Agriculture and fishing

Hundreds of indigenous families from Ratanakkiri’s Andong Meas district have demanded the government cancel the economic land concession of a Vietnamese rubber company that they say is illegally prospecting for gold. About a dozen people representing 384 families handed a petition to CNRP lawmakers yesterday requesting ...

The European Union (EU) said this week that it has hired a pair of consultants to help the government design a system for compensating the thousands of families believed to have had their homes or farms illegally confiscated by the country’s private sugar plantations. ...

The United Nation’s human rights envoy Surya Subedi met yesterday with the president of Cambodia Chamber of Commerce, Kith Meng, to discuss human rights and economic growth in the Kingdom. At the top of the agenda was the management of economic land concessions and the role ...

The National Assembly’s Human Rights and Complaints Commission has asked the government to grant land titles to more than 500 families in Tbong Khmum whose land is claimed by a rubber plantation. ...

After promising in September to quickly resolve a years-long land dispute involving villagers and the politically connected development company KDC International, a member of the National Assembly’s human rights commission visited affected families in Kampong Chhnang province yesterday.​ ...

Seven ethnic Bunong villagers in a land dispute with a Vietnamese-owned rubber plantation in Mondolkiri province have been summoned by the provincial court for questioning after the company accused them of illegally occupying its land in Keo Seima district. ...

In a bid to stock 1.2 million tonnes of rice paddy, Cambodia has sent a draft memorandum of understanding to China asking the country for a $300 million loan to build more than 10 warehouses nationwide. The draft MoU was prepared by the Ministry of Economy ...

Three months after it began buying up rice stock, the Cambodia Rice Bank (CRB) has acquired about 20,000 tonnes of paddy and 7,000 tonnes of milled rice, a representative from the bank said on Friday. According to Phou Puy, chairman and CEO of the CRB, the ...

Minority Kuoy and Phnong community members from Preah Vihear and Mondulkiri provinces are demanding that the government cancel economic land concessions granted to two Chinese companies and a Vietnamese firm for allegedly violating land laws. In a press conference yesterday in Phnom Penh, representatives from the ...

More than four months after first taking their complaint over a land dispute to the National Assembly’s human rights commission, 50 villagers from Kompong Chhnang province on Thursday protested in front of the assembly, calling for the commission’s head to resign for failing to resolve ...

Three villagers suffered minor injuries yesterday after they clashed with security guards for a Chinese-owned company with which they are ensnared in a long-running land dispute. ...

Cambodian Environment Minister Say Samal said Tuesday that the government had cancelled licenses of economic land concessions (ELCs) for 23 companies last year after the firms have failed to develop the land for years. ...

Cambodia has exported about 387,100 tons of rice in 2014, up about 2% from around 378,856 tons exported in 2013, according to local sources. About 62% of rice exports were destined to Europe, according to sources at the Ministry of Agriculture. ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday admitted that the government target of reaching 1 million tonnes of rice exports by 2015 is likely to fail due to a lack of milling capacity and funding. The PM blamed the failure on a lack of investment in rice ...

More than 200 villagers from Kampong Speu protested in front of ANZ Royal Bank’s headquarters in Phnom Penh yesterday, demanding the bank pay them compensation. ...

Cambodia’s minister of commerce has announced that the country will step up efforts to export rice to Africa, Middle East and the European Union. In his three-day visit to Kuwait in December 2014, Chanthol aimed at opening new avenues for Cambodian-made agricultural goods to enter ...

A campaign for No Pesticide Day was held in eastern Cambodia’s Kratie province on Thursday with an appeal for relevant agencies to take part in the abolishment of the use of extremely dangerous pesticides. ...

The European Union has agreed to investigate forced displacement claims in relation to Cambodia’s troubled sugar industry. The move could see thousands of villagers compensated for illegally confiscated land and loss of earnings. The Clean Sugar Campaign – which has been calling on the EU to ...

A Vietnamese fisherman caught a 127-kg giant barb (Catlocarpio siamensis) in the Mekong Delta over the weekend, Dan Tri reported. The online news service said Nguyen Van Minh caught the critically endangered fish, known as trey kolreang in Khmer, in Vinh Long province on Saturday. ...

Kampong Speu palm sugar exports with geographical indication (GI) status have increased in the past year, as international buyers begin to appreciate the Cambodia-specific product. Export volumes of the sugar reached 50 tonnes in 2014, according to Kampong Speu Palm Sugar Promotion Association’s (KSPSPA) president, Sam ...

Cambodia exported 335,925 tonnes of rice in the first 11 months of the year, up from 332,009 tonnes in the same period last year. ...

A lack of irrigation, rising costs of production and finding new markets to sell their produce are problems that plague Cambodian farmers, attendees at the annual National Farmers Forum were told yesterday. Organised by the Council for Agricultural and Rural Development at the Council of Ministers ...

The government has seized more than 50,000 hectares of economic land concessions from a number of powerful companies across the Kingdom, putting the areas under the control of the Ministry of Environment, according to sub-decrees signed last week. One decree signed by Prime Minister Hun Sen ...

Some 200 agricultural development experts and government ministers from across Asia and the Pacific gathered here on Tuesday to discuss plans to transform rural areas in the region. The 2-day workshop on transforming rural areas in Asia and the Pacific was jointly organized by the Cambodian ...