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Agriculture and Rural Development

(i)      Introduction

Family Agriculture plays an important role in Cambodia providing employment opportunities for around two thirds of the population and contributing to national food security and economy. In addition, it has important cultural and environmental values and function for Cambodian Society. Under the fast changing political, economic and technological context, there is an increasing threat to the sustainability and productivity of family agriculture.

(ii)      Key issues

The main issues of concern in relation to agriculture and rural development are:

-        Increasing pressure on land resource, as a result of increasing agricultural land and forest concessions, land speculation and a growing population. This situation limits the access of a growing farming population to land and forest resources.

-        There is an increasing inflow of products from other countries. Generally imported commodities are more competitive than local ones, which discourage small farmers, mainly subsistence farmers, to invest in agriculture. Cambodian farmers are not competitive because they have very limited access to technology, seeds, irrigation and other facilities. In addition, they are not organized. The entry of Cambodia into WTO will worsen this situation if no appropriate mechanisms are put in place to improve the capacity of local agriculture to cope with the free trade.

-        There is a very high dependency on imported inputs implying high expenditures, especially with fertilizers and pesticides, which drain small farmers incomes. At least 50 million US$ per year is spent on purchasing these inputs.

-        The number of rural youth is increasing, but they generally do not have the opportunity to gain professional skills in agriculture, rural enterprise and local development. This affects the long-term development of rural communities.

-        Increasing numbers of small farmers are finding themselves in debt, especially due to expenditures on health care and purchasing agricultural inputs. As they are generally subsistence farmers, and they do not have access to non-agricultural income activities, they have to borrow money from private moneylenders and micro-finance. The services of micro-finance institute and NGOs are increasingly available, however the interest rates are still very high for farmers. In addition, they do not invest money in agricultural production due to a lack of access to technical information.

In spite of the importance and the threat to family agriculture, there is no clear priority and program relating to pro-small farmer agricultural development as the government has instead focused on agribusiness and large-scale agriculture in the poverty reduction strategy.

(iii)      Recommendations

We would recommend that the government and donor community work with the private sector, NGOs and rural farmers to develop policies and programs for the promotion of small farmers and ecologically friendly agriculture development. We strongly believe that the economic and socio-political stability of Cambodia depends mainly on the improvement of the livelihood of around 2.5 million small farmer families. In this regard, we would propose the following specific recommendations:

·        We strongly recommend that agricultural land concessions should be limited. If such concessions are granted they should be done in consultation with the affected community. Cost benefit analysis should be undertaken, including economic, social and environmental aspects. The access of small farmers to land and forest should be a priority.

·        Agricultural extension should be strengthened through the establishment of an effective, decentralized agricultural extension system at the district level. The office should have a pluralistic service provider system undertaking various tasks such as: disseminating information; facilitating support to farmer organizations and networks; and ensuring a supportive environment for a pluralistic service provider system.

·        In addition, to improve agricultural extension, there is also a need to support small farmer to cope with the fast changing socio-economic, political, technological and environmental context. Support should be given to farmers to organize themselves in associations and/or cooperatives. There should be organizations that genuinely represent the interests of farmers, allowing farmers to take collective action for their mutual and community benefit. The representatives of farmer organization should be invited to participate in any consultation process related to agricultural development policies and strategies. Technical, management, credit and marketing support should be provided to these farmer organizations.

·        There should be investment in pilot projects pertaining to professional training for rural youth or young farmers, rural enterprise development, local development, leadership and management. The success of the project would provide long-term benefit to the rural communities through the availability of competent human resources at local level.

·        Law enforcement should be strengthened on agrochemicals, especially pesticides by controlling the import, production, distribution, marketing and use of class I[1] pesticides and other pesticides especially, DDT and Endosulfan[2]. MAFF and the Ministry of Health and Environment should be more proactive in informing the public by using mass media, radio and TV about the problems caused by pesticides. Training on pesticides and health should be organized for health officials to inform them of diseases or health problem connected with pesticide use[3].

·        We encourage government, donors, research institutions and NGOs to focus resources and expertise on research and dissemination of innovation relating to low-external inputs, human health and environment friendly agriculture as all this is proving to be a very promising approach aimed at poverty reduction. For example, the ecological system of rice intensification or SRI is one of the most successful methods of achieving a significant increase of rice yield without depending on external inputs, such as fertilizer and pesticides[4]. At present, around 10,000 farmers in Cambodia have adopted the system, and it has potential to spread fast. Many NGOs, government departments, donors and international organization (such as GTZ, Oxfam, JICA and ADB) have already provided resources to support SRI. With stronger support from donors, government and NGOs this system can be adopted by farmers in Cambodia within the next five to ten years, helping to alleviate current problems related to household and food security.

·        With regard to irrigation, we recommend donors and government support small-scale irrigation facilities by supporting community to organize themselves in water users' community, rather than focusing on large-scale irrigation systems.

·        The government should adopt a policy and program to support a community -based seed production and exchange initiative, which can ensure the right of small farmer communities to seeds. In this respect, development effort should not focus on creating dependency by small farmers to seed companies, but on strengthening the community in breeding and exchanging seeds. Quality regulations for seeds sold need to be applied however.

·        With growing uncertainty and concerns about the possible negative impact of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) on the health, ecology and livelihoods of small farmers, we strongly support the initiative of Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries in placing a moratorium on GMOs in Cambodia. All food aid should be screed to ensure it is not GMO.

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[1] According to the government sub decree from October 1998, all class I pesticides are banned in Cambodia. But, the enforcement has been not effective.

[2] Endosulfan was banned in March 2003 by Ministry of Agriculture at the request of Ministry of Health. DDT belongs to class II pesticides, and it is in the list of Stockholm Convention on Organic Pollutants, POPs (Cambodia is a signatory to this convention)

[3] For example, EJF (2002), Death in small doses: Cambodia’s pesticides problems and solutions, Environmental Justice Foundation, London, UK; CEDAC (2003), Pesticides Use in Cambodia, CEDAC Field Document, Centre d’Etude et de Développement Agricole Cambodgien, Phnom Penh

[4] Yang Saing Koma  (2001), Farmer Experimentation in System of Rice Intensification (SRI): Results of Wet Season 2000, Phnom Penh; Yang Saing Koma  (2002), Ecological Sysem of Rice Intensification (SRI) in Cambodia, Results and Field Experiences in 2000-2001, Phnom Penh; Yang Saing Koma, (2003), Ecological System of Rice Intensification (SRI) in Cambodia, Results and Field Experiences in 2002, Phnom Penh; Uphoff, N. (2003), Report from SRI visit to Cambodia, Cornell International Institute for Food, Agriculture and Development, Ithaca, New York, USA

  For more information and the issues raised in this paper, please contact Centre d’Etude et de Developpement Agricole Cambodgien (CEDAC)

Tel: 023 880-916, Email: cedac@camnet.com.kh