“Land is a granary. You should not sell it”27 February 2008
By Ky Soklim
Cambodge Soir Hebdo
Translated from French by Luc Sâr
Experts are concerned about the progressive disappearance of cultivable lands. The minister of agriculture issued a warning to farmers, advising them against selling their lands.
During a visit to Takeo, Chan Sarun, the minister of agriculture, called on farmers to resist from the temptation of money and to preserve their lands. He said that he is concerned that the pursuit of consumer products will push more and more farmers to get rid of cultivable lands to buy for themselves TV, radio sets, or motorbikes with the money they earn.
This call follows the concerns expressed recently in a report issued by agriculture experts. The latter insist on alerting the government about the upcoming dangers created by a progressive disappearance of cultivable lands which are currently under strong land speculation influence from investors.
“Agriculture land is a granary in which money lies dormant. You should not sell it because it will bring income to you year in year out, and with this money, you can buy material things to help you live better and work better. If you sell it, you will get money only once, then it will all be gone. If you sell all your lands, you will no longer produce rice. Rice does not come from the sky,” Chan Sarun tried to explain, adding that the price of lands will continue to rise in Takeo in the upcoming years.
During a visit to Takeo, Chan Sarun, the minister of agriculture, called on farmers to resist from the temptation of money and to preserve their lands. He said that he is concerned that the pursuit of consumer products will push more and more farmers to get rid of cultivable lands to buy for themselves TV, radio sets, or motorbikes with the money they earn.
This call follows the concerns expressed recently in a report issued by agriculture experts. The latter insist on alerting the government about the upcoming dangers created by a progressive disappearance of cultivable lands which are currently under strong land speculation influence from investors.
“Agriculture land is a granary in which money lies dormant. You should not sell it because it will bring income to you year in year out, and with this money, you can buy material things to help you live better and work better. If you sell it, you will get money only once, then it will all be gone. If you sell all your lands, you will no longer produce rice. Rice does not come from the sky,” Chan Sarun tried to explain, adding that the price of lands will continue to rise in Takeo in the upcoming years.
10 comments:
No people born to this world know everything and that is why they have to learn from someone else such parent, friend, relative, teacher, book, magazine...Dirt poor Cambodian people don't even understand the concept of money and property for them to sell their land in such a careless manner without thinking of the serious consequence down the road!
The lack of proper financial education in Cambodia is a very serious issue and without the financial knowledge dirt poor Cambodian people will be misled by the wrong information given by the middlemen which trick them into making the wrong decision!
It is time to put land regulations in place otherwise more dirt poor Cambodian people will fall into victim!
Yeah, well that is why we must be careful when we introduce them to these hitech stuff because they will sell everything they own for it and end up squattering more land from the government.
AH HUN SEN government is doing such a poor job in educating Cambodian people of the danger of unscrupulous business land transaction. But some of the land grabbing is done by AH HUN SEN government through force eviction!
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"Cambodia is a nation of squatters," explains David Pred. "But the biggest squatters are the elite, the military generals, the people who’ve grabbed thousands of hectares of land and sold it off in bits and pieces."
http://www.towardfreedom.com/home/content/view/1227/1/
Well yeah, if squatters impede our progress, we'll take action. We are not going to spend years waiting for them to move.
You'r stupids above, temptation and carelessness run in all humankind, even your scummy dirty mother 12:08pm.
If we have educated people run the country not PHD fron Youn Vietcong, they would put a land prescribe what area it for doing what!
where you can reside only
where you can do cpmmercial
where is for light factory
where is for heavy and dangerouse factory
where for gold court
where for rice field ect..
Step out ah Kwack Hun San and the stupid CPP!
Don't blame all CPP! Only a small bunch of leaders.
There must be good people. You are talking about majority of Cambodia population.
if you ask me, i think it is ok to sell some of the farm lands out there. however, remember to leave some farm land for agriculutre and other crops as well. sell but don't sell everything and leave nothing for farmers to plant agriculture. so, it is ok if the farm land is located near the metropolitan areas or near town or city limit to make room for development. just remember to make law to designate areas for farms and areas for development. so if farms are located too near a city, like phnom penh or something, then, i think it is ok to sell those farm lands for development. just don't sell all the farm lands, then it would be a real problem for cambodia without farm land for agriculture. so be specific as to what can be sold or what or where ought to be kept for farming. allow some freedom to sell, while other significant areas can not be sold. so it is up to the lawmakers to make law for this designation. make for good debate at parliament.
Fair enough, 3:58, but let me add that most farmers needed money badly right now-- can anyone blame them? -- however, they GENERALLY just sell half or quarter of their land just to get money to buy whatever they needed immediately, maybe better tools, plows, or livestocks .... They are not that greedy (generally) to sell everything. They know they needed a place to live, and just because they lacked Westerner education, that will not make them stupid, try to remember that.
To 5:23AM
Bullshit with you instance gratification excuse! But what will happen down the road in 5 yeas to 10 years to 20 years when dirt poor farmers no longer have land to farm and became a beggar on the street!
Speak for yourself punk!
Come on, dude, most of our farmers are not stupid. They are probably smarter than you and me, and they know how to look out for themself. Don't judge them by their carrier.
However unfortunately, there will always be a small portion of them that will screw up at a bad time like this, but that is life.
Hey, if I have a mean to prevent this from happening, I will do it, but I don't. None of us is not God here.
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