Agriculture
Agricultural production
Angkor sees gold in Liberty
Angkor Gold Corp has acquired a new economic land concession as it gains full control of its other concessions with the purchase of another mining company, according to officials. According to a statement released last week, Angkor Gold has purchased Liberty Mining International Pty Ltd (Liberty), ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012091058590/Business/angkor-sees-gold-in-liberty.html
Rice Production Increases as Country Moves Toward 2015 Export Goal
Economists and agriculture officials say Cambodia could export 1 million tons of milled rice by 2015, but that depends on improvements in the sector, along with some global factors out of the control of the country’s farmers and millers. Prime Minister Hun Sen has set the ...
India shows interest in cashew nut processing
India is considering establishing a cashew nut processing factory in Cambodia to curb exports to India from third countries, according to officials at the Indian embassy. Dinesh Patniak, the ambassador to Cambodia, said Cambodia produced a lot of cashew nuts that were sent to Vietnam for ...
Indigenous Forest Protection Group Again Told to Disband
Members of Bunong ethnic minority forest group in Kratie province who accused local police of barring their community patrols in search of illegal logging were told by a Forestry Administration official yesterday that they had no authority to operate. Mr. [Peit] Kun Pedor [head of ...
Another Activist in Prey Sar
A 65-year-old woman who has spent months sleeping under a staircase at Borei Keila yesterday became the second land-rights activist sent to Prey Sar prison in little more than 24 hours. Phnom Penh Municipal Court investigating judge Ly Leabmeng questioned villager representative Tim Sakmony for almost ...
Court Detains Two More Land Activists
Protesters from both neighborhoods gathered in front of the Phnom Penh Court on Wednesday to demand the release of the three. Phnom Penh Municipal Court is holding two more land protesters, following the detention of one woman on Tuesday. The two activists, from the Borei Keila neighborhood, ...
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/court-detain-two-more-land-activists/1502315.html
Bulldozing of crops reignites dispute
Contractors hired by Cambodian land brokers bulldozed through four hectares of villagers’ crops in Poipet town on Monday, breaching a truce contract that protected the villagers’ land until January 1 next year. According to the contract, the families residing on land claimed by 11 independent Cambodian ...
PM will hand-deliver titles
Prime Minister Hun Sen will personally deliver land titles to residents in Kratie province’s Snuol district on September 21 following the completion of the land measuring mission by volunteer youth there. According to the premier’s order, land titles have been granted in three forms of ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012090558506/National-news/pm-will-hand-deliver-titles.html
Officials cheated me: farmer
A cassava grower in Siem Reap’s Srei Snom district has accused a district police chief and a deputy commune chief of cheating him out of his land after they doctored the grower’s testimony in a court case. Em Socheat, a lawyer for land owner Yem Savuth, ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012090458481/National-news/officials-cheated-me-farmer.html
Gov't Reports $25M From Rents in Six Months
The government earned just over $25 million in rental fees from state land leased to private companies in the first six months of the year, according to new figures from the Ministry of Economy and Finance. While the data shows that earning have risen, critics say ...
Emerging Mining Sector to Be Subject to Grassroots Scrutiny
As mining companies continue to scour Cambodia for minerals, work is also under way to build a network of local monitors and activists to shed light on the country’s often-opaque mining sector and its practices. {T]he Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy has granted an unknown ...
Fisheries Official Questioned Over Clearing Flooded Forest
A fisheries official accused of involvement in the clearing of an area of protected flooded forest in Kampong Thom province in July was questioned at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday. Korn Chanseiha, chief of the Fisheries Administration’s Stong district office, is one of about 20 officials ...
Japanesee NGO Admonishes Forced Evictions
A okyo-based human rights group has called on the government to cease forced evictions and branded the use of armed forces against ordinary citizens defending their land as an :unforgivable human rights violation.” Human Rights Now (HRN), which in June sent a team of Japanese investigators ...
District Police Chief Removed Over Link to Sale of State Land
A district police chief in Kampong Chhnang province has been removed from his post over his alleged involvement in the sale of almost 130 hectares of state land to private buyers, provincial officials said yesterday. Kim Sareth, the chief of police in Toek Phos district, was ...
Two Officials Sacked over land 'graft'
Kampong Chhnang authorities had sacked the Teuk Phos district governor and police chief after subordinate officers accused them of conspiring to sell almost 300 hectares of state-owned forest land to a private company, provincial officials said yesterday. According to a Kampong Chhnang official who declined to ...
Duo Gets Bail After Obstructing Land Volunteers
A Council of Ministers official and her husband who were arrested in July for obstructing a land-titling initiative spearheaded by Prime Minister Hun Sen have received bail, Stung Treng Provincial Court prosecutor Chroeng Khmao said Friday. Meas Sokhon, who works at the Council of the Ministers’ ...
Mired in Land Disputes, Villagers Find No Remedy in Courts
Since 2009, local human rights group Adhoc has documented 623 cases of land conflict in the country, yet only a little more than 10 percent of those cases were brought to court. The statistics highlight the lack of trust ordinary Cambodians have in the court system, says Adhoc, ...
Cambodian rice expert produces ‘more with less’
WHEN he introduced his novel rice production method to Cambodian farmers more than a decade ago, Yang Saing Koma had to battle sceptics who laughed at his idea. How could less irrigation and shallower planting result in higher yield? But Koma, founder of the Cambodian centre ...
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2012/9/2/asia/11950264&sec=asia
Lower Sesan 2's Power not worth a dam: NGO
While the humanitarian objections to Mondulkiri’s proposed Lower Sesan 2 hydropower dam project are well documented, a report from conservation NGO International Rivers yesterday highlighted an objection of another sort: the Lower Sesan wouldn’t be a very good location for a dam in the first ...
Disaster management officials prep for floods
The National Committee for Disaster Management was preparing to ensure end-of-season floods did not compound the woes caused by months of drought, officials said yesterday. To minimise the effects of flooding, the NCDM had sent a request to the Council of Ministers for 16,000 tonnes of food and ...
Cambodia to boost China rice exports
Cambodia expects to export around 300,000 tonnes of milled rice to China per year, Minister of Commerce Cham Prasidh said during the 44th ASEAN Economic Ministers Meeting in Siem Reap. Speaking to reporters after a meeting with Chinese Minister of Commerce Chen Deming on Tuesday night, ...
Farmers Concerned That Draft Law Will Legalize Land Grabs
About 60 farmers met yesterday in Phnom Penh to rise their concerns about the law on the management of farmland that is currently being drafted by the Ministry of Agriculture, which critics say will legalize land grabbing. The latest public version of the draft law grants power ...
Ministry plans Xayaburi trip
Cambodia has been asked to send a delegation to the site of the proposed Xayaburi hydro-electric dam in northern Laos, Minister of Water Resources and Meteorology Lim Kean Hor said yesterday. Kean Hor, who is also chairman of Cambodia’s National Mekong Committee, said the equivalent body ...
Cambodia to Export 100,000 Tons of Rice to Indonesia
Commerce Minister Cham Prasidh yesterday signed an agreement with Indonesia’s Trade Minister Gita Wijrawan to export 100,000 tons of milled rice to Indonesia every year, officials said. Although the details-such as when the exports will begin and where the rice will be sourced-have yet to be ...