Agriculture and fishing
Cambodian NGOs, provincial officials applaud interior minister’s warning against illegal fishing
Cambodian nongovernmental organizations and officials in Sihanoukville province have applauded a warning issued earlier this week by Interior Minister to local authorities to not accept bribes from Thai and Vietnamese fishermen to fish in the Southeast Asian nation’s waters. ...
Still waiting for the rain
People are no longer denying that El Nino – a cyclical weather phenomenon that can cause severe drought – has arrived in Cambodia. ...
Naomi-Collett Ritz
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/15484/still-waiting-for-the-rain/
GMOs: cheaper food and higher farm incomes for Cambodia?
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Cambodia’s agriculture industry contributes 37 percent of GDP, and employs 67 percent of the workforce, with 75 percent of cultivated land dedicated to growing rice. ...
Gabrielle Ward and John Humphreys
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/15487/gmos--cheaper-food-and-higher-farm-incomes-for-cambodia-/
Sar Kheng orders end to illegal fishing off coast
At a ceremony to install a former military commander as governor of Preah Sihanouk province on Monday, Interior Minister Sar Kheng chided local police for allowing a Russian faction to give the tourist hub a bad name and ordered an end to illegal fishing off ...
Khuon Narim
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/sar-kheng-orders-end-to-illegal-fishing-off-coast-93581/
Pig cull raises supply concerns
Following a mass cull of more than 1,000 pigs over the last two weeks, authorities yesterday played down any threat to the local pork supply, but financial concerns among farmers and market vendors are mounting.Some 1,200 pigs have been culled in Siem Reap, having recently ...
Sor Chandara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/pig-cull-raises-supply-concerns
Gov’t rejects WB’s report
A World Bank report released last month shows that as of 2011-2012 only 7.9 per cent of Cambodia’s arable land was irrigated, with the a Ministry of Water Resources official contesting these numbers as old data and that irrigated land figures were higher than reported. ...
Kun Kourchettana
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/govt-rejects-wbs-report
Dams, climate change lead to fish decline in Cambodia’s Tonle Sap: Fishermen
The fish population in Cambodia’s Tonle Sap lake has declined significantly from a year ago, fishermen in the country’s Kampong Chhnang province said Friday, citing the construction of dams in the area and climate change, among other factors. ...
RFA Khmer News Staff
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/fish-09042015154247.html
The cowboys of the Mekong
The calls almost always come at night. Three or four times a month, the mobile phone of Koh Pdao’s river guard outpost will ring. A villager has spotted illegal fishermen somewhere along a 10-kilometer stretch of brushy island shore and wants them caught. ...
Aisha Down
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/15312/the-cowboys-of-the-mekong/
Few options for Kampot crews against illegal fishing
Every evening, Seu Rin takes his family’s wooden fishing boat down the Teuk Chhu River to the waters of the Cambodian coast. ...
James Reddick
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/15210/few-options-for-kampot-crews-against-illegal-fishing/
Single rice brand stirs the pot
The Agriculture Ministry and the Cambodia Rice Federation (CRF) are at odds over the branding of Cambodia’s premium jasmine rice that would help differentiate it from similar varieties sold by Thailand.The CRF is working on a new brand name that it hopes will help distinguish ...
Cheng Sokhorng
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/single-rice-brand-stirs-pot
Drought affects 185,451 hectares of paddy fields in Cambodia
Persisting dry conditions have affected rice seedling in about 185,451 hectares of paddy rice in Cambodia, Khmer Times quoted a report by the Agriculture Minister. ...
Oryza News Staff
http://oryza.com/23629/drought-affects-185451-hectares-paddy-fields-cambodia
Goal of 1 million tons of rice export unlikely
Several years ago, prompted by Prime Minister Hun Sen, Cambodia’s rice exporters set a goal to ship out 1 million tons of milled rice by the end of 2015. But millers and traders now say they are unlikely to reach that goal. ...
Phorn Bopha
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/goal-of-1-million-tons-of-rice-export-unlikely/2939388.html
Rubber plant built in Cambodia
The Tan Bien-Kampong Thom Development Company opened a rubber latex processing plant in Cambodia yesterday. Fourteen VRG affiliates are implementing 18 rubber projects in Cambodia on 90,000 of the 130,000ha of land allocated for their use. ...
Viet Nam News Staff
http://vietnamnews.vn/economy/275026/rubber-plant-built-in-cambodia.html
Police shut down Siem Reap Snakehead fish farm
Following the seizure of about 100,000 snakehead fish from a van in Siem Reap province last week, police on Tuesday afternoon raided the fish farm where the illegal fry came from, according to deputy provincial police chief Oum Amra. ...
Ben Sokhean
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/police-shut-down-siem-reap-snakehead-fish-farm-92669/
Illegal fishing nets, traps seized
Fisheries administration officials cracked down on illegal fishing activities in Kampong Cham province’s Boeung Thom lake on Saturday, seizing and destroying illegal fish traps and more than a kilometre of illegal extra-fine netting, officials said yesterday. ...
Khouth Sophak Chakrya
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/illegal-fishing-nets-traps-seized
Productivity focus needed for farming: World Bank
Despite increased yields and the rising use of farming machinery in Cambodia’s agriculture sector, growth in the industry for 2013-14 was only between 1 and 2 per cent, with greater emphasis needed on the quality of seeds and fertilisers, as well as encouraging greater vegetable ...
Ananth Baliga
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/productivity-focus-needed-farming-world-bank
Cambodian agriculture in transition: opportunities and risks
The last decade was golden for Cambodian agriculture. The annual agricultural sector growth of 5.3% between 2004 and 2012 was one of the highest in the world, according to a new World Bank report, Cambodian Agriculture in Transition: Opportunities and Risks , prepared with the ...
World Bank News Staff
http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2015/08/19/cambodian-agriculture-in-transition-opportunities-and-risks
Cambodia's rubber exports up 47% in 1st half of 2015
Cambodia exported 61,969 tons of dry rubber in the first six months of 2015, an increase of 47% from 42,189 tons over the same period last year, according to the Chinese State News Agency-Xinhua’s report. ...
The Cambodia Herald News Staff
http://thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/cambodias-rubber-exports-up-47-in-1st-half-of-2015-8847
A fishy situation in Cambodia’s biggest lake
“Turn the lights off soon, or people will see us,” the young fisherman said in a muted voice that was barely audible, even in the pre-dawn quiet. The fact that fishermen are resorting to sneaking into the lake’s protected areas speaks of an alarming ...
News24 Staff
http://www.news24.com/Green/News/A-fishy-situation-in-Cambodias-biggest-lake-20150817
China rice deal gets more urgent
Cambodia’s need to secure China as a rice export destination is becoming increasingly urgent, with China’s multiple pending agreements with other countries in Southeast and South Asia, said industry insider David Van. ...
Igor Kossov
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/14389/china-rice-deal-gets-more-urgent/
Koh Kong fishermen resume anti-sand-dredging campaign
As about 100 fishermen in Koh Kong province on Wednesday resumed their monthslong campaign against a company they accuse of illegal sand dredging, an environmental NGO claimed the firm was now hiring locals as security guards in an attempt to divide the community. ...
Aun Pheap
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/koh-kong-fishermen-resume-anti-sand-dredging-campaign-91551/
Two-month haul shows uptick in illegal fishing
Cambodia’s river guards have reported confiscating more than 35,000 metres of gill nets, 21 boats and an assortment of homemade grenades during patrols in Mekong Irrawaddy Dolphin Sanctuary in Kratie and Stung Treng provinces between May and July. ...
Phak Seangly and Khouth Sophak Chakrya
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/two-month-haul-shows-uptick-illegal-fishing
Decline in price of rubber leaves farmers scrambling
For Sam Phat and her family, the decision 10 years ago to plant rubber trees on their hectare of land was an easy one. Because of booming demand, mostly from China, rubber prices were high, and the startup cost of planting trees was low. ...
James Reddick and Ros Chanveasna
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/14261/decline-in-price-of-rubber-leaves-farmers-scrambling/
Drought hitting rice farmers, risking target, Ministry says
More than 150,000 hectares of rice fields have been affected by a drought in some areas of the country, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, warning that the lack of rain, combined with labor shortages, could prevent the government from meeting its rice production goal ...
Kang Sothear
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/drought-hitting-rice-farmers-risking-target-ministry-says-91244/