Cambodia Rice: Greater Mekong Development Plan Agreed

Cambodia Rice: Greater Mekong Development Plan Agreed

TOKYO - Leaders of the six nations that share the Mekong River have agreed on a 10-year plan to boost growth, promote development and reduce poverty in the region comprising Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, Viet Nam, and China's Yunnan and Guangxi regions.

The decision was taken at the fourth Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) Summit in Manila, the Philippines. In a joint declaration, GMS leaders endorsed a strategic framework for 2012 to 2022 that calls for a range of new measures to strengthen regional cooperation, including more effective resource utilization and more careful balancing of development with environmental concerns.

GMS is a natural economic area bound together by the Mekong River, covering 2.6 million square kilometers and a combined population of around 326 million.

"The new Strategic Framework for 2012-2022 will move the GMS to the next level through multisector investment projects, policy development, and inter-sector coordination," said Asian Development Bank (ADB) President Haruhiko Kuroda.
GMS leaders also endorsed strategies to enhance agricultural development, including food safety and security; accelerate the development and implementation of the pro-poor sustainable tourism industry, with the creation of multi-country tour packages to help spread revenues more widely; and promote low-carbon development and enhance management of the sub-region's richly diverse ecosystems, the ADB informed on December 20, 2012.

The significance of the GMS Summit lies in that in countries of the region increasingly, modernization and industrialization are emerging from a process of transition and transformation. The Mekong countries are gradually shifting from subsistence farming to more diversified economies, and to more open, market-based systems.

In parallel with this are the growing commercial relations among the six Mekong countries, notably in terms of cross-border trade, investment, and labor mobility. Moreover, natural resources, particularly hydropower, are beginning to be developed and utilized on a subregional basis.

The rich human and natural resource endowments of the Mekong region have made it a new frontier of Asian economic growth. Indeed, the Mekong region has the potential to be one of the world's fastest growing areas.

Two days after the conclusion of the Summit, ADB said it will provide a $3 million grant to support emergency relief efforts in the aftermath of tropical storm Sendong, also known internationally as Washi, which recently struck the southern Philippines.

ADB assistance will be channeled through the Government of the Philippines to provide clean water, health services, medical supplies and other essential emergency items to the affected households.

"As a development partner of the Philippines, we are extending immediate help to poor families that have borne disproportionate impact of the disaster during this festive season," said Neeraj Jain, ADB's Country Director for the Philippines.

ADB has also assured the Government of the Philippines of its continued support during the subsequent reconstruction and rehabilitation efforts, including effective early warning systems and measures that would reduce the risk of future disasters.

The $3 million grant is being provided under ADB's emergency facility, the Asia Pacific Disaster Response Fund, which provides quick-disbursing grants to help restore essential life-saving services following major natural disasters.

Since its inception in 1992, the GMS program has helped bring an area once divided by conflict increasingly together with investments of about $14 billion in projects with broad subregional benefits, including roads, airports and railways; telecommunications; energy; urban development; tourism; environmental protection; and the prevention of communicable diseases.

Since the start of the economic cooperation program, gross domestic product growth in the subregion has averaged about 8% a year, while real per capita incomes more than tripled between 1993 and 2010. As of September 2011, ADB assistance for the program totaled about $5 billion.

In 1992, with assistance from ADB, the six GMS countries entered into a program of subregional economic cooperation, designed to enhance economic relations among the countries.

With support from ADB and other donors, the GMS Program helps the implementation of high priority subregional projects in transport, energy, telecommunications, environment, human resource development, tourism, trade, private sector investment, and agriculture.

ADB says that substantial progress has been achieved in terms of implementing GMS projects since 1992. Priority infrastructure projects worth around US$10 billion have either been completed or are being implemented.

Among these are the upgrading of the Phnom Penh (Cambodia)-Ho Chi Minh City (Viet Nam) highway and the East-West Economic Corridor that will eventually extend from the Andaman Sea to Da Nang.

The subregion embraces flora and fauna that have expanded northward along the Malay Peninsula into Thailand, encroached upon the high mountains from the Himalayas, or advanced along the broad river valleys as dry deciduous forests similar to those of India.

Ten million years of changing sea levels have left a rich legacy of unique life forms that have evolved in isolation on the Cardamom and Annamite mountains of Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand, and Viet Nam.

These resources provide both income and sustenance to the great majority of people in the subregion who are leading subsistence or near subsistence agricultural lifestyles. The land yields timber, minerals, coal, and petroleum, while water from the many rivers supports agriculture and fisheries and provides energy in the form of hydropower.

The coal reserves of the subregion are abundant, and the oil and gas reserves considerable. Most of these are in Myanmar, Thailand and Viet Nam. These abundant energy resources are still relatively underused. Source: Global Perspectives

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Cambodia Rice: Cambodia's Rice Export Scheme Sees Good Omen with Chinese Investments

Cambodia Rice: Cambodia's Rice Export Scheme Sees Good Omen with Chinese Investments

(CambodiaRice:2011): PHNOM PENH, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia has seen a positive sign towards achieving its self-imposed target of one million-ton- rice exports by 2015 as the sector has been attracting a number of large investments from China.

In last August, the government launched the rice export policy in a bid to boost the exports of one million tons of milled rice by 2015.

"The main challenges to achieve this target are the shortages of sophisticated post-harvest technologies and capital to buy rice paddy from farmers," Kong Putheara, director of the Commerce Ministry's Planning and Statistics Department, told Xinhua in an interview on Friday.

However, the issues have gradually been broken through as a number of large Chinese firms have signed up to build a hi-tech rice processing plant and to purchase Cambodian rice for Chinese market.

Among those firms is the China Grain Reserves Corporation ( Sinograin) Guangzhou Branch.

The firm signed up on Aug. 16 to buy up to 200,000 tons of milled rice per year from Cambodia and has put its initial investment of 20 million U.S. dollars with a local T.T.Y Corporation to buy rice paddy from farmers to process for the exports to China.

And the China's Yunnan Overseas Investment Co., Ltd. signed a Memorandum of Understanding with a local Soma Group of Cambodia to build a high-tech rice processing plant to process rice for China.

Source: Xinhua

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Cambodia Rice: Association Warns of $720m Rice Loan Need

Cambodia Rice: Association Warns of $720m Rice Loan Need

(CambodiaRice:2010): CAMBODIA’S Small and Medium Industries Association warned that domestic rice millers require US$720 million in loans this harvest season, or they
risk being out-competed by foreign merchants.

“We cannot compete with buyers from Thailand and Vietnam to buy grain if local rice mills can’t receive more capital from the government or private banks,” said the association’s secretary general Ut Ren.

Cambodia has about 100 millers, which purchase paddy from farmers, process the rice and sell it to dealers.

If the millers are able to borrow short-term funds, they can purchase more paddy and sell more processed rice.

A typical Cambodian rice mill can process between 2 and 6 tonnes of rice per hour, said Ut Ren, and generally possess capital of between $50,000 to $70,000 to buy paddy during the harvest season.

Sur Kheang, president of the Kampong Cham provincial rice millers’ association,
said its 35 members were clamouring for more capital to purchase paddy. He said his association required an additional $2 million to add to its present capital of $390,000 to fund its lending to millers this harvest season.

“A call for extra funding for rice mills is a very good idea. Many of our rice mills are facing a lack of capital to buy rice,” he told The Post.

Schemes are underway to increase agricultural loans to millers.

The government has prepared to lend $36 million to the state-run Rural Development Bank in order to lend to rice millers, with a focus on those firms with
capacity for exports, according to its director general Sun Kunthor.

Some banks are also increasing their loan portfolio in the field.

In Channy, chief executive officer of ACLEDA Bank – the Kingdom’s largest agricultural lender – said the bank had lent $112 million to develop rice production from the start of the year to the end of November, a stark increase on its loans of $78 million made to the sector last year.

“We are not afraid to grant loans for buying rice, since we see there are now modern rice processing machines in Cambodia, and also increased orders from overseas,” he said.

The Kingdom’s updated rice policy aims to ramp up exports of milled rice.Cambodia’s stated aim is to hit 1 million tonnes in rice exports by 2015.

Local firms are also looking to export to new markets, with Golden Rice targeting 50,000 tonnes of rice to Europe, the United States and Asia in the next year.

Source: Phnom Penh Post

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Cambodia Rice: Draft law on farmer’s co-ops near completion

Cambodia Rice: Draft law on farmer’s co-ops near completion

Cambodia's first draft law for the regulation of agriculture cooperatives is near completion, and is expected to reach the National Assembly this year, officials said.

The draft law aims to formalise the Kingdom’s more than 250 cooperatives and provide a framework for those created in the future, officials said.

“This law is important because it is based on the international system that governs cooperatives,” Khem Chenda, director of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries’ administration department, said.

“Many countries use it to make it easier for farmers to do business,” he said, adding the Food and Agriculture Organisation consulted on the draft law.
Cooperatives allow farmers greater bargaining power with customers and suppliers, and they distribute loans to members who would otherwise seek out microfinance instutions. Cooperatives presently are governed by royal decree.

While Khem Chenda declined to offer much of the draft law’s specifics, as it was not finished, he did say cooperatives would need to register with the Ministry of Agriculture. However, they would not be required to pay taxes or administration fees.

The draft law will be sent to the Council of Ministers before reaching the National Assembly later in the year, he said.

Cambodian Center for Study and Development in Agriculture president Yang Saing Koma emphasised that the law should ensure the continued autonomy of the Kingdom’s cooperatives.

“They have to avoid taking over those cooperatives,” he said.

Source: Phnom Penh Post

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Cambodia Rice: Cambodian rice output grows in 2011 despite floods

Cambodia Rice: Cambodian rice output grows in 2011 despite floods

Cambodia's total paddy rice output reached 8.4 million tonnes in 2011, up from 8.25 million tonnes last year, according an initial assessment by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.

Provincial MAFF officials from across the Kingdom met in Phnom Penh on Saturday, when data was collected for an early tally of the country’s rice crop.

Ngin Chhay, director of MAFF’s rice department, said the first-phase results showed an average of 2.97 tonnes to 3.1 tonnes of paddy rice per hectare, planted on 2.7 million hectares, for a total of 8.4 million tonnes.

Cambodia harvested 8.25 million tonnes of paddy in 2010, Prime Minister Hun Sen said during the 16th Government-Private Sector Forum held on November 23 in Phnom Penh.

“After the dry-season paddy rice has been harvested, we will have the final results. But in general, first report and last report are very close,” he said.

The ministry will deliver those results in April, he added. Cambodia will hold about 4 million tonnes of surplus paddy, with another 2.57 million tonnes for export, according to Ngin Chhay.

CEDAC president Dr Yang Saing Koma agreed with the ministry’s projections, saying the crops that lay outside flood-affected areas saw higher yields.

At the same time, other farmers would scramble to recover from the damage done by the floods, which would help to boost dry-season output, he said.

However, Yang Saing Koma estimated that Cambodia had been lucky because of the heavy rains seen this year, and said the country would need to focus on water management in order for the dry season harvest to reach its full potential.

“Climate is the most crucial factor for the agricultural sector in Cambodia. The best path to developing Cambodia’s agriculture is through good water management,” he said, adding that seed selection was also crucial.

Source: Phnom Penh Post

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Cambodia Rice: The minister of MAFF was advisory to people to farm the dry season field correctly

Cambodia Rice: The minister of MAFF was advisory to people to farm the dry season field correctly

On March, 31th, the minister of MAFF monitored the showing dry season field in Siemreap province. In that chance, he advised farmers about the way to farm the dry season field to be better than keeping the land free.

In monitoring chance of farming the showing dry season field over 10 ha along the Romdeng dike which was donated by ECOSORN project in Choub village, Khna Por commune, Sotnikom district, Siemreap province, Mr.Chann Sarun advised to all people that farmers have to focus on a correct dry season field farming in order to get high yield. He spoke that in dry season field farming, people have to use purification seed, to prepare the land to be flat and should farm from 2 to 4 times. Besides, people ought to focus on plucking weeds out and watering on clump of rice plants for to pre-solving when it’s drought.


When monitoring the dry season field, minister observed that when clumps of rice plants were spreading, water lacking at the end of season happened. By seeing this situation, minister was monitory the general department of agriculture (department of agricultural machine) to send 4 pumps for intervention pumping from Romdeng irrigation system to field in order to save rice which is lacking water in urgent.

In that area, people do not have a habit to farm the dry season field by keeping blank land. With a purpose for people to have possibilities to farm many times and improve their livelihood, Mr. Chann Sarun built an idea to encourage people to focus on the dry season farming according to policies of Samdach Decho Hun Sen which want to see all people to get a high living standard. Source: MAFF

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Cambodia Rice: Japan Offers Support for Farmers in three Tonle Sap provinces

Cambodia Rice: Japan Offers Support for Farmers in three Tonle Sap provinces

The Japan International Cooperation Agency pledged US$4.4 million on yesterday to help improve the productivity and income of farmers in areas along the Tonle Sap lake in Battambang, Pursat and Kampong Chhnang provinces.

Yasujiro Suzuki, chief representative of JICA Cambodia, said at signing ceremony that the JICA-sponsored project would help the Cambodian government reach its goal of boosting rice exports to 1 million tonnes by 2015.

San Vanty, undersecretary of state at the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, said that the project – which will focus on agriculture production techniques, seed quality and irrigation – would target 30 communes in Battambang province, four in Pursat and two in Kampong Chhnang.

“In the near future, agricultural productivity and income of farmers in the target areas will be improved through collaboration and implementation of this project,” he said. The project is to commence in September and last for four and a half years.



Cheam Chan Sophorn, director of the Battambang provincial agriculture department, said he hoped that by the end of the JICA project, the province would be able to “double or triple the amount of rice for export to regional and international markets”.



Meanwhile, farmers living in the three target provinces said yesterday that they were concerned about this year’s ongoing drought.

“I am concerned about not having enough water to supply to my rice seedlings this year ... because of drought and a lack of irrigation systems,” said Kuch Veng, a farmer from Krakor district in Pursat province.

Tan Soksan, a farmer in Kampong Chhnang’s Rolea Phear district, agreed that it had been difficult to grow rice this year due to water shortages.

“I and other farmers in my village have serious concerns about the lack of rains,” he said, and some rice crops had died due to lack of water.

Lay Pisith, deputy director of the Pursat provincial agriculture department, said that officials in Krakor and Bakan districts have been forced to manually pump water into their ricefields in order to counter the effects of the drought.

Ngan Nany, director of the agriculture department in Kampong Chhnang province, said yesterday that recent rains had helped to improve the situation. “We hope that the rice seedlings of our farmers will not have any more problems,” he said. Source: MAFF

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