April 24, 2019
The impact of a cow bank on local lives
Many young people in Slarp Pang village in Battambang province seek job opportunities in other countries in order to help support their families, leaving an ageing farmer population behind to face harsh weather conditions. Even though the situation for many here seems dire, there is still hope as two organisations have established a cow bank to empower the community.

Banan district, Battambang province – A thin man stands tall here in Ta Kream commune’s Slarp Pang village.

The man is named Has Sarath and he is proud of what he has accomplished ever since Japan’s Kurume Overseas Volunteer Collaborations and Appropriate Technology International Movement came to the village in 2015 to lend villagers female cows to promote breeding, and eventually uplift their livelihoods.

Like many in Slarp Pang village, Mr Sarath is a farmer. Thanks to KOVC and AIM, Mr Sarath is able to borrow two female cows from the organisations’ cow bank.

“In order to borrow a cow, we have to make a deal with the organisations,” he says. “We have to give the organisations every firstborn calf, and we can keep the second.”

The 63-year-old farmer says aside from lending cows, the two organisations also train villagers on how to raise the calves.
https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50597361/t ... cal-lives/

Great initiative here by WWF in creating a "cow bank" for local people in Kratie province:

Cambodia News, (Kratie province): In Kratie’s Prek Prasab Wildlife Sanctuary, 51 community members were engaged in the “Cow Bank Group” initiated under WWF’s community livelihoods project in 2018 to support financial sustainability and improved household income of the community patrolling members who help protect the endangered hog deer in the protected area.


To start with, 14 cows were given to the community members to raise and breed for calves to be shared to the rest of the members. Recently, the first five calves were born and given to other members.
The members who were given the cows at the start of the project have to contribute three calves to the remaining members and one calf to the “Cow Bank Saving Group” before they can own the given cows.
#CommunityForestry; #HogDeer
https://www.facebook.com/PaFFproject/

The cattle production sector has developed remarkably in recent years.
By Pen Srey Neat
March 19, 2021

Cambodia News, (Phnom Penh): His Excellency Veng Sakhon, Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, on March 19, 2021, stated that the cattle production sector has made significant progress in recent years as many cattle owners have shifted from letting the cattle roam free to keeping them enclosed and making sure they are well fed.


For decades, farmers' cattle have been allowed to wander in search of food, through rice fields, public places, roadsides and canal banks. Leaving the cows to wander puts them at risk for infectious diseases, eating unhealthy foods, and especially natural mating. It also puts them at risk of traffic accidents, and other accidents such as drowning. As a result, the meat is tough and the calves are slow to grow, and they remain small and easily infected.
Now, on the contrary, farmers are having better results by raising cattle commercially, in cages or enclosed fields.



Many more photos of Cambodian cows and cow farms here: https://cen-news.com/archives/310868.html