Officials are seeking expert firms to implement projects on so-called contract farming and the enhancement of the involvement of farmers’ organisations in paddy collecting and processing, officials said.
Contract farming is an agreement on agricultural production carried out between a farmer and buyers, which establishes conditions for the production and marketing of a farm product or products. …
Mao Thora, secretary of state for the Ministry of Commerce, said Agence Francaise de Developpement (AFD) provided €6 million ($7.7 million) for projects including contract farming and providing loans. …
Representatives of 171 Pursat families who claim to have been unfairly left out of the government’s land-titling process said they have reached a tentative agreement with the minister of Industry, Mines and Energy to continue farming on the Bakan district land they have occupied for years.
Pin Syli, a villager from Andoung III, said he and about 150 people met with minister Suy Sem yesterday while he was distributing titles to other Pursat residents and lodged their complaint. …
The families say they were passed over for titling in November after student land measurers said the areas had been slated as a social land concession for retired and handicapped soldiers. …
A few years ago this scene would have played out in China. More specifically, it would have played out in a Chinese coastal region to which millions of rural folks had arrived looking for work. A huge hangar, piles of fabrics of all colors at both ends, and some 200 heads lowered over sewing machines set up one behind the other.
The atmosphere is not oppressive, just focused. But the workers here are too dark-skinned to be Chinese – though there are some: the managers of this clothes factory on the outskirts of the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh.
From his office next door, He Enjia directs operations at Sunkind Textile. He left China in 1996 to set up his first factory in Cambodia. At the time, he was a pioneer. He moved for one reason – to get around export quotas on Chinese fabrics.
Sixteen years later the sector has exploded. It generates over $4 billion of revenue a year, which makes it Cambodia’s biggest export by far. In a country of only 14 million inhabitants, the textile industry employs over 300,000 in the Phnom Penh region and plays a major role in the annual growth of 7% on average that the kingdom has been experiencing over the past decade.
Attracted by the legal framework, which is very favorable for investors, the Chinese have taken the lead. “Cambodia is the easiest Asian country to invest in,” says Daniel Zarba, Director General of the Franco-Cambodian Chamber of Commerce. What’s more, the cost of production is lower in Cambodia than it is in China. “Here a worker costs on average $150 a month compared to $600 in China. Even if you take into account the fact that Cambodians are less productive, it still means your labor is two times less expensive,” says He Enjia. …
The textile industry is part of a much wider phenomenon. In Cambodia, in the logging, mining, farming, construction, and energy sectors, the Chinese are filling their pockets. The six hydroelectric dams presently being built? All by Chinese companies. The mines in the north? Often run by Chinese groups. “I even saw Chinese soldiers guarding the entrance to a mine,” says a European man living in Phnom Penh. At the recently created Phnom Penh Stock Exchange, where only one – state-owned – company is listed, the Chinese presence is freely acknowledged. “In many sectors, Chinese investors are essential for us,” explains Charles Lu, deputy director of Phnom Penh Securities, adding that Chinese groups invested $9.1 billion in Cambodia between 1994 and 2012. …
Kratie province – Cambodia’s transformation from war-torn basket-case to one of Asia’s most promising emerging economies is being overshadowed by a backwards lurch in human rights and land policies that critics say are entrenching poverty.
Next week’s visit by Barack Obama, the fist by a U.S. president, will in some ways set the seal on the emergence of Cambodia’s $13 billion economy under Prime Minister Hun Sen as it draws unprecedented interest from investors. It’s garment export industry is booming, tourist numbers are surging and low-end manufacturing is taking off as companies seek a cheaper alternative to China. Phnom Penh is being transformed by plush new buildings and luxury imported cars. …
Rating agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P) on Friday reaffirmed Cambodia’s long-term sovereign credit rating of “B” due to the country’s positive growth outlook, but again warned of risks related to the country’s narrow economic base. …
“Economic output growth is vulnerable due to the still large weight of agriculture, and the narrow profile of both the industry and service sectors,” the report says, adding that agriculture comprises 30 percent of the overall gross domestic product, while employing nearly 60 percent of the population. …
The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, along with Prey Veng provincial agriculture experts and villagers in Svay Ourntor district, are taking measures to eradicate golden apple snails, which feed on rice seedlings, agriculture officials said.
According to Prey Veng agriculture chief Ouk Samnang, only a couple of the more than 100,000 hectares of rice in the province had been destroyed by the snails, but villagers had nonetheless expressed concern for their seedlings, and the prime minister had urged the department to cooperate…
The collective power of agricultural co-operatives could bring huge benefits to poor, small-scale farmers, a Phnom Penh conference for international World Food Day heard on Friday.
The sentiments were shared by the director of Cambodia’s General Directorate of Agriculture, So Khan Rithy Kun, who said farming co-ops played a significant role in ending world hunger and were part of Cambodia’s draft Law on the Management and Use of Agricultural Land, which is waiting to be passed.
The conference, held at the Royal University of Agriculture with the theme Agricultural Cooperatives: Key to Feeding the World and sponsored by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, drew farmers’ groups, civil society representatives and policymakers. …
The key to lifting people out of poverty could be found in the setting up of farming cooperatives, the country director of the World Food Program said on Friday, which was also World Food Day.
Jean-Pierre de Margerie, country director of the World Food Program, said 1 in 5 Cambodians currently go hungry every day. …
“The majority of Cambodians depend on agriculture to support their families,” Mr. de Margerie told a crowd of several hundred people- including 50 farmer’s associations- during an event at the Royal University of Agriculture. “Agriculture is key, and the key to agriculture is establishing cooperatives and associations,” he said.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), more than 40,000 families in Phnom Penh live in extreme poverty. …
A senior agricultural official is concerned by the prevalence of fake fertilizers that cause stunted rice crops and reduce farmers’ profits.
Ngin Chhay, director of the Rice Crops Department in the Ministry of Agriculture, Fishery and Forestry, told the Development Research Forum in Phnom Penh yesterday the products were not up to standard and not only made paddy rice grow slowly, but also killed the rice plants. …
World Bank President Jim Yong Kim said yesterday that climate change will be a concern in some Asian countries, including Cambodia.
He encouraged the countries to find ways to manage any affects on their economies. Economists recognize it will lower growth in some main sectors of the economy – especially the agricultural sector. …
Drought has hit 11 of the 24 provinces in Cambodia and affects tens of thousands of hectares of rice seedlings, according to the National Committee for Disaster Management. …
More investment is needed as well as additional assistance for farmers if the government wants to meet its export goal of 1 million tons of rice a year by 2015, according to experts at a recent rice sector meeting in Phnom Penh.
Participants said rice millers would need substantial access to financing to update their machinery to bring their rice up to international standards and boost efficiency. …
But in the 2012 budget, the government allocated US$231 million to the entire agriculture sector and Mey Kaylan, a senior government adviser said the government does not have the means to offer loans to farmers.
Only about 40 of Cambodia’s more than 200 rice mills can process rice that meets international export standards.
In an effort to promote rice exports among Cambodian farmers, government officials said on Tuesday they will register the type of rice seed set for export and the rice seed produced for the national market.
Cham Prasidh, Minister of Commerce, said on the closing of the 2nd Rice Forum held by the Cambodian Small and Medium Enterprise Union his ministry will list the varieties of rice seed needed for local and international markets and communicate it to the farmers. …
Rice experts said that this is a difficult task because of the shortage of some kind of rice seeds and the difficulty to respond to high demand. …
Cambodia’s total export of milled rice via the single window office slightly increased by two per cent over the first nine months of this year compared to the same period last year, according to data from the Ministry of Agriculture.
Speaking at the Cambodian Rice Forum yesterday, Hean Vannhorn, deputy director general of the ministry and director of the single window secretariat, said the country exported 131,064 tonnes over the first nine months, compared to 128,368 tonnes in the same period last year.
He said the country’s total export of milled rice to the global market is below the plan, citing the limitation of the market which mainly demands fragrant milled rice. …
When 29-year-old store manager Srey Mom sent her mother in Takeo province some money to pay young people to help with the rice planting, her mother told her it was no use – the young people had abandoned the village to seek their fortunes in Phnom Penh. …
It’s a familiar story in a city teeming with young rural immigrants, a new in-depth report into the unprecedented Cambodian migration trend shows. …
According to the Cambodian Rural Urban Migration Report Project (CRUMP), undertaken by the Ministry of Planning and United Nations Population Fund Cambodia, young people from the provinces are flooding into the capital for work and education opportunities, creating a sometimes detrimental chain reaction for villages back home. …
As well as facing a labour shortage on farms, more parents are also raising their grandchildren. Of the eight per cent of workers with children living “elsewhere”, the majority leave their children with their parents. …
The executive committee of the Alliance of Rice Producers and Exporters of Cambodia, ARPEC, decided earlier this month to set up a commercial arm to help members get financing for a variety of rice-related activities.
According to ARPEC secretary-general Hun Lak and deputy secretary-general David Van, the executive committee of the association agreed to provide advocacy to members on rice issues with government agencies and provide adequate services to members by providing rice bags, facilitating loans from banks to members and broadcasting a weekly news flash related to global rice market prices and trends in the Khmer language.
The ARPEC executive committee also decided to register a commercial entity to pool resources among members to provide guaranteed or collateral loans for in-house financing to members and use the pooled resources to negotiate further loan facilities from other local or foreign commercial banks in order to obtain better interest rates and bigger loans. …
In May, the first group of vegetable producers in Cambodia was certified on the basis of COrAA’s “Standards for Chemical-free Crop Production”.
The 72 farmers, belonging to the Women Chemical-free vegetable-producing group of the Vegetable Supply Co-operative in Svay Rieng, have been producing healthy vegetables for several years. But the certification gives them a boost in marketing as they now sell also more vegetables in Phnom Penh. …
For many years the production of organic and chemical-free produce was chiefly in the hands of small-scale producers, commonly cultivating just a few hundred square meters In view of the increasing demand, several commercial farms are currently establishing the cultivation of organic vegetables on a larger scale. Two of these farms are now certified as producers of chemical-free vegetables.
Several ASEAN countries, including Cambodia, have witnessed a growing demand for organic rice that local producers cannot satisfy, according to Winfried Scheewe, adviser to the Cambodian Organic Agriculture Association (COrAA). …
Scheewe says demand for organic rice is on the rise, especially in the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore, but also outside ASEAN, such as in Hong Kong. “In Phnom Penh, there is also more demand,” he says.
According to COrAA standards, producers interested in organic farming need to revamp their whole farms to a sustainable organic farming system, banning chemical fertilisers or other chemical substances such as pesticides and fungicides. …
Cambodia aims to export a million tonnes of rice by 2015. According to Bredehoeft, the inclusion of organic rice would be an advantage, given that organic rice can be sold for 20 or 30 per cent more than the price of ordinary rice.
It has been more than two years since the Cambodian government issued a rice export policy in June 2010, aiming to export a million tonnes of milled rice by 2015. However, a shortage of capital to buy unmilled rice, known as “paddy”, together with high electricity and transportation costs, still challenge the government in achieving that goal.
Cambodia’s Commerce Minister, Cham Prasidh, said at the national assembly on rice policy in August that it required between US$700 million and $1 billion a year to buy the paddy-rice surplus from the farmers and prepare the milled rice for export. He said some paddy-rice surplus had been illegally exported to Thailand and Vietnam for milling, causing Cambodia to lose out on the work being done in-country. …
Cambodia’s exports of milled rice dropped about 35 per cent in the first half of this year to 78,000 tonnes, compared with 120,000 tonnes during the corresponding period of 2011, according to the Ministry of Agriculture.
Data from the agriculture, forestry and fisheries ministry shows that in 2011, Cambodia could produce about 7.8 million tonnes of paddy rice and with a surplus of 4.34 million tonnes of paddy rice, which is equal to 2.78 million tonnes of milled rice.
While the global economic crisis weakened the ability of Cambodian households to purchase food, the government’s focus on agricultural production and other policies have since helped alleviate food insecurity in the country, the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development said in a new report.
Between June 2007 and June 2008, the number of homes in Cambodia that did not have sufficient income for food or other essentials increased from 62 to 69 percent, according to the report. However, Cambodia’s “massive increase in agricultural production” during the past decade, including a 359 percent increase in maize, 89 percent increase in vegetables and 82 percent increase in paddy rice, has made the country more food secure which refers to the household’s physical and economic access to food.
According to the U.N. report, Cambodia has “one of the most coherent sets of policies for food security and agriculture.” …
Rural Cambodian communities are seeing economic benefits as a result of a biomass and farming resilience project run by GERES, a French NGO.
As part of the AREA project, 200 households in Kampong Chhnang province are growing 22 varieties of trees to negate the effects of deforestation, including the shortage of fuel wood. …
Cambodia is abundant in biofuel sources, such as sugarcane and coconut shells; however, they need to be planted on a large scale, using land that can be used for food, according to Van Rijn. …
The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation is currently offering technical assistance to the ASEAN secretariat to ensure that bioenergy production does not infringe on food production in the region, according to it’s website, which states: “Bioenergy also offers opportunities to increase incomes and employment in rural areas, provided that appropriate policies and investments are put in place to enable smallholders to take advantage of growing biofuel markets.”
