Compensation for culled poultry is a catch-22
Since its emergence in the region more than a decade ago, the governments of Southeast Asia have been fighting to contain the human avian influenza virus through surveillance programs, rigorous inspections and widespread culling of infected birds. … In Cambodia last year, 13 people died of bird flu, the country’s worst ever outbreak. Over the past decade, 49 Cambodians have succumbed to the disease, many of them desperately poor rural residents who depend on smallholdings of livestock such as chickens and ducks. Yet Minister of Agriculture Ouk Rabun, whose ministry would be responsible for implementing any compensation scheme, said categorically last week there is no policy of compensation. “And nor will there be,” he said. The ministry’s firm anti-compensation stance would seem to fly in the face of both common sense and recommendations from experts in the field. In 2005, international NGO Veterinaires San Frontieres, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the U.N. coordinator for avian and human influenza all urgently pressed the government to establish a compensation system for poultry culling according to “Aid Dependence in Cambodia,” a 2013 book by U.S.-based scholar Sophal Ear. The government refused, citing a lack of resources, Mr. Ear wrote. A 2011 report published by the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Administration also concluded that paying farmers for their culled birds makes it more likely that they will report future signs of bird flu among their flocks, rather than ignoring the issue and eating the dead birds. … Authors Jennifer Steele, Ruojin Zhang and Thomas Marsh of Washington State University suggest that the optimal solution is for governments to pay compensation only if the poultry producers are practicing a minimum level of disease prevention at the time their birds are culled. However, such a program would be nearly impossible to implement in Cambodia, where more than 90 percent of poultry is raised on small backyard farms in rural areas. …
Simon Henderson and Sek Odom
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/compensation-for-culled-poultry-is-a-catch-22-52485/
