DPA
Phnom Penh - Images of a country desolated by the Khmer Rouge, an entire population put to work in the rice fields and yet dying by the hundreds of thousands of starvation, still haunts Cambodia.
But since the ultra-Maoist's disastrous drive from 1975 to 1979 to turn the country into an agrarian utopia bereft of markets, money and technology, Cambodia has quietly picked itself up and is poised to become one of the major rice exporters in the region, experts said.
From the dismal postwar years, Cambodia has steadily rebuilt its irrigation systems, developed its technology and slowly but surely reclaimed thousands of hectares of rice fields from land mines.
'Cambodia will become a major rice exporter,' Agriculture Minister Chan Sarun said. 'We achieved food security in 1995, and last year, as well as self-sufficiency, we had 2 million tons left over for exports.
'We currently have 2.5 million hectares under rice cultivation, but we expect to increase that to 3 million.
Cambodia's rice producers and millers are optimistic about their future, and this year, Cambodia even sold subsidized rice to African countries, including Guinea, as a humanitarian gesture.
So confident is Cambodia of being able to hold its own with the big regional rice players in the future that Prime Minister Hun Sen has been a key proponent of a proposed regional rice cartel similar to that of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.
Thailand's brainchild, the proposed Organization of Rice Exporting Countries, was aimed at protecting the region's major rice producers but has deeply concerned major importers, such as the Philippines, which said it would only benefit major producers.
Phou Puy, president of the Cambodian National Rice Millers Association, said new growing techniques, rice strains and irrigation projects could potentially double the country's rice crop by 2015.
'With these changes, Cambodia's traditional one-time-per-year harvest can increase to two, even three times a year,' Phou Puy said. 'By 2015, that could provide exports of 10 million tons.
'Currently, we stand at between 2 [million] to 5 million tons, depending on weather conditions,' he said.
The 2015 projection would have Cambodia matching neighbouring Thailand's export predictions for 2008. Thailand is currently the world's largest rice exporter.
Cambodia is increasingly also becoming a player in biofuel production, but Phou Puy denied that that development would put to use land that could be planted for rice.
Vast industrial farms have sprung up on the north-western border with Thailand, producing corn and soybeans, and jatropha, which is endemic to Cambodia and a prime source of biodiesel, now takes up hundreds of hectares.
'But these crops grow where rice doesn't, so they do not impact on our rice yield,' Phou Puy said. 'I have no doubt Cambodia has the potential to match or surpass our rice-producing neighbours.
Such a development would be a major achievement not only for the country but also for donors who have poured billions of dollars into Cambodia's agricultural sector.
While China has been a key donor for irrigation development, alongside others including the Asian Development Bank, Australia has led the way in Cambodia's technological and scientific advances, funding research and development projects.
The Cambodian Agricultural Research and Development Institute has benefited from millions of dollars in Australian aid and in return has been integral in developing new strains of rice, more resistant to the whims of climate change and the ravages of insects.
The institute's mission is to educate individual growers in a country where the bulk of people involved in agriculture work on mostly small family plots.
These sorts of measures have been so successful that Chan Sarun envisages a second lucrative niche market in organic rice, which demands a higher price but costs farmers less to produce because they don't use expensive fertilizers and pesticides.
'Organic rice is very popular,' the minister said. 'We aim to reduce chemical fertilizer use step by step. The world prefers natural food, so we are moving in that direction.
Mechanization will not come overnight, and experts agreed the days of Cambodia's rice farmers plodding patiently behind a plough pulled by cows or buffalo were not numbered.
But they said simple techniques with the right cropping, strains and a guaranteed water supply might one day take Cambodia to the top of the region in producing one of the world's most precious staples.
But since the ultra-Maoist's disastrous drive from 1975 to 1979 to turn the country into an agrarian utopia bereft of markets, money and technology, Cambodia has quietly picked itself up and is poised to become one of the major rice exporters in the region, experts said.
From the dismal postwar years, Cambodia has steadily rebuilt its irrigation systems, developed its technology and slowly but surely reclaimed thousands of hectares of rice fields from land mines.
'Cambodia will become a major rice exporter,' Agriculture Minister Chan Sarun said. 'We achieved food security in 1995, and last year, as well as self-sufficiency, we had 2 million tons left over for exports.
'We currently have 2.5 million hectares under rice cultivation, but we expect to increase that to 3 million.
Cambodia's rice producers and millers are optimistic about their future, and this year, Cambodia even sold subsidized rice to African countries, including Guinea, as a humanitarian gesture.
So confident is Cambodia of being able to hold its own with the big regional rice players in the future that Prime Minister Hun Sen has been a key proponent of a proposed regional rice cartel similar to that of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.
Thailand's brainchild, the proposed Organization of Rice Exporting Countries, was aimed at protecting the region's major rice producers but has deeply concerned major importers, such as the Philippines, which said it would only benefit major producers.
Phou Puy, president of the Cambodian National Rice Millers Association, said new growing techniques, rice strains and irrigation projects could potentially double the country's rice crop by 2015.
'With these changes, Cambodia's traditional one-time-per-year harvest can increase to two, even three times a year,' Phou Puy said. 'By 2015, that could provide exports of 10 million tons.
'Currently, we stand at between 2 [million] to 5 million tons, depending on weather conditions,' he said.
The 2015 projection would have Cambodia matching neighbouring Thailand's export predictions for 2008. Thailand is currently the world's largest rice exporter.
Cambodia is increasingly also becoming a player in biofuel production, but Phou Puy denied that that development would put to use land that could be planted for rice.
Vast industrial farms have sprung up on the north-western border with Thailand, producing corn and soybeans, and jatropha, which is endemic to Cambodia and a prime source of biodiesel, now takes up hundreds of hectares.
'But these crops grow where rice doesn't, so they do not impact on our rice yield,' Phou Puy said. 'I have no doubt Cambodia has the potential to match or surpass our rice-producing neighbours.
Such a development would be a major achievement not only for the country but also for donors who have poured billions of dollars into Cambodia's agricultural sector.
While China has been a key donor for irrigation development, alongside others including the Asian Development Bank, Australia has led the way in Cambodia's technological and scientific advances, funding research and development projects.
The Cambodian Agricultural Research and Development Institute has benefited from millions of dollars in Australian aid and in return has been integral in developing new strains of rice, more resistant to the whims of climate change and the ravages of insects.
The institute's mission is to educate individual growers in a country where the bulk of people involved in agriculture work on mostly small family plots.
These sorts of measures have been so successful that Chan Sarun envisages a second lucrative niche market in organic rice, which demands a higher price but costs farmers less to produce because they don't use expensive fertilizers and pesticides.
'Organic rice is very popular,' the minister said. 'We aim to reduce chemical fertilizer use step by step. The world prefers natural food, so we are moving in that direction.
Mechanization will not come overnight, and experts agreed the days of Cambodia's rice farmers plodding patiently behind a plough pulled by cows or buffalo were not numbered.
But they said simple techniques with the right cropping, strains and a guaranteed water supply might one day take Cambodia to the top of the region in producing one of the world's most precious staples.
4 comments:
Keep it growing! One day we will be the number one rice exporter. But Don't forget to vote for me when i form political party 2033.
If Hun Sen's gorvermnet not that corrupted and stupid! And give all our cash cow projects like Ankor Watt, Gas import, Grainst export to Ah Youn Viet namese throught Sokimex of ah Sok Kong!
The tax income will be able to provide so no one in the country stave, have no house and heath care by now!!!
3:55am, what you describe above is called reform because every country needs reform, and cambodia is no exception. reform in the way gov't operate can bring in more income tax for the gov't; and in turn, gov't should use that collected tax funds to help with schools, infrastructure building, gov't workers' salaries, the welfare system, etc., etc.... the list just goes on and on. yes, it is called REFORM, the correct word in politics. without this magic work, reform, don't expect to see changes, my dear.
so, khmer citizens should fight hard for this reform in gov't; and a lot of reform is needed in gov't, especially we were to help solve all the problem if not completely, at least to some degree. and please get use to the concept of globalization as it not only affect cambodia but affect the whole world as well. that said, reform can be applied to the way cambodia thinks as well as concrete reform. so there, reform!!!!!! some change won't hurt cambodia, in fact, it might even improves cambodia for the better!
yes, sustainable agricultural business relies on fixing and building the irrigation system. look, one natural resource that cambodia so abundantly have is water and more water. every year almost half of cambodia looks like an inland sea, yet, comes summer time or dry season, there is still drought. why? i think one problem is because cambodia did not build permanent irrigation system to store water for dry season usage. once this problem is fixed, we shouldn't see anymore drought problem in cambodia for good. the other problem is lack of infrastructure like highway, good concrete roads, railways, large airports, etc... (international standard of large airport should have at least 3500 meters of runway for jumbo jets and long-haul flights; otherwise, cambodia will always depends on neighboring countries like thailand, singapore, malaysia, vietnam etc... for relaying of flights into cambodia. even today, cambodia's largest airport at phnom penh only have 3000 meters of runway length, still 500 meters short of the international standard for airfield runway. how can we compete with the region airports when our runways are least than 3500 meters of length? these are the things we should be thinking about when developping cambodia's infrastructure etc...
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