The collaboration between Open Development Cambodia (ODC) and the Prek Leap National Institute of Agriculture (PLNIA)

To promote the use of open data, ODC collaborates with several universities in Cambodia to support young researchers with their theses. In 2018, ODC and the East-West Management Institute (EWMI) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Preak Leap National Institute of Agriculture to build further academic and research cooperation.

The following year, in 2019, ODC designed a competition to select and provide grants to final year Bachelor students researching the field of Open Data Agriculture, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Agro-industries, Land and Natural Resource Management (NRM). The final purpose of such grants is to build the research capacity of students at PLNIA.

The first workshop at PLNIA was conducted on 25 January 2021, at which ODC shared its expertise on research design and announced the grant opportunity to senior students. A total of 20 participants attended the workshop, including women and a monk. Notably, the event was a successful opportunity to encourage young researchers and senior students.

The first workshop at PLNIA, on 25 January 2021.

The first workshop at PLNIA, on 25 January 2021.

The call was published online on the ODC platform in English and Khmer, and applications were also submitted online. During the grant application process, ODC was delighted to receive applications from many promising candidates. The selection process, which expert members of the ODC team conducted, culminated with selecting three grantees – two of which were women.

On 5 May 2021, ODC hosted the first kick-off meeting with the selected candidates and their supervisors to further discuss their expectations and manage the contracts’ formalization. The meeting was conducted online due to the severe situation resulting from COVID-19.

The first kick-off meeting with the selected candidates and their supervisors

An overview of the three selected projects is provided in this section. One of the candidates studied the presence of Salmonella in the pork sold in markets around Phnom Penh. Her study focuses on two main objectives. First, she wants to find the total bacteria count in each sample of pork meat, and second, she studies the prevalence of Salmonella spp. A total of 20 samples have been selected from five different markets in the city, namely Chroy Changvar Agricultural Market, Kandal Market, Prek Leap Market, Toul Sangke Market, and Phnom Penh Central Market. This study can provide meaningful recommendations for quality control and measurement on pork in Phnom Penh’s market and raise awareness about pork consumers’ quality standards.

A second candidate focused on the effectiveness of fermented feed on the intake and performance of local beef cattle in Kompong Chhnang province. In her study, she experiments with two ways of raising cows. To the first group, she feeds cows with regular food used by farmers, while she feeds a second group with fermented grass. This study provides crucial insights to enhance the capacity of farmers to raise their cows successfully.

In his study, a third candidate studies the effect of “Chaya leaves” meal in concentrated feed on growth performance of quail in Prek Leap National Institute of Agriculture. In his experiment, he divides 240 quails into four groups by feeding them different amounts of Chaya leaves for six weeks. One group is fed without Chaya leaves, the second group has 2.5% Chaya leaves, the third group has 5% Chaya leaves, and the fourth group with 7.5% Chaya leaves. This study would suggest an effective way to raise quail most naturally.

Our grants awardees have been using the grants received from ODC to support their thesis, which covered the costs of experiments and equipment required.

Meat quality testing.

New grass was planted for composting.

Heating quail.

Feed mix for quail.

All three grant awardees successfully defended their respective theses on 9 September 2021 and finished the final revision on 29 September 2021.

ODC has faced some challenges throughout the project implementation. The major one had to do with the restrictions derived from the COVID-19 pandemic. Given the mobility and gathering restrictions and the closure of educational institutions, our team could not conduct more in-person activities at the university, which hindered our capacity to reach the expected number of submissions. Besides, the health situation worsened during the student thesis period, which posed significant challenges in their research activities. Their data and sample collection and testing were much more time-consuming than a regular situation, resulting in delays in their submission and defense dates. The second challenge is that even though we could select three candidates for the grants, their theses barely aligned with the proposed theme that ODC was looking for, which might be partially connected with the fact that the number of applications received was lower than expected.

To minimize the second challenge, ODC will direct the grants to a more specific department that covers the areas more aligned with ODC’s topics in future editions.