Agriculture and fishing
Agriculture
Trade Deficit Up 34 Percent On Last Year
Cambodia’s trade deficit in the first half of the year grew 34.31 percent compared with the same period in 2011, reaching $1.36 billion, according to data released by the Ministry of Commerce. Though revenues earned from exports grew 12.13 percent to about $2.50 billion, a growing ...
Land concession cancelled by PM
The Cambodian government has cancelled a 14,981-hectare concession in the Cardamom mountains granted to an Australian firm for a banana plantation, the conservation group Wildlife Alliance has reported. Wildlife Alliance has long lobbied against the concession in Koh Kong province’s southern cardamom forest on which Indochina ...
Two Arrested in Pursat as Further Evictions Loom
Two more people in Pursat province’s Veal Veng district have been arrested in conjunction with what local authorities are calling a secessionist plot, while provincial authorities threatened to demolish more homes if residents do not leave a disputed area, officials said yesterday. Deputy provincial court prosecutor ...
Land Grab Claims Matched by Slander and Incitement Case
The Kompong Chhnang Provincial Court questioned four villagers among 12 summoned for questioning over a land dispute in Samakki Meanchey district, which has pitted some 80 local families against the owner of a private company they accuse of taking their land. While the dispute stems from alleged land grabbing, ...
Villagers fight for forest despite warning
Villagers from Svay Rieng province’s Krasaing commune have vowed to continue their protests to preserve a patch of community forest earmarked for clearing, despite receiving an official warning yesterday. Residents said it would affect over 2,700 people. ...
Two More Villagers Are Arrested Amid Evictions in Pursat
Two more people in Pursat province’s Veal Veng district were arrested Tuesday in connection with what local authorities are calling a secessionist plot, a forestry official said yesterday. Veal Veng district forestry chief Thorn Bunthet said that Kuy Van, 55, and Leng Chhoeuk, 50, were arrested ...
PM looks to counter OPEC, push rice-exporting power
Cambodia will push to finalise a rice-exporting bloc with four other regional countries by the end of the year in a bid to become the world’s “food basket”, according to the Ministry of Commerce. The group of countries including Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, Laos and Myanmar – ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012071957506/Business/pm-looks-to-counter-opec.html
Cedac Encourages Using Frogs As an Alternative to Pesticides
Cambodian farmers often turn to pesticides when trying to stop insects from destroying crops, but the Cambodian Center for Study and Development in Agriculture (Cedac) has come up with a better idea: frogs. “Frogs are important to protect rice plants from damage by insects, especially during ...
Cambodia will not export rice to Philippines
After the Philippines government issued their own policy regarding milled rice exports the Ministry of Commerce of Cambodia has expressed its disinterest in exporting milled rice to its neighbour, Cambodia’s Commerce Minister said yesterday. Local rice millers will not be encouraged to make any efforts to ...
Years After Eviction, Families Return In Search of Land Titles
More than 100 families in Stung Treng province have returned to land they were evicted from in 2007, hoping to acquire property titles after student volunteers arrived in the area to demarcate land under the titling program announced last month by Prime Minister Hun Sen. Stung ...
Homes Razed to Stop ‘Secession,’ Officials Say
The homes of nearly 200 families living in Pursat province’s Veal Veng district were demolished yesterday and Monday after officials accused the residents of being involved in a secessionist plot, local officials and villagers said. District governor Chhe Chhiv said that authorities had demolished 191 homes ...
Second ‘seccesionist’ arrested in Pursat
Another alleged “secessionist” involved in a land dispute was arrested yesterday in Pursat province’s Veal Veng district, where villagers said authorities continued a prolonged forced eviction that has led to the destruction of some 500 homes. Three other men accused of attempting to create an autonomous ...
Sonando broadcast targeted PM
A day before Prime Minister Hun Sen publicly called for the arrest of Mam Sonando, the Beehive Radio station director hosted a fiery broadcast from The Hague, where lawyers were trying to launch a case against the premier in the International Criminal Court. Just under three ...
Rural surveyors miss Phnom Penh
Inner city students enlisted into Prime Minister Hun Sen’s nationwide land-titling program have been getting a taste of the rural life and some of them are ready to come home. Prepped with a two-day crash course in surveying, more than 1,000 youths have been dispatched across ...
Alleged 'secessionist' faces 15 years
Beehive radio station director and accused “secessionist” Mam Sonando was sent to Prey Sar prison yesterday, where he will be detained until his trial on formal criminal charges including insurrection, a conviction that alone could result in up to 15 years behind bars. After two and ...
Mam Sonando Charged, Jailed Ahead of Trial
After two hours of questioning, the Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday sent independent radio station owner Mam Sonando to Prey Sar prison for pretrial detention, where he will await a hearing on allegations that he tried to foment a secessionist movement in Kratie province. As Mr. Sonando was being questioned, ...
Human Rights Watch Calls for Release of Beehive Radio Owner
The US-based Human Rights Watch on Tuesday called on the government to release Beehive Radio owner Mam Sonando and drop all secessionist charges against him. Mam Sonando, 70, was arrested Sunday in Phnom Penh and has been charged with crimes related to sedition, for allegedly running ...
Cambodia, Indonesia to Sign 100,000 Ton Rice Trade Deal in August
Cambodia will sign a rice trade Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Indonesia in August under which Indonesia will purchase 100,000 tons of rice from Cambodia annually. The deal is expected to boost Cambodia’s rice exports and help the country achieve its target of exporting one ...
$20 million rice mill for Oddong
When London-based real estate investor Sanjay Dhir heard about Cambodia from his Indian partner Manoj Varma, he took a trip here in October 2010 and stopped by the roadside to meet the operators of a portable rice mill. He knew then that Cambodia was ready for ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012071757449/Business/20-million-rice-mill-for-oddong.html
Reported Cases of Land Grabbing Decrease
The number of new land disputes reported in the first six months of this year decreased by 38 percent compared to the same period in 2011, according to data released by rights group Licadho last week. According to the figures, which represent 15 of the country’s ...
Mam Sonando Arrested for ‘Insurrection’
Mam Sonando, beleaguered owner of the independent Beehive Radio station, was arrested at his Phnom Penh home yesterday morning on a raft of charges relating to a so-called secessionist movement that authorities supposedly disbanded in Kratie earlier this year. More than a dozen plainclothes and uniformed ...
Alleged Kratie 'secessionist' arrested
Police in the capital yesterday arrested the alleged leader of a “secessionist plot”, Beehive Radio station director Mam Sonando, who had already been abroad for two months when hundreds of security personnel stormed a Kratie province village in May. Khieu Sopheak, a spokesman for the Ministry ...
Rats Good Business for Cambodians, Food for Vietnamese
Koh Thom district, Kandal province – On a quiet stretch of road in this sleepy border town, there are some telltale signs of an unusual trade: A trail of discarded dead rats, some upturned with their paws stiff in the air, others covered with a ...
Kampot Pepper Demand Sees Production Increase
Growing demand abroad for Kampot pepper has resulted in production levels for the commodity increasing by 22 percent to 22 tons during this year’s harvest, officials said yesterday. Nguon Lay, president of the Kampot Pepper Association, said that the amount of farmland used to cultivate pepper ...