Friday, August 28, 2009

FAO to donate 12 mln euro to help Cambodia against drought [-Will it actually reach needy farmers?]

PHNOM PENH, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations will donate 12 million euro (about 17.16 million U.S. dollars) to Cambodia after the country was hit by drought, the FAO official said on Thursday.

"The budget will be signed with Cambodian partner on Sept. 2, but actually we have already helped in fighting against drought in the country," Seung Soy, program assistant for FAO told Xinhua by phone.

"The budget will focus more on helping the training, rice seeds, fertilizers, planting other agricultural crops for local farmers," he said, adding that the finance is from the European Union (EU).

"We also have concern on the food security after it is being hit with drought this year," he added.

Currently, eight provinces in Cambodia have been hit by drought and 40,000 hectares of rice seedlings have been affected by it.

"But Now, Cambodian government has taken actions to save rice seedlings from dry. We used water pumps to help farmers and we prepared seeds for local framers," Chan Tong Ev, secretary of state for Ministry of Agriculture told Xinhua. However, he said he could not comment about the budget, but waiting.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

i think it question should be: what can we do to the aid money to make sure it reaches the grass-root of the very people they are trying to help? this is better and called smarter, no a skeptical question like a smarty pants would ask! wake up, people. stop being so negative and so ignorant already! we have to keep reminding ourselves that we are not in the dark ages anymore, ok! yes, always learn from everybody on the planet! it's the smart thing to do, really! wake up!

Anonymous said...

These donations only add to the corruption in Cambodia. Why these donors not wait until after the corruption law is passed.

Anonymous said...

FAO has to find a better way to donate the 12 million Euro to help Cabodia against drought. If it's only just the same help as any help before, the fund will only end up in those powerful already rich - THEY WILL NEVER BE RICH ENOUGH NOT TO TAKE IN ANYMORE, believe me as I do know things got done overthere.