Agriculture and fishing
Group Considers Complaint Against Sugar Giant
A London-based sugar trade association aiming to promote a more ethical and sustainable industry will meet early next month to consider a request from Cambodian farmers that it eject U.K.-based sugar firm Tate & Lyle from the group unless it gives them back their land. Some ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/group-considers-complaint-against-sugar-giant-32001/
Cambodian Agricultural Research Center Honored
The Cambodian Center for Study and Development in Agriculture has been recognized for its contributions to Cambodians by the a group of experts at Food Tank. The US-based think tank said the center, known in Cambodia as Cedac, was responsible for higher yields in Cambodian agriculture ...
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/cambodian-agricultural-research-center-honored/1688200.html
FGVH to develop upstream, downstream plantation business in Cambodia
Felda Global Ventures Holdings Bhd (FGVH) is planning to develop upstream and downstream activities in the plantation sector in Cambodia. Chief executive officer-designate Dr Emir Mavani Abdullah said that apart from marketing its products, including palm oil-based products in Cambodia, FGVH was also planning to set up rubber ...
http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2013/6/25/business/13283257&sec=business
Hun Sen Mocks Opposition Request for Donors to Freeze Aid
Prime Minister Hun Sen on Saturday rebuked the opposition for urging foreign donors to refrain from signing any new agreements with the government until after the election and boasted of a new $26 million handed over last week by the European Union (E.U.) E.U. Ambassador ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/hun-sen-mocks-opposition-request-for-donors-to-freeze-aid-31547/
In carbon, gains for agriculture
Paying Cambodian farmers to capture carbon by not removing mulch during planting and harvesting would help support climate change mitigation, reduce soil deterioration and return higher yields in the long term, say leading agriculture experts. Speaking at a conference in Phnom Penh last Friday, Professor Rattan ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013062466434/Business/in-carbon-gains-for-agriculture.html
Govt and UN to save coasts
The Fisheries Administration and the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) on Friday officially launched a program to protect Cambodia’s coastline from over-fishing, erosion and other damage to coastal environments and livelihoods. Since the beginning of the year, the program has been training local officials ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013062466440/National/govt-and-un-to-save-coasts.html
Thai rice cuts pose problems
Thailand’s recent announcement of a 20 per cent price cut within the government rice-pledging scheme will have little impact for Cambodian exports, but farmers may feel the effects, say industry insiders. In an article published in the Bangkok Post on June 19, Thailand’s cabinet had agreed ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013062166407/Business/thai-rice-cuts-pose-problems.html
Despite Law, Minority Rights Receive Very Few Protections
The government does little to protect the rights and livelihoods of the country’s many ethnic minorities who are under constant threat from rapid development, representatives of indigenous groups said yesterday. “We have polices laws and guidelines to protect indigenous people, but we see that it doesn’t ...
In Mondolkiri, Political Candidates Address Ethnic Minority Concerns
Human rights workers and other civil society groups on Wednesday urged the competing political parties for July’s election to address the ongoing land crises and illegal deforestation that are hurting indigenous populations. About 100 people from various ethnic minority groups from five provinces attended a forum ...
Cambodia posts sharpest increase in rice output among major producers
Cambodia posted the sharpest increase in production among the world’s major rice producers between 2000 and 2010, the Food and Agricultural Organization said in a report released Wednesday. The 2013 edition of the UN agency’s Statistical Yearbook showed that Cambodia was the world’s 12th largest rice ...
http://www.thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=13&token=OTRlZjk2Yzg3OTd
Mekong Dams Threaten Extinction of Giant Catfish
The elusive Mekong giant catfish, which the U.S.-based World Wildlife Fund (WWF) called “one of the world’s largest and rarest freshwater fish,” can reach up to three meters (10 feet) and weigh up to 300 kilograms (660 pounds). The Xayaburi dam would prove an “impassable barrier” ...
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/laos/dams-06192013184629.html
Judge forces sparse settlement on family of beaten children
The Ratanakkiri Provincial Court yesterday forced a family whose three children were allegedly beaten by DM Group firm employees last month to accept only $1,000 in compensation in place of the $40,000 the family initially had demanded, the children’s father claimed. Ry Sarun, 52, said that ...
Cambodia shrugs at Gambia’s import ban
Gambia’s recent announcement that it would ban rice imports in about three years to spur local demand will only have a small impact on Cambodia, which sends a portion of its annual output to the west African country and other nations on the continent, data ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013061866317/Business/cambodia-shrugs-at-gambia-s-import-ban.html
Cassava farmers rely on Thai seed imports
Cassava farmers in Banteay Meanchey province had to import seeds from Thailand this season in response to rapidly-changing weather conditions that interfered with seed growth. Te Haing, a cassava farmer in Banteay Meanchey who planted more than 1,000 hectares this season, told the Post yesterday that ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013061766299/Business/cassava-farmers-rely-on-thai-seed-imports.html
Hundreds Protest Over Forest Land Seizures
More than 700 villagers from five provinces yesterday protested in front of the provincial government headquarters in Kompong Chhnang after losing their community forests to large agro-industry firms. Organized by the Cambodian Grassroots People’s Assembly- a network of communities that includes forestry and land activists as ...
Call for Oversight of Cambodian Land Campaign
A land titling campaign in Cambodia launched and financed by Prime Minister Hun Sen’s lacks transparency and could leave thousands of people landless, a human rights group said Wednesday, urging the country’s donors to push for reform of the program. The campaign, which employs volunteer youth ...
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/land-06122013150317.html
SEZ adds to tycoon’s growing portfolio
Okhna Try Pheap’s ballooning empire of exclusive natural resource licences and concessions has been expanded even further with the granting of a special economic zone (SEZ) in Ratanakkiri province. The May 27 issue of the Royal Gazette reveals Pheap was granted a 136-hectare SEZ in O’Yadav ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013061266216/National/sez-adds-to-tycoon-s-growing-portfolio.html
Illegal logs found in TTY truck
Conservation officials have confiscated a truck containing 20 cubic metres of illegally cut, luxury-grade timber from an economic land concession owned by the firm TTY Corporation, a district official said yesterday. Kratie provincial officials seized the logs, along with two trucks and two cars on Monday ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013061266220/National/illegal-logs-found-in-tty-truck.html
Eighth Communal Land Title Awarded in Mondolkiri
Land Management Minister Im Chum Lim awarded a community of ethnic minority Banong in Mondolkiri province a communal land tile to their ancestral land last week, only the eighth communal land title to be handed out since the 2001 Land Law made them available. The title ...
New claim filed against Giant Ocean
A fresh complaint has been filed against a company already before the courts for allegedly running a human-trafficking racket that sent more than 150 Cambodians onto fishing boats as virtual slaves. More than 20 men who claim they were forced to work almost without sleep and ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013061166187/National/new-claim-filed-against-giant-ocean.html
Evicted Kratie Families Petition Hun Sen for Help
Fifteen villagers representing 18 families from Kratie province involved in an ongoing dispute with the Sovan Vuthy Rubber Company yesterday submitted a petition to the Ministry of Land Management calling for intervention after the company allegedly cleared their farmland. The families say they have lived ...
Farmers Petition to Change Agricultural Draft Law
About 200 farmers protested in front of the Ministry of Agriculture on Friday and submitted a petition requesting changes to a draft law on the management of agricultural land, which rights groups have said could effectively legalize land grabs from poor farmers. The government says the ...
Sugar Firm Staff Protest Over Unpaid Wages
About 250 laborers working at a newly opened $90-million sugar factory complex in Kratie province-hailed by the government as a boon to Cambodia’s economy-staged a protest last Saturday morning demanding to be reimbursed for two weeks worth of unpaid wages. District governor Heng Soha acted ...
Cambodia's rice exports up 126 pct in 5 months
Cambodia’s exports of milled rice have sharply increased in the first five months of this year thanks to rising international market demand and country’s rice promotion strategy, an official said Thursday. The country had exported 146,800 tons of milled rice during January-May period this year, up ...
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2013-06/06/c_132435784.htm