The agricultural sector in rural Cambodia is confronted with several impacts and limitations resulting from climate change, such as acute water scarcity, elevated temperatures, insufficient markets for input delivery and produce collection, and restricted availability of agricultural technology, credit, and extension. Small-holder farmers in rural Cambodia are being impacted by this. Based on the field insights gained from immersive research, we discovered that supporting the mushroom farmers is a calculated action to meet their needs, enhance their standard of living, and ultimately allow them to prosper in their communities. It is worth noting that mushroom cultivation holds significant potential for livelihood development, climate resilience, and nutrition enhancement in Cambodia.

The iDE Innovation Lab has spent two years since 2022 conducting Human Centred Design (HCD) Research and Solutions Development in relation to the mushroom cultivation ecosystem in Cambodia. This has seen the team conduct in depth field research, and immersive investigation with local mushroom growers to understand their current context especially focusing on their key challenges and opportunities to boost their production, quality and thus, their income. Based on the exploratory research, the team identified the key parameters which most impact the yield and quality of mushrooms to meet the needs of the rural farmers and entrepreneurs. These are: level of ambient Carbon Dioxide, level of humidity, level of temperature during fruiting, and light intensity, colour and duration during the fruiting phase.

In partnership with the local farmers, and the Digital Fabrication and Laboratory (FabLab-ITC) at the Institute of Technology of Cambodia, the team created a smart sensing and control system, which employs sensors and controllers in order to measure and control the humidity, temperature and CO2 level in the growing environment at ideal levels. Using IoT technology, the system updates to a real time dashboard, where the environmental conditions, and relay states can be monitored, to enable farmers to accurately control and monitor their growing conditions, which minimises their consumption of water and electricity, reduce the level of effort needed to control their growing environment, and optimise yield and quality. The control system has been developed to use a simple, Khmer language user interface and to require minimal intervention from farmers, as it is fully automated. This was deliberately done to ensure that this system could be utilised by most farmers, even those with accessibility or language barriers.

The Problem

Nearly eighty percent of the population in Cambodia lives in rural areas, nearly 25 percent of which live on less than $0.84 a day. In addition, more than 70 percent of Cambodians rely entirely on agriculture and livestock for their livelihoods, and yet most do not make enough money to provide their families with ample food or to send their children to school.

In the past 5 years, Cambodia has consistently ranked high in the climate change index of countries affected. Findings from the Innovation Lab projects with USAID Harvest II program have highlighted a number of climate change impacts and constraints faced by the agriculture sector, including: severe water shortages; high temperatures; weak markets for delivery of inputs and collection of produce; and limited access to agricultural extension, technology, and credit. This is aggravated by the lasting impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, which is hitting vulnerable populations and small holder farmers in rural Cambodia at a time when the agricultural sector is already under stress from climate change and the social disruption of widespread labour migration. Additionally, the agricultural sector has suffered an estimated 20-30% drop in demand for higher-value fruits and vegetables - partially due to the effects of Covid-19, which resulted in a reduction in the hospitality business, and a reduction of incomes and livelihoods during Cov-19 has resulted in a reduced consumption of fruits, which are seen as non-essential purchases by the local population.

These factors have resulted in a significant loss of income for most Cambodian smallholder farmers. These factors also impact the food security in Cambodia. Limited availability of vegetables threatens the nutritional status of pregnant women, infants and young children - posing significant risks and irreversible impacts on the physical and cognitive development of children, in a country with stunting in 32.4% of children under 5 years of age.

The Solution

The Sector

It is in this context that mushroom cultivation emerged as an area of focus for programming focused on integrated climate resilient agricultural livelihood development and nutrition. Mushroom cultivation holds significant potential for climate resilience, nutrition enhancement, and livelihood development in Cambodia as they are:

In high demand, which is largely met by farmers outside Cambodia. Currently, nearly 76 percent of the global mushrooms produced come from Asia. However, due to a lack of modern farming techniques and higher production costs in Cambodia, much of the domestic Cambodian demand for mushrooms (around 60% of all produce) is being met by farmers in Vietnam and Thailand.

Relatively resilient to climatic variations and can be grown indoors or in controlled environments, which reduces their vulnerability to adverse weather conditions such as droughts or floods. This makes mushroom cultivation a dependable source of income and food even in areas prone to climate-related challenges.

High in nutritional value as they contain essential vitamins, minerals, and proteins. Integrating mushrooms into diets can help address nutritional deficiencies and improve public health outcomes, especially among vulnerable populations

Minimally resource intensive as mushroom cultivation requires minimal land, water, and chemical inputs. This makes it particularly suitable for small-scale farmers with limited resources

Fast to grow, with short growth cycles which result in multiple quick harvest cycles compared to traditional crops, allowing for multiple harvests within a relatively short period. This rapid turnover enables farmers to generate income more quickly and increases overall productivity per unit of land, enhancing food security and economic resilience.

Rich in potential high-value market opportunities, as there are many opportunities for further processing and value-added products such as dried mushrooms, mushroom-based snacks, or medicinal mushroom products.

The Desired Outcome

The solution need to enable farmers to boost the profitability of mushroom cultivation, by controlling the critical mushroom cultivation factors farmers reported having the most difficulty controlling during the fruiting phase, these were:

the Air humidity

the Carbon Dioxide concentration in the air

The light intensity and duration

These factors are crucial, as they significantly impact the quality and yield of mushrooms which farmers can produce. Additionally all of these factors have a very narrow window within which mushrooms grow optimally. Veering outside of these could have negative impacts for the farmers, such as:

Stunted or curled mushrooms, which result in mushrooms having a lower grade and lower market price

This occurs if CO2 level is above 800 parts per million (ppm)

Significant losses due to mould contamination. Some farmers reported losing up to 30% of their mushroom substrate packets due to contamination.

Contamination with mould is more likely to occur if the air humidity is below 80-95% during fruiting, especially at between 60-70%

The Process

As a result, since 2022, the iDE Innovation Lab, in strategic partnership with the Institute of Technology Cambodia, Wurth Elektronik Eisos has been applying Human-centered Design process to develop solutions in order to boost rural livelihoods in mushroom cultivation in Cambodia. The process is divided into 3 iterative sub-processes: Discover, Experiment and Deliver.

Discover: As a part of the "Discover" stage, the team conducted an empathy-led discovery, working first to understand the mushroom cultivation ecosystem globally, and in Cambodia, including determining the ideal conditions for mushroom cultivation. Then the team worked hand in hand with farmers, to understand their current context, including their suppliers, inputs, growing conditions and methods, key constraints, aspirations and challenges.

Experiment: Based on above-mentioned learnings, the team iteratively developed, tested and refined a mushroom environmental sensing and control system. The system has been tested and piloted with key partner farmers, and is being further refined and continuously developed, in collaboration with them.

Deliver: The team has tested the developed solutions with the farmers and relevant stakeholders. They are now moving towards piloting with the farmers and relevant stakeholders in the field in March 2024 onwards.

The Product

The final control system controls the levels of humidity, carbon dioxide and light in the mushroom growing environment. It also monitors the temperature, and in future iterations, we plan to provide an optional upgrade that includes a cooling pad, to maintain lower temperatures.

The system is composed of three components, they are listed below.

The control system, which senses the environmental conditions. This is a system composed of:

The hardware, which includes the Printed Circuit Board (PCB), sensors (humidity, temperature, CO2), relays, dials, buttons, controllers (fans, lights, misters, pumps, automatic water filling tank and air vents

The software, which includes the coding which sets the maximal and minimal thresholds for the environment (for the sensor-based system) and the connectivity with the Thingsboard dashboard which enables farmers to monitor their growing environment conditions

The control system housing:

This is a water resistant housing which is intended to keep the corrodible, moisture sensitive control system components safe in the high humidity mushroom cultivation environments. This is a 3D printed part made of PLA (Polylactic Acid) for the box, and TPA (Thermoplastic polyamide) for the gaskets used to waterproof and seal all gaps.

The growing environment kit, which includes:

The mushroom cultivation tent

The mushroom hanging shelving

The drainage system (which also prevents pests climbing onto the mushrooms)

This system has been already piloted in four farmers' farms, featuring only the misting system. However, the entire sensor based system will be piloted in his farm in March 2024, as part of a roll out pilot to capture the successes, in order to create a product delivery package to other mushroom farmers.

The Impact

The control system facilitated an initial increase in the yield of mushrooms (defined as the biological efficiency of the mushroom cultivation process in kilograms of mushrooms divided by kilograms of mushroom packets) by 93% when compared with an identical manual set up not controlled by a control system. The impact will be tested further with farmers in March, as part of the rollout with farmers. The development of this control system and a business model for the inclusive commercialisation of this product is forecast to reduce losses and transform the livelihoods of rural Cambodian farmers, and enable them to continue growing mushrooms with ideal yield and quality year round, while optimising their water and energy use. We are also expanding this innovation to other iDE country programs, like Ghana, where iDE is exploring mushroom cultivation to empower female agricultural entrepreneurs.

[We could not attach the video, so here it the public view link: https://www.canva.com/design/DAF_8aCYntM/KJcuy5wjE2b7ZjWdk_LNuQ/watch?utm_content=DAF_8aCYntM&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link&utm_source=editor]