Agriculture and fishing

Two soldiers in northwest Cambodia’s Battambang province fired assault rifles at two local forestry officials on Friday after the officials reported them to a local opposition party lawmaker for illegal fishing. ...

More than 160 families in Banteay Meanchey province’s O’Chrou district filed a complaint on Monday with local officials calling for the removal of their village chief, whom they blame for the loss of 835 hectares of farmland to a rubber plantation. ...

The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries yesterday cancelled an import permit for a Cambodian company after it came to light that “natural fertilizer” it had ordered from Ukraine was composed largely of cigarette butts, a ministry statement said. ...

About 70 villagers representing hundreds of families living in Battambang City’s Prek Preah Sdech commune protested outside the provincial hall Tuesday over fears that local authorities intend to evict them to make way for military families. ...

A man hired by a purported representative of a fertiliser company to haul 30 tonnes of “natural fertiliser” from Thbong Khmum province to Oddar Meanchey province some three months ago was surprised to learn this week that the load actually consisted entirely of cigarette butts. ...

A plantation company with its sights set on a community forest long used by local ethnic minority Jarai in Ratanakkiri’s O’Yadav district arranged a meeting with more than 200 villagers this week to try to persuade them to sign over the woodland. Representatives of the Heng ...

Environment Minister Say Sam Al on Monday said that more than 9,000 hectares granted to companies as economic land concessions (ELCs) were recently taken back from the owners because local villagers had been farming the land first, and announced that 14 companies had been put ...

Fourteen companies have been added to a Ministry of Environment watchlist for purportedly failing to live up to their investment promises. The companies include firms owned by some of the country’s wealthiest and most politically connected land barons, such as Mong Reththy and Sok Kong. ...

Families in Phnom Penh’s Meanchey district have been protesting since Friday against wealthy businessman Khun Sear’s plan to build a brick wall that will effectively block access to their village. ...

Neighbors Vietnam and Thailand have bagged contracts to supply a total of 500,000 metric tons (MT) of rice to boost the Philippines’ buffer stock in time for this year’s lean months, an official from the National Food Authority (NFA) said yesterday. Existing bilateral rice agreements ...

Environment Minister, Say Sam Al, said on Monday that the Royal Government of Cambodia has cut off over 14,000 hectares of land and handed over to citizens, and military forces. ...

Villagers in Koh Kong province’s Areng Valley, the site of a proposed hydropower dam opposed by most of the local ethnic minority Chong, say police deleted their photos and video of a visit by CPP lawmaker Ay Khorn on Friday to promote the project’s potential ...

Almost three years after his father’s sudden killing, the son of late forest activist Chut Wutty has returned from a fact-finding mission to Ratanakkiri province, where he identified four companies as having stockpiled luxury timber on a large scale. ...

Cambodia will introduce a much-needed national quality standard for dried snakehead fish, frozen shrimp, and its fish paste, known as prahok, in a bid to improve consumer-safety requirements and boost exports of the products. Kao Sochivy, deputy director general of Fisheries Departments, told the Post yesterday ...

In a bid to ramp up rice exports to 1 million tonnes in 2015, the Phnom Penh Autonomous Port announced yesterday that rice stored in its warehouses would not be charge any fees for up to 18 days.​ ...

The Cambodian Rice Federation has pushed for the full implementation of a code of conduct which bars Cambodian firms from exporting cheap rice from neighbouring countries under its own name. The code of conduct sought to reassure the European Union that Cambodia was not flouting the ...

A year after establishing the Cambodia Rice Federation, the Ministry of Commerce is planning to set up a cassava organisation to boost production of the root vegetable in the Kingdom. According to Ratha, the federation will work similarly to the Cambodia Rice Federation and will ...

In the heart of the Areng Valley, on the edges of the rolling Cardamom Mountains, an old Bodhi tree pierces the thick green canopy. At its base, nestled in between its hanging roots, sits a ramshackle altar of tin and timber for the spirit of ...

Authorities in Kratie province moved to stop a convoy of trucks belonging to tycoon Try Pheap overloaded with first-grade timber on Sunday, but were only able to pull over five of the vehicles, which were found to be carrying nearly double the amount of cargo ...

The economic impact of climate change in Cambodia could be highly damaging to rural areas and worker productivity, according to a report from American development agency USAID, which applied climate projections for 2050 to today’s Mekong Basin economies. ...

Referring to Cambodia as “my country”, Alex Gonzalez-Davidson, a vocal environmental activist and Spanish national who was deported Monday, yesterday vowed to return and continue his struggle to save the Areng Valley. ...

About 100 villagers representing 19 communities in Preah Sihanouk province marched to the provincial hall in Sihanoukville on Tuesday, demanding intervention in their land disputes. ...

The day after the government deported a foreign activist opposed to a proposed hydropower dam in Koh Kong province’s Areng Valley, Prime Minister Hun Sen on Tuesday invited activists in the valley to secede from Cambodia, but warned that rocket launchers could be deployed if ...

Villagers in Banteay Meanchey province on Saturday protested against a local military official’s plan to build a reservoir on their land, then sell the dirt at a profit. ...