Opposition party leader and agriculture expert Yang Saing Koma and a colleague met with Prime Minister Hun Sen to discuss plans to recover the agriculture sector, with a ministry official saying he will be offered a secretary of state position in the government.
Farmers are struggling to harvest their rice crops thanks to late rains this year, as they already face low sales prices. Rainy season is expected to finish in early December as opposed to the end of October.
The Battambang Provincial Court sentenced a man to 10 months in prison for incitement over his video post and comments criticizing the government over its efforts to buy longan from languishing farmers.
For farmers in the area, there’s little hope for this year’s dry-season rice harvest. They irrigate in desperation, but they can already see there won’t be enough water. They are bracing to write off their crops, fall deeper into debt, and maybe lose their land, several said this week.
Farmers in Kandal province say they each have thousands of dollars worth of vegetables spoiling in their fields because they can’t find buyers.
While recent floodwaters are receding, farmers who spoke with VOD say they are weighed down by heavy debt and years of failed crops, and see fear and hopelessness ahead of them.
Heavy rain warnings remain in place after more than a week of flooding, leaving rice farmers increasingly anxious about their harvests — the longer their fields are flooded, the more likely their crops will be lost.
Prime Minister Hun Sen has touted Cambodia’s “strong” agricultural sector as a solution to economic pressures during the global pandemic, though some observers doubt agriculture could make up for garment sector losses due to Covid-19 and the pending withdrawal of some E.U. trade perks.
Farmers in Kampong Cham’s Batheay district say they are struggling to care for their crops after two years of intense drought and sparse rain, which is pushing more people to abandon their fields for factory work or jobs in the service industry.
Climate change policies need to be as substantial as the threats that climate change poses to Cambodia’s farmers.
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