Page 31 - Agricultural innovation

farmers. Afterwards, once Amru Rice receives the rice, they will process the rice and ship them to Sano
Rice in the Netherlands which will then create another digital contract. Sano Rice will process the rice
into rice crackers and sell them to retailers such as Do It Organic, UDEA and Ekoplaza.
Within this creation of the prototype, the developer is also trying to limit the data elements and
input as much as possible in order to provide user-friendly characteristics to farmers. There is no
solid application format formally disseminated yet; however, in order to register farmers and create
an account for them there will be inputs of: their names, whether they are farmers or agricultural
cooperatives, types of crop they are selling, their field actions and they can pick their buyers if they are
selling. Moreover, the Analyzing Development Issues Centre (ADIC) in Cambodia is also involved in
the evaluation process to conduct research on the impact of the BlocRice project and examine how this
implementation has improved farmers’ livelihood.

4.1.3. Opportunities and challenges
There were several challenges faced while implementing the project. Firstly, the knowledge capacity
and digital literacy among farmers is not yet enhanced in Cambodia and there are also issues with
infrastructure to use this application as farmers may not have access to internet connections or the
adequate smartphones to use. With this issue, Oxfam supported farmers and sees this as an opportunity
by providing them with smartphones to ease their usage alongside training as well.
Secondly, Oxfam is still trying to explore for local partners to support BlocRice’s system maintenance
in order to make the application as simple and user-friendly as possible. However, they are still in the
process and have not found a partner yet.
Lastly, there is still a lack of trust between farmers and actors in the supply chain because most
businesses tend to think about their personal profits and there are many conditions to be applied in
order for each actor in the value chain to fully trust one another. Thus, financial support from the
government would be beneficial in this project because there has been support in the past from the
public sector; however, there are still more commitments needed.
Oxfam sees potential in this project and not just for rice because they could expand to other
commodities such as cassava, potatoes, cashew nuts and pepper if there are opportunities for them to
expand. The application itself already is working but if they would like to expand to other commodities,
they would have to explore with local people step-by-step to see whether it would work to endure the
sustainability because such expansion would need resources and support.
BlocRice would also like to test their branding that they have built because Cambodian organic
rice is internationally recognised; thus, if the international markets value Cambodian products, this
would increase the demands and the supply would increase simultaneously and this would contribute
to sustainability for farmers.

4.1.4. Conclusions
This experimental model has had many successes, but to be widely applied and deployed in practice,
certain conditions are needed. Although there were many workshops and regulations established to
steer the development of digitalization in Cambodia, the population that receives and has access to the
tools and knowledge are still limited which may slower the progress in terms of meeting the demands
of production or the requirements that are set out in the models’ application.
Nonetheless, Blocrice strives to improve this aspect with the help of partners as well as seeking for
government’s support and national or international support because its traceability characteristics,
farmers’ livelihood in a long-term aspect is expected to enhance and develop better market price as
well as negotiation power to maintain sustainability in the agricultural value chain.

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