Agritech Diary 2022 part 2
Green Shoots Operations Manager, Muneezay, is in Cambodia visiting the Agri-Tech Centre. Here is her second diary entry from the field!
For real change and impact we must always find the balance between inner reflection and outward messaging. How we think about our projects and how we speak about them. The last one week has been spent hosting our first group of school students at the Agri-Tech Centre in a long time and then jetting off to Phnom Penh for meetings with interested parties about our work.
A real sense of joy comes from being able to communicate activities on the ground as they happen, to understand the potential they currently have and contribution they can make across the country.
Many of you may know our Agri-Tech Centre is located in the northern most province of Oddar Meanchey- two hours by road from Siem Reap and nearly nine hours to Phnom Penh (the last one hour is what it takes to move through the traffic choked outskirts of the capital). It is also the most recently carved administrative area in Cambodia (in 1991)
In the city one of the most significant meetings was with the Royal University of Agriculture (RUA, Est. in 1964). The team we work with Centre for Excellence in Sustainable Agriculture Intensification and Nutrition (CESAIN) were excited to learn more about the Centre, appreciated our values and applauded using it as a space to host interns and students. Yes!, The Green Shoots Agri-Tech centre is being given a chance to be a hub for agronomy students and fresh graduates from the RUA as they formulate their career paths or agribusiness ideas. This hits home with Green Shoots mission for FASE “to “Revitalising rural economies by sustainable agriculture skills and business development.”
The way to revitalise rural economies is to have options for young people here: for skills training, for enterprise development and having role models. So in the coming weeks and days we will be working on an internship agenda for any students that apply or want to be placed here- especially those from Oddar Meanchey. We are also excited to have Ms Chhengleap, our Projects Manager, take the lead on this. After spending 6 years in Phnom Penh studying (three or which were at the RUA studying Agronomy) she is back in her home province of Oddar Meanchey. Unknown to her, but her journey can be both inspirational and aspirational to the students that walk thorough our floral arches.
To get more instantaneous updates of what we are getting up to, you can follow us on instagram https://www.instagram.com/greenshootsfoundation/
