The Ministry of Agriculture is encouraging farmers to use less chemical pesticides. That's a good start, but the farmers may need more practical help to reduce the use of pesticides. More control over the type of chemicals being sold in Cambodia would also be a good move.

Use Less Chemicals, Farmers Told
Farmers were yesterday encouraged to use biocontrol agents on their crops to boost output in a bid to eliminate using chemical pesticides in agricultural production.

During a forum on the use of biocontrol agents yesterday, Secretary of State at the Ministry of Agriculture Hean Vanhan said that using biocontrol agents helps farmers to stop using chemical pesticides and can increase the efficiency of agricultural production.

Biocontrol agents are living organisms – such as insects, pathogens and grazing animals – used to depress the population of a pest, such as insects, mites, weeds and plant diseases, which can interfere with or reduce agricultural output.

The call to use biocontrol agents was made amid increasing imports of chemical and organic pesticides for agriculture due to rising demands in the agriculture sector, particularly in rice farming...

http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/30094/ ... mers-told/

Death in small doses – Cambodia’s pesticide peril

Having emerged from decades of war and internal strife as one of the world’s poorest countries, Cambodia faces a new and less obvious threat: the poisoning of its people, food, water and wildlife by chemical pesticides. Cambodia is becoming a dumping ground for pesticides deemed by the World Health Organisation to be ‘highly or extremely hazardous to human health’. Mike Shanahan and Steve Trent of the Environmental Justice Foundation report on the problem and recommend measures to address the situation...

http://www.pan-uk.org/pestnews/Issue/pn56/pn56p6.htm