exercise and practices, the farmers were clear how to keep the record accurately. Even though it is difficult for farmers to write, some information of their farm and cashew tree were assisted and filled in the booklets. This booklet will be finalized later by the farmers (with support from HEKS/HUSK field staff). The stakeholders including the field staff of HEKS and HUSK were engaged in the training and understood their roles in supporting the farmers to keep the record to be accurate. It was decided to have monitoring meetings among ECOLAND, HUSK and HEKS after the start of cashew nut harvesting in March. Later, regular meetings aiming to review progress and feedback of recording will be made regularly every month via zoom online (data entry should be made digitally for the basis of the meeting agenda). At the end of harvesting season (End of June 2024), ECOLAND will pay the last visit for interviewing farmers about the financial information and feedback of the yields. The data would be analyzed and validated with the farmers at the end of the project before the final report submitting to HEKS/HUSK.
2.3 Data Collection
2.3.1 Data Collection by Farmers
The ECOLAND team provided a data collection handbook for the farmers to record those data. In this regard, we need commitment and agreement in advance with farmers which may facilitate HUSK/HEKS. In the worst case scenario, we decided to scale to each target farmers and to deal with the additional activities in scaling, an incentive of 6 USD/month was be provided to farmers for these additional activities after discussion with the HEKS’s team. ECOLAND team was visit the target farmers to follow up and coach on the data collection process at the end of March. The meeting with the data collection team from HUSK/HEKS was be also made online if necessary. ECOLAND and HUSK/HEKS team was ensure the data quality either through these online meetings.
2.3.1 Data Collection by Research Team
In this case, HEKS was support with data collection and data entry in the ground (using the same questionnaires for yield data collection and questionnaires on ROI where necessary) while the data cleaning, analysis, and reporting to undertake by ECOLAND in addition to the 5 farm plots (tested with HUSK’s products) above. Cost and revenue data collection from each tree was be conducted by the in-depth interview with the farmers at the end of March by the research team of ECOLAND during the yield data collection follow up.
2.4 Data Analysis
Data from the survey was be analyzed and report writing submitted to HUSK/HEKS. With the objective to document the effectiveness of natural inputs (including NiR), descriptive statistics and inferential statistics was be employed at 95% confidence level. Some statistical procedures was include comparing means (among treated and conventional yield and ROI) using T-Test/Anova and to see relationships using Chi-square test and correlations.
3. Results
3.1 Yield of Cashew
For each farmers, the comparision were made amonng the trial and conventinoal practices based one the same variety and age of cashew trees (Tab. 1) All farmers from Kampong Thom grew M23 variety while one farmer from Preah Vihear used the traditinonal variety of cashew nut. The range of tree age were from 4-9 years old.
Tab. 1: Varieties and age of trees in the experiments
| id_farmer | treatment | variety | Tree_Age |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | conven | M23 | 4 |
| 1 | trial | M23 | 4 |
| 2 | conven | M23 | 4 |
| 2 | trial | M23 | 4 |
| 3 | conven | M23 | 4 |
| 3 | trial | M23 | 4 |
| 4 | conven | M23 | 4 |
| 4 | trial | M23 | 4 |
| 5 | conven | M23 | 9 |
| 5 | trial | M23 | 9 |
| 6 | conven | M23 | 8 |
| 6 | trial | M23 | 8 |
| 7 | conven | M23 | 6 |
| 7 | trial | M23 | 6 |
| 8 | conven | Traditional Variety | 5 |
| 8 | trial | Traditional Variety | 5 |
According to the record-book collected from target farmers, it was reported different number of harvest for individual farmers ranging from 3-12 times for the data collection period (from April-May 2024 in Tab. 2). The variation of the harvest requency was due to the conditions of the plant during the harvesting period and availability of the data collection from the farmers.
Tab. 2: Number of harvest by each farmer
| Conventional | Trial | |
|---|---|---|
| Farmer # 1 | 4 | 4 |
| Farmer # 2 | 13 | 12 |
| Farmer # 3 | 6 | 6 |
| Farmer # 4 | 6 | 6 |
| Farmer # 5 | 10 | 10 |
| Farmer # 6 | 12 | 12 |
| Farmer # 7 | 3 | 3 |
| Farmer # 8 | 8 | 8 |
## # A tibble: 16 × 3
## id_farmer treatment Sum_Yield
## <dbl> <fct> <dbl>
## 1 1 conven 43.4
## 2 1 trial 73.8
## 3 2 conven 49.2
## 4 2 trial 48.4
## 5 3 conven 16.0
## 6 3 trial 15.7
## 7 4 conven 47.5
## 8 4 trial 20.4
## 9 5 conven 70.5
## 10 5 trial 96.8
## 11 6 conven 34.2
## 12 6 trial 63.4
## 13 7 conven 16.5
## 14 7 trial 18.4
## 15 8 conven 18.4
## 16 8 trial 19.1## # A tibble: 2 × 2
## treatment Mean_Yield
## <fct> <dbl>
## 1 conven 0.477
## 2 trial 0.584##
## Welch Two Sample t-test
##
## data: yield_per_tree by treatment
## t = -2.768, df = 1190.6, p-value = 0.005728
## alternative hypothesis: true difference in means between group conven and group trial is not equal to 0
## 95 percent confidence interval:
## -0.1827533 -0.0311425
## sample estimates:
## mean in group conven mean in group trial
## 0.4768226 0.5837705## # A tibble: 6 × 2
## trail Mean_Yield
## <fct> <dbl>
## 1 Bodoux10% &50% 0.968
## 2 CBF 0.313
## 3 CBF_NiR 0.942
## 4 Compost 0.528
## 5 Seaweed 0.403
## 6 <NA> 0.477## Tukey multiple comparisons of means
## 95% family-wise confidence level
##
## Fit: aov(formula = yield_per_tree ~ as.factor(trail), data = data_yield_per_tree_byday)
##
## $`as.factor(trail)`
## diff lwr upr p adj
## CBF-Bodoux10% &50% -0.65458824 -0.889103567 -0.4200729 0.0000000
## CBF_NiR-Bodoux10% &50% -0.02580000 -0.288965417 0.2373654 0.9988623
## Compost-Bodoux10% &50% -0.43966667 -0.691628370 -0.1877050 0.0000223
## Seaweed-Bodoux10% &50% -0.56466667 -0.816628370 -0.3127050 0.0000000
## CBF_NiR-CBF 0.62878824 0.394272904 0.8633036 0.0000000
## Compost-CBF 0.21492157 -0.006947997 0.4367911 0.0628484
## Seaweed-CBF 0.08992157 -0.131947997 0.3117911 0.8018848
## Compost-CBF_NiR -0.41386667 -0.665828370 -0.1619050 0.0000818
## Seaweed-CBF_NiR -0.53886667 -0.790828370 -0.2869050 0.0000001
## Seaweed-Compost -0.12500000 -0.365236058 0.1152361 0.61262433.2 Return on Investment (RoI)
4. Discussions
summary(cars)## speed dist
## Min. : 4.0 Min. : 2.00
## 1st Qu.:12.0 1st Qu.: 26.00
## Median :15.0 Median : 36.00
## Mean :15.4 Mean : 42.98
## 3rd Qu.:19.0 3rd Qu.: 56.00
## Max. :25.0 Max. :120.00Including Plots
You can also embed plots, for example:
Note that the echo = FALSE parameter was added to the
code chunk to prevent printing of the R code that generated the
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5. Conclusion
6. References
7. Annex
7.1 Namelist of Farmers Partiicpating in the study
| No | Name | Sex | Position | Techniques | Note | Responsible | Village | Commune | District | Province | Pnone number | other |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chhi Chum | M | Trial farmer | CBF + NiR | HUSK | Mr. Sokeang | Bos Veng | Salavisai | Prasat Balangk | KPT | 071 66 72 724 | NA |
| 2 | Noch Khon | F | Trial farmer | Seaweed | AgriSmart | Mr. Tolla | Russei Duoch | Salavisai | Prasat Balangk | KPT | 097 46 97 373 | NA |
| 3 | Sann Chhan | M | Trial farmer | CBF application only | HUSK | Mr. Sokeang | Okroch | Salavisai | Prasat Balangk | KPT | 097 989 55 08 | NA |
| 4 | Kim Yann | M | Trial farmer | CBF + NiR | HUSK | Mr. Sokeang | Bos Veng | Salavisai | Prasat Balangk | KPT | 088 476 9279 | NA |
| 5 | Sok Phean | M | Trial farmer | Bodoux10% &50% | AgriSmart | Mr. Tolla | Tapreach | Tipo | Santuk | KPT | 061 93 97 42 | NA |
| 6 | Hong Khom | M | Trial farmer | Compost | AgriSmart | Mr. Tolla | Tapreach | Tipo | Santuk | KPT | 078 587 375 | NA |
| 7 | Ron Sarann | M | Trial farmer | CBF application only | HUSK | Mr. Sokeang | Okroch | Salavisai | Prasat Balangk | KPT | 088 864 2175 | NA |
| 8 | Heng Ousaphea | F | Trial farmer | CBF application only | HUSK | Mr. Tolla | Tatong | Reaksmei | Roveang | PVH | 088 586 20 69 | NA |
7.2 Booklet for data collection
7.3 Dataset of yield and RoI
# dataset <- read_excel("dataset.xlsx")
# kable(dataset)