Agriculture and fishing

Rem Vannak remains in poor health after enduring about two years of 21-hour days working for no pay on a fishing boat in Fiji, where he was beaten when he complained. Lin Yu Shin, who owns Giant Ocean – the company Vannak worked for that allegedly ...

International donors, including the U.S., Australia, the European Union and the World Bank, have urged the Cambo­dian government to redesign a massive hydropower project in Stung Treng province that environmentalists say will deplete fisheries and submit it to the Mekong River Commission (MRC) for consultation. In ...

Chea Kea, owner of the Daimond Crown casino on the border with Thailand in Pailin province, is investing in a $4 million feed processing warehouse that will also be used to store commodities and house farm animals. Construction on the warehouse, which is expected to ...

After a visit to Phnom Penh last week, John C Tsang, finance secretary of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, took to his blog to call for more direct imports of Cambodian rice, which he says comes through a third country. In a post on June ...

A million fish formed the front line of the conservation fight yesterday, when Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries officials released them in Kampong Thom provincial waters, celebrating the launching of a national aquaculture institute. Yesterday’s celebration of National Fish Day in Baray district marks the official start ...

Representatives of a Vietnamese rubber firm that has been accused of contributing to the illegal deforestation of vast tracts of land in northeast Cambodia joined local CPP-aligned government officials in Ratanakkiri province on Friday to hand out rice, salt and sugar to more than 400 ...

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a loan of $55 million to help transform the rice sector of Cambodia into a viable commercial industry as well as taking care of the land and water resources. ADB’s Climate-Resilient Rice Commercialization Sector Development Program―which will run ...

Kuala Lumpur-based Felda Global Ventures Holdings Berhad (FGV), the third-largest palm oil operator in the world, said it plans to cultivate rubber inside Cambodia. “We are . . . consolidating by expanding into countries like Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos – planting other crops such as rubber,” ...

Two UN agencies praised Cambodia’s Fisheries Administration Thursday as an “example of success” for addressing child labour in fisheries. In a joint report, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the International Labour Organization recalled that the fisheries agency began raising awareness of ...

The construction of Don Sahong Dam, the second of 11 potential and controversial Mekong mainstream dams, is moving ahead without approval from Mekong River Commission members, according to a conservationist group report. Located less than two kilometres from the Cambodian-Lao border, the dam has been slammed ...

Cambodia has always been a source for a broad variety of raw materials  from the agricultural sector. The country exports many of these materials to neighbouring countries and other markets in the world – without turning them into new products. This lack of domestic processing has ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 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 ...

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” ...

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 ...

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 ...