Mr. LONG Chetra is a 35 years old man and also one of the well-known model farmers in Rattanakiri. He was well-recognized and the only model farmer in the NTFP’s project who can successfully grow “Straw Mushroom” and make a decent living out of his work. Before having his level of success, he has been living as a farmer his entire life. As he described his life,
“I was just a normal farmer without any skill in planting nor hoping to make a good living based on doing farm. I used to have a tough life and barely support my family.” Before involving with NTFP, I followed ancient traditions (primitive way) to do rice farming; and without any knowledge about the market demand, I was just following my neighbor to grow whatever plants I saw were good for selling. One day when I almost gave up on his farm, the village chief introduced him to NTFP, and from that day on NTFP keep inviting him to the training and even support my work on building my mushroom houses with a budget of $1000. My passion has been ignited since then. I keep expanding this straw mushroom garden to which until now, I own about 30m2 of straw mushroom house, and I am even planning to extend more in size to increase his revenue. For all of this, I am very thankful to NTFP for their money, technical training, and even their direct on my farm. It has been a good start for me now and in the future.”
Despite having sound experience in growing straw mushrooms, he does not just keep this good practice to himself. According to him and his leader (Mr. SORN Pov), he even created a telegram group to share his knowledge and experiences on how to grow, prepare, and how to harvest techniques. When asked whether or not he will lose some part of his income, his reply was, “I am happy if they can make a better living like myself, and I believe there is still a huge market demand waiting for me to supply. I think myself alone might leave the gap wide open.”
Mr. LONG Chetra was reported to be able to earn income from his 30m2 for a full whole year since his kind of vegetation can be easily navigating with climate change and other related problems if compare to other types of vegetation with a proper setup and care. According to him, he could keep harvesting every 20 days, and he can have 60-70 kilograms per harvesting. As for the price, he stated that “since this is a pure organic straw mushroom with a good quality, it is quite in a high demand to which I can sell it for $4-$5 per kilogram.” The average collection per harvesting is about 60-65 kilograms meaning he could earn about $250-$325 (approx., $4,000/year). Surprisingly, He is only attended NTFP only a year, but the result has received is either remarkable or huge.
