Convert food crops to rubber, says Ministry of Agriculture.
Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2017 8:34 pm
According to this article, the government plan to encourage small farmers to switch from food crops to growing rubber.
Just off the top of my head, this seems like a bad idea for a number of reasons.
I'm no expert, but a lot of noise has been made recently about Cambodia's reliance on other countries for food. At the moment, Cambodia doesn't grow nearly enough food for the population, and the population is increasing. Food crops need to be increased, not replaced with cash crops.
Huge amounts of land in Cambodia are already being used for cash crops like rubber and palm oil. The market for rubber is volatile and open to speculation, and there is no safety net in place to assist small farmers if there is a sharp downturn in world rubber prices.
Is this new project a ploy to get a $13M low interest loan from a foreign aid agency, that can then be distributed by the generous government to the restless poor who are suffering from land grabs and logging ?
Or it could also simply be a reflex from the MOA, seeing $$ because global rubber prices are suddenly way up ?
Or am I just a bitter and twisted cynic ? I probably wouldn't normally have even noticed this article, but for the fact that the MOA was banging on recently about how they were planning to help small farmers grow and market more produce for the Cambodian market, and this is such a contradiction.
Government plugs rubber switch
The government is seeking intrepid smallholder farmers to pilot a project that would transform 6,000 hectares of cropland in two provinces into a patchwork of small rubber plantations.
The Ministry of Agriculture is eyeing 5,000 hectares of land in Ratanakkiri and 1,000 hectares in Battambang for the project, and has already secured interest from thousands of smallholder farmers, according to Pol Sopha, general director of the ministry’s rubber development department.
“In the first step, we identified 2,500 farming families in two provinces, Battambang, Ratanakkiri, who were willing to invest in growing rubber and ready to convert their land from crop farms to rubber plantations,” he said yesterday.
The ministry is currently preparing a feasibility study on the substitute crop project.
If approved by the ministers of agriculture and finance, the government will apply for a $13 million loan from French development agency AFD to cover the low-interest loans it will distribute to farmers that sign on.
The terms of the loans to be distributed to farmers have not been decided, he added.
The government’s push for smallholder rubber plantations comes as rubber prices show a bounce after a five-year global supply glut that depressed prices. The price for natural rubber recently topped $2,400 per tonne, making the cash crop profitable once again, according to Sopha...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/g ... ber-switch
Rubber prices are up again now, but the situation was dire for rubber producers a little over a year ago : http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/r ... ounce-back
Previous rubber thread shows the ups and downs : https://cambodiaexpatsonline.com/post154 ... er#p154755
Just off the top of my head, this seems like a bad idea for a number of reasons.
I'm no expert, but a lot of noise has been made recently about Cambodia's reliance on other countries for food. At the moment, Cambodia doesn't grow nearly enough food for the population, and the population is increasing. Food crops need to be increased, not replaced with cash crops.
Huge amounts of land in Cambodia are already being used for cash crops like rubber and palm oil. The market for rubber is volatile and open to speculation, and there is no safety net in place to assist small farmers if there is a sharp downturn in world rubber prices.
Is this new project a ploy to get a $13M low interest loan from a foreign aid agency, that can then be distributed by the generous government to the restless poor who are suffering from land grabs and logging ?
Or it could also simply be a reflex from the MOA, seeing $$ because global rubber prices are suddenly way up ?
Or am I just a bitter and twisted cynic ? I probably wouldn't normally have even noticed this article, but for the fact that the MOA was banging on recently about how they were planning to help small farmers grow and market more produce for the Cambodian market, and this is such a contradiction.
Government plugs rubber switch
The government is seeking intrepid smallholder farmers to pilot a project that would transform 6,000 hectares of cropland in two provinces into a patchwork of small rubber plantations.
The Ministry of Agriculture is eyeing 5,000 hectares of land in Ratanakkiri and 1,000 hectares in Battambang for the project, and has already secured interest from thousands of smallholder farmers, according to Pol Sopha, general director of the ministry’s rubber development department.
“In the first step, we identified 2,500 farming families in two provinces, Battambang, Ratanakkiri, who were willing to invest in growing rubber and ready to convert their land from crop farms to rubber plantations,” he said yesterday.
The ministry is currently preparing a feasibility study on the substitute crop project.
If approved by the ministers of agriculture and finance, the government will apply for a $13 million loan from French development agency AFD to cover the low-interest loans it will distribute to farmers that sign on.
The terms of the loans to be distributed to farmers have not been decided, he added.
The government’s push for smallholder rubber plantations comes as rubber prices show a bounce after a five-year global supply glut that depressed prices. The price for natural rubber recently topped $2,400 per tonne, making the cash crop profitable once again, according to Sopha...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/g ... ber-switch
Rubber prices are up again now, but the situation was dire for rubber producers a little over a year ago : http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/r ... ounce-back
Previous rubber thread shows the ups and downs : https://cambodiaexpatsonline.com/post154 ... er#p154755