Siem Reap Catholic Church

“Chomka Preah Yesu” – The Farm of Jesus

After serving the poor in Old Piek Snaing village in Siem Reap, Cambodia for several years, the Catholic Church dreamed of having a farm to help the poor by providing:

• An example of efficient land use
• Seedlings to encourage people to grow different kinds of vegetables and fruit trees for their own consumption and as a source of income
• Training to the local community on how to raise farm animals more productively

The produce of the farm would eventually enable the Church to become self-sufficient as we continue to help the poor int he area. The farm would also serve as a quiet place for our youth of different parishes to come for reflection and training.

In 2007, through God’s blessing and generous help from many friends all over the world, we bought a piece of land in what is now called New Piek Snaing. After 3 months of hard work by our dedicated staff and workers, we were finally able to sow the seeds of our dream.

The Farm of Jesus

Since starting work on the farm, the local villagers have called us “Chomka Preah Yesu” or the Farm of Jesus. We hope and pray that when poeple visit us on the farm, they will meet and love Jesus.

Reservoir-cum-Fish-Pond

Flourishing Nursery

On the farm, we have built a reservoir-cum-fish-pond for irrigation, greenhouse and nursery to grow different kinds of vegetables and fruit seedlings, accommodation for our staff and workers, a wooden chapel and hall for community activities.

Today, we have Khmer and English literacy classes for the local children and simple agriculture training for our workers and villagers. We have also built a cow shed for our 7 cows that we bought with the generous sponsorship from friends of the Church. 

Seedlings and Fruit Trees

In addition to vegetables such as long beans, eggplant, chillies, sweet basil and tomatoes, our nursery also contains seedlings from a wide variety of fruit trees. The difficulty in getting seeds for non-indigenious fruit trees in Cambodia was overcome by the use of grafting and other simple agricultural techniques. A total of 2,795 fruit trees have been planted on the farm such as mango, durian, jack fruit, papaya and rambutans.

Durian Trees - 250

Mango Trees - 210

Youth Participation 

Since the farm opened in 2007, many youths from Australia, England, Korea, Singapore and USA have come to help out on the farm and even teach English to their peers in the local community.

 

 

Staff and Workers 

Reynaldo and Fr. Steve Curtain (Dir. Jersuit Mission Australia)

Reynaldo and staff with our Harvest

Reynaldo Diez is our first Lay Missionary volunteer from the Philippines who joined as full-time staff in November 2007. His experience with agricultural practices has been invaluable to our farm project. After only 10 months, God has blessed us with the following harvest:

• vegetables, watermelons, pumpkins, sweet potatoes and maize that we have sold
• more families clearing the land and living close to our farm
• more people interested to learn from our farm activities 

Next Steps:

With the farm now operational, we plan to start the following initiatives:

• a new water-tower and sprinkler system to improve irrigation
• increase non-indigenious fruits and vegetables seedlings
• materials and stems for grafting
• agriculture and animal husbandry training
• operating the Cow Bank to empower the poor
• work with youths and local poor to start Seedling Bank

Cow Bank

Cow Bank

The objective of the Cow Bank is to empower the local poor to finally own livestock. A mother cow from the farm is assigned to a selected family who is responsible the caring and impregnation of the cow, either with one of the farm’s bulls or with other bulls in the village.

The first live-born calf is returned to the church and the family keeps the second-born live calf. The third-born live calf is returned to the church and the family keeps the mother cow. This implies that the family can own livestock in as little as 2 years.

In addition, the family can exchange for money or seedlings, cow manure as fertilizer for the farm.

The farm recently celebrated the birth of its first 2 calves from the 4 cows and 2 bulls sponsored by friends of the Church. They also welcomed its first member of the Cow Bank in April this year. For as little as USD$400 (USD$600), you can participate as a Sponsor of the Cow Bank.