How BRM Agro Positively Impacts Our Community
The founders of BRM Agro have a rich history of working in agriculture and promoting projects that have tangible benefits for the communities they operate in.
As an integrated rice farm and rice milling company in Kampong Thom province, we explore and implement innovative approaches and at the core of our philosophy is a Citizen Impact and a driving belief that we can help Cambodian farmers and the agriculture industry be a world leader.
BRM Agro Farming Community - Improved Infrastructure
When the business was established In 2015, we built a 13 km long road linking Highway 6 to our BRM Agro farm by 2016. There were huge impacts for the community and smallholder, farmers from the investment in this road:
- Over 20,000 hectares of farmland that were minimally farmed before the road was built was opened up due to the easier access
- As part of the construction, we built canals along the road and linked to the Cambodian Government’s canal project in 2019 - This $1.6mn invested irrigation system now provides farmers in the area with better irrigation access and the ability to grow crops twice yearly, substantially increasing income levels.
- The upgrade of infrastructure in our surrounding communities has also been improved with regards to access to electricity, and access to hospital care and clinics.
BRM’s Agro Cooperative Smallholder Farmer Model
Our model of working with smallholder farmers in the community provides families with a number of benefits. The land rented out to local farmers is paired with a suite of value-added services to improve productivity and quality. The full-service package includes:
- Drone-spraying
- Access to modern drying and milling methods
- Enhanced logistics support
- Upfront financing
- Providing farmers with a market outlet and prices that are $20-30 higher per MT than BRM’s main competitors via a contract farming approach.
Farmers also have access to BRM-owned farming equipment such as tilling, planting, harvesting, crane trucks, etc.
Gender Empowerment
We believe that when women in society improve their livelihoods - all of society benefits. BRM Agro empowers women through active recruitment and training and in 2023 over 30% of BRM’s management team are female - including our Operations Manager in Kampong Thom - and 50% of all rice farmers in BRM Agro’s supply network are currently women.
We also offer several programs that support the women and mothers who work with us:
- Gender Sensitivity Training - annual courses for all staff in gender sensitivity and support.
- Single Mother Support Program - supports single mothers with child care, school fees, and free nutritional meals as well as providing a safe environment for children at our BRM Agro mill management housing area.
- Gender Workplace Protection and Anti-Harassment Policy - Established and enforced on-site.
We are further investing in providing a creche area on site as well as a safe children's playground and there is much more to come!
By 2027, we will aim to expand operations and our supplier network significantly to work with over one thousand families on BRM land & non-BRM land.
