Since mid-2013, TSSD has supported piloting a field program on Good Agriculture Practice (GAP) for in vegetables and fruits with a focus on food safety. The program’s first phase, with farmer field schools organized in four pilot sites in Siem Reap, was completed late last year and a workshop was organized late March in Siem Reap Town to promote the program’s results and GAP products, with participations from trained farmers/ growers, interested farmers, vegetable collectors, staff from PDA and representative of selected NGOs.Based on the experiences of the first phase, a training manual and auditing checklist on GAP Vegetables were developed by a team of staff from GAP Office of the MAFF General Directorate of Agriculture (GDA).

The project has now expanded into a second phase in two provinces – Siem Reap (in new districts) and Kampong Cham. To build further capacity for expansion of the GAP initiative, a three-day (July 15-17) Training of Trainer (ToT) on GAP was conducted in Kampong Cham town for 44 (8 female) participants who are staff from Provincial Department of Agriculture and six farmer trainers from both provinces. Resource persons for the training come from MAFF-GDA GAP Office. The participants are now organizing a total of 12 farmer field schools on GAP vegetables in their respective districts - i.e., eight in the province of Kampong Cham/Tboung Khmum and four in Siem Reap.