Farmers plant rice seedlings in a paddy field in Kampong Chhnang province, 91 km northwest of Phnom Penh in this September 9, 2005 file photo. Cambodia's economy was devastated by civil war from the 1970s to the late 1990s, including four years under Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge, whose dream of transforming the country into a great rice power ended in the nightmare of the "Killing Fields". Now another agrarian revolution is under way as the government seeks to boost rice exports and cut poverty among its 14 million people. The key is better irrigation and fertiliser. REUTERS/Chor Sokunthea/Files
A farmer carries rice seedlings in a paddy field in Kampong Chhnang province, 91 km northwest of Phnom Penh in this September 9, 2005 file photo. Cambodia's economy was devastated by civil war from the 1970s to the late 1990s, including four years under Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge, whose dream of transforming the country into a great rice power ended in the nightmare of the "Killing Fields". Now another agrarian revolution is under way as the government seeks to boost rice exports and cut poverty among its 14 million people. The key is better irrigation and fertiliser. REUTERS /Chor Sokunthea/Files
Farmers plant rice seedlings in a paddy field in Kampong Chhnang province, 91 km northwest of Phnom Penh in this September 9, 2005 file photo. Cambodia's economy was devastated by civil war from the 1970s to the late 1990s, including four years under Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge, whose dream of transforming the country into a great rice power ended in the nightmare of the "Killing Fields". Now another agrarian revolution is under way as the government seeks to boost rice exports and cut poverty among its 14 million people. The key is better irrigation and fertiliser. REUTERS /Chor Sokunthea/FilesWed Oct 8, 2008
By Ek Madra
TRAMKOK, Cambodia (Reuters) - Sok Sarin flashes a toothless grin as he looks at his newly built house and remembers how the other farmers laughed when he pioneered new rice-growing techniques in his district in southern Cambodia.
Better irrigation, training in how to select seeds and cheap fertilizer made from wild plants and animal or bat droppings have more than doubled the yield from his rice fields to 3.4 tons per hectare from 1.5 tons.
"No one believed that this idea would work. Now they follow me and they have good harvests," said Sarin, 60.
Cambodia's economy was devastated by civil war from the 1970s to the late 1990s, including four years under Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge, whose dream of transforming the country into a great rice power ended in the nightmare of the "Killing Fields."
Now another agrarian revolution is under way as the government seeks to boost rice exports and cut poverty among its 14 million people, 85 percent of whom are farmers or members of farming families.
Thanks in large part to vastly improved irrigation, Sarin can get two crops a year from his fields, earning him an income of $1,500. Per capita income in Cambodia is around $500.
Sarin's neighbor, Long Yos, 50, said Cambodian farmers were also following methods honed in China, India and the Philippines to breed fish that eat the insects that destroy rice plants.
"The fish eat the insects; we eat the fish when they get bigger," said Yos.
OVER-AMBITIOUS
Better irrigation and the expansion of land use are crucial to government ambitions to produce 15 million tons of rice by 2015, more than double the 7 million forecast for 2008/09 and 6.76 million in 2007/08. The main harvest is in November.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Cambodia was the world's ninth-biggest rice exporter in 2007 with 450,000 tons. Agriculture Minister Chan Sarun says Cambodia could export 8 million tons by 2015.
Neighbors Thailand and Vietnam were in first and third places in the export table in 2007 with 9.5 million tons and 4.5 million tons respectively, according to the USDA.
One rice dealer with a trading house in Singapore estimated Cambodia exported 600,000 to 800,000 tons a year, directly or indirectly via Thailand, and could push that up to 1.5 million tons in one or two seasons if the government was focused.
"But 8 million tons is an entirely different ball game. Obviously, this has to come from increases in area and not just yield," he said.
Another Singapore trader said it would take a lot of money for Cambodia to push yields significantly higher.
"China is the only country in the developing world that has reached 6 to 8 tons per hectare. Thailand is at 3.5 tons per hectare while India is around 2.5 tons," he said.
Analysts in Thailand, while acknowledging how far Cambodia has come already, think its plans are just too ambitious.
"It's possible, but it would not be that easy," Paka-on Tipayatanadaja at Kasikorn Research said of the 2015 target.
"It would take more than a decade to develop not only an irrigation system, but also a logistics system and storage systems," she added.
IRRIGATION
Many Cambodian farmers harvest just once a year because of a lack of water. Vietnam and Thailand, with their superior irrigation, manage two or three crops.
Phnom Penh is investing about $49 million a year on irrigation, said Hang Chuon Naron, an official at the Finance Ministry, but much more is needed.
"Japan and South Korea are helping us but that's not enough," said Chea Chhun Keat of the Water Resources Ministry, adding 1.6 million hectares of 2.6 million under cultivation was irrigated.
Foreign investment is flowing into Cambodia thanks to its cheap labor and the political stability achieved under Hun Sen, prime minister since 1985.
In August, Kuwait agreed loans totaling $546 million, of which $486 million will be invested in irrigation systems and hydro-power on the Stueng Sen river in the northeast of the country.
A Kuwaiti newspaper said Kuwait had leased rice fields to secure food supplies. Qatar also plans to invest $200 million in Cambodian farmland.
"They have the money, we have the land. They wouldn't come if we didn't have agricultural potential," said farm minister Sarun.
Land under cultivation could be pushed up to 3.5 million hectares quite quickly, according to Yang Saing Koma, president of the Cambodian Center for Study and Development in Agriculture.
He pointed to the area round Tonle Sap, Cambodia's biggest freshwater lake with up to 800,000 hectares of potential farm land, much of it unused as a lack of irrigation means farmers can't control water levels: In the rainy season, there's too much, which damages rice plants, in the dry season too little.
There is more land to be worked in the northeast and in the still-mined former battlefields of the northwest.
In all, Saing Koma said, Cambodia had 6 million hectares that might be cultivated for rice and other crops.
The average rice yield per hectare is currently 2.6 tons and he said that could be pushed up to 3.5 tons -- a yield that Sarin has in his sights thanks to the training, irrigation and bat droppings that have given him two crops a year.
(Writing by Alan Raybould; editing by Megan Goldin)
Better irrigation, training in how to select seeds and cheap fertilizer made from wild plants and animal or bat droppings have more than doubled the yield from his rice fields to 3.4 tons per hectare from 1.5 tons.
"No one believed that this idea would work. Now they follow me and they have good harvests," said Sarin, 60.
Cambodia's economy was devastated by civil war from the 1970s to the late 1990s, including four years under Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge, whose dream of transforming the country into a great rice power ended in the nightmare of the "Killing Fields."
Now another agrarian revolution is under way as the government seeks to boost rice exports and cut poverty among its 14 million people, 85 percent of whom are farmers or members of farming families.
Thanks in large part to vastly improved irrigation, Sarin can get two crops a year from his fields, earning him an income of $1,500. Per capita income in Cambodia is around $500.
Sarin's neighbor, Long Yos, 50, said Cambodian farmers were also following methods honed in China, India and the Philippines to breed fish that eat the insects that destroy rice plants.
"The fish eat the insects; we eat the fish when they get bigger," said Yos.
OVER-AMBITIOUS
Better irrigation and the expansion of land use are crucial to government ambitions to produce 15 million tons of rice by 2015, more than double the 7 million forecast for 2008/09 and 6.76 million in 2007/08. The main harvest is in November.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Cambodia was the world's ninth-biggest rice exporter in 2007 with 450,000 tons. Agriculture Minister Chan Sarun says Cambodia could export 8 million tons by 2015.
Neighbors Thailand and Vietnam were in first and third places in the export table in 2007 with 9.5 million tons and 4.5 million tons respectively, according to the USDA.
One rice dealer with a trading house in Singapore estimated Cambodia exported 600,000 to 800,000 tons a year, directly or indirectly via Thailand, and could push that up to 1.5 million tons in one or two seasons if the government was focused.
"But 8 million tons is an entirely different ball game. Obviously, this has to come from increases in area and not just yield," he said.
Another Singapore trader said it would take a lot of money for Cambodia to push yields significantly higher.
"China is the only country in the developing world that has reached 6 to 8 tons per hectare. Thailand is at 3.5 tons per hectare while India is around 2.5 tons," he said.
Analysts in Thailand, while acknowledging how far Cambodia has come already, think its plans are just too ambitious.
"It's possible, but it would not be that easy," Paka-on Tipayatanadaja at Kasikorn Research said of the 2015 target.
"It would take more than a decade to develop not only an irrigation system, but also a logistics system and storage systems," she added.
IRRIGATION
Many Cambodian farmers harvest just once a year because of a lack of water. Vietnam and Thailand, with their superior irrigation, manage two or three crops.
Phnom Penh is investing about $49 million a year on irrigation, said Hang Chuon Naron, an official at the Finance Ministry, but much more is needed.
"Japan and South Korea are helping us but that's not enough," said Chea Chhun Keat of the Water Resources Ministry, adding 1.6 million hectares of 2.6 million under cultivation was irrigated.
Foreign investment is flowing into Cambodia thanks to its cheap labor and the political stability achieved under Hun Sen, prime minister since 1985.
In August, Kuwait agreed loans totaling $546 million, of which $486 million will be invested in irrigation systems and hydro-power on the Stueng Sen river in the northeast of the country.
A Kuwaiti newspaper said Kuwait had leased rice fields to secure food supplies. Qatar also plans to invest $200 million in Cambodian farmland.
"They have the money, we have the land. They wouldn't come if we didn't have agricultural potential," said farm minister Sarun.
Land under cultivation could be pushed up to 3.5 million hectares quite quickly, according to Yang Saing Koma, president of the Cambodian Center for Study and Development in Agriculture.
He pointed to the area round Tonle Sap, Cambodia's biggest freshwater lake with up to 800,000 hectares of potential farm land, much of it unused as a lack of irrigation means farmers can't control water levels: In the rainy season, there's too much, which damages rice plants, in the dry season too little.
There is more land to be worked in the northeast and in the still-mined former battlefields of the northwest.
In all, Saing Koma said, Cambodia had 6 million hectares that might be cultivated for rice and other crops.
The average rice yield per hectare is currently 2.6 tons and he said that could be pushed up to 3.5 tons -- a yield that Sarin has in his sights thanks to the training, irrigation and bat droppings that have given him two crops a year.
(Writing by Alan Raybould; editing by Megan Goldin)
6 comments:
Congratulations to Sok Sarin. Your Prime Minister should make you his personal adviser.
yes, glad to see that cambodian gov't and farmers are looking beyond the borders for idea and advancement in farming technique. i think cambodia has historically depend too much on just rain water, it's is time to look at how other countries in the region are doing to advance their agriculture technique such as irrigation, raising fish that eat insects that destroy the crops, etc... like i said many times before, cambodia doesn't lack water, we lack advance technology like in other countries in the world that help them to better their lives and their farming technique. i hope cambodia will learn from others on the know-how if we are to compete. god bless cambodia.
yes, what cambodia needs is a mechanism in place in order to revolutionize our agriculture industry like they do it in the western countries. again, to say that cambodia lack water is as blind and ignorant a statement as a bat, what cambodia lack certain isn't water, just look at the whole map of country and the geographic areas and land mass of cambodia; there are many rivers, the largest fresh water lake in the whole southeast asia region, and don't forget the mighty mekong river that flows right through the middle of cambodia. if cambodia can get help to build irrigation systems all over our country, and if our farmers or growers stop rely on rainfalls solely and instead get introduced to a reform in the way our people do agriculture, we will be very wealthy in reaping in the benefit our fertile land can give cambodia by investing in new agricultural technology, etc... please look around the world for how others are doing this or how other overcame this obstacle in their agricultural revolution. and who says cambodia as a country can't overcome this obstacle as well. this is the start. good thinking, cambodia! god bless cambodia.
one of the key is to control the water system in cambodia so that flood water can be control during the flooding season and water availability can be had during the dry season. i think with good pland and strong, undeterred ambition, cambodia gov't can help our people to do just that so all of people and country can benefit greatly from taking advantage of our abundant natural resources. cambodia just need the new technological know-how and better management in this great potential field that god has given our beloved country, cambodia. god bless cambodia.
That's why they want to build dams and reservoirs.
our country has huge potential since ancient time. all it take is the right approach and the right management, etc... to help our khmer people to help themselves and cambodia.
Post a Comment