Agri-Tech Centre 2022
Green Shoots Operations Manager, Muneezay, is in Cambodia visiting the Agri-Tech Centre. Here is her first diary entry from the field!
Two weeks certainly fly by! I still remember arriving back in Samrong, Oddar Meanchey and getting on my bicycle to visit the Agri-Tech Centre. I saw familiar vistas, a few modifications and a few ruins (the roads). Once out of the Samrong Town area I peddled towards the village of Trabek, I could see new shops and “coffee kiosks” had cropped up in places. Frappe style drinks had started to become popular last time I was here in August 2019. The sun is beating down, and I keep going- until I realised I missed the turning! shocking. But so much of the road had changed, new roof tops peaked through the trees, the land flanking our dirt road had been cleared and filled in. But then eventually I was there, in front of the Centre- and time has been kind to it.
Vines and creepers were snaking up the entrance that we had so meticulously rebuilt after a storm. I cycled through and took in the space- its wild and overgrown corners, carefully tended to meeting places (five hammocks have been strung around a grove in the middle) and slightly unused and neglected spots. On the whole it was looking good- and the not so good parts can easily be fixed!
Covid-19 meant the space was denied the metamorphosis we had envisioned- no students, no volunteers and no visitors (at least not the ones we had planned for). The Centre could not entirely live up to its intentions to be a community space and do a service to local students. However, what it did manage to do was a service to the environment. It’s taken me two weeks to write this because over the last few days I noticed the regenerative capacity of this space and the effort our staff and volunteers have put in come to fruition. This has entailed taking stock of fruits and trees that have been growing (32 species and still counting), visitors in the guise of pollinators and insects and the increased fertility of the earth.
Over the next few weeks I am planning a series of blogs to focus the opportunities of learning presented by the Agri-Tech Centre during this visit. This includes seasonality, foraging, integrated farming and having a closed loop on site.
Until next week!
Muneezay
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