Hard Times: Farmer Abandons, and Gives Away Produce

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Hard Times: Farmer Abandons, and Gives Away Produce

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Farmer Unable to Donate Produce to Locked Down Families
Khorn Nary and Phoung Vantha 27/04/2021 5:55 PM
A farmer in Kandal Province has been forced to abandon his produce as he is unable to sell it, unable to donate it, and has said that if anybody wants lettuce they can come and take it for free.
PHNOM PENH--In 15 years of farming, Tai Song is—like so many other Cambodians—struggling under the latest COVID-19 outbreak.

Since the Feb. 20 outbreak, Song’s farm in Kandal Province has seen a decline in customers, but when Phnom Penh and Takhmao City went into lockdown on April 15, his market disappeared completely.

Now, with the lockdowns extending, Song has decided to abandon his farm.

“There are no traders, nobody wants to buy the lettuce or vegetables because traders cannot ship to the markets—the markets are closed due to lockdown,” said Song.

He has spent close to $2,000 on farming equipment for one hectare of lettuce, but now Song worries it is all for nothing now that he cannot sell his produce.

At the age of 35, Song said he wanted to help the people who are struggling for food by distributing his vegetables, but he has not been able to get them to those in the lockdown.

“Neither lettuce nor other vegetables have buyers. I have plowed half a hectare of lettuce and in two or three days I will be plow another half a hectare,” he said. “If anyone needs a salad, they can come and get it for free.”

Before the pandemic, his lettuce could fetch up to 5,000 riel—roughly $1.25—per kilogram, but now it’s less than 500 riel per kilogram. He faces a similar problem with the sugarcane and onions that he grows.
“I’ve had to abandon a lot of vegetables in the last year,” he said, adding that he expects it will get worse.
https://cambodianess.com/article/farmer ... n-families
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Re: Hard Times: Farmer Abandons, and Gives Away Produce

Post by CEOCambodiaNews »

The above article was not appreciated by local authorities:

Kandal Authorities Warn Farmers to Not Upload Negative Pictures
3 min read

Khan Leakhena
| Tue May 4, 2021 5:06 pm

Kandal provincial authorities have told farmers to stop posting photos of vegetables spoiling in their fields without a market amid lockdowns as they were affecting morale, an official said.

Hor Sophal, deputy director of the Kandal department of agriculture, said his department had visited farmers in Sa’ang district on Friday. There were in fact vegetables that farmers could not find a market for due to the Covid-19 crisis and lockdowns in the major markets of Phnom Penh and Takhmao city, he said.

But the officials had told the farmers to stop posting pictures publicly because it affected the morale of other farmers and affected society, Sophal said.

“This is his second time, so we went to instruct him, and now he took note and said [he would] stop posting in public,” he said about Tai Song, one farmer who had been posting photos to Facebook.

Song has uploaded pictures about having to clear and throw away his vegetables amid the lockdown’s closure of markets.

Song told VOD that he had been pressured to sign a contract saying he would stop.

“I’m very disappointed and have nothing to say to them,” Song said. “I asked them to go take a look at the vegetables in my village, but they didn’t go to look. Hundreds of hectares of sugarcane will be plowed in the future as well, and there’s no less than thousands of tons of vegetables that they did not help to find a solution for. They just ordered me.”

“They no longer allowed me to post and use Facebook extensively. Me!” he continued. “I’m just a normal farmer. … I don’t know what they think that they ordered me like this.”

Another farmer, who gave his name only as Bunly, said several farmers had posted the photos so that authorities are aware of problems and can help find solutions.
In full: https://vodenglish.news/kandal-authorit ... -pictures/
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Frankl
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Re: Hard Times: Farmer Abandons, and Gives Away Produce

Post by Frankl »

CEOCambodiaNews wrote: Thu Apr 29, 2021 10:06 pm Farmer Unable to Donate Produce to Locked Down Families
Khorn Nary and Phoung Vantha 27/04/2021 5:55 PM
A farmer in Kandal Province has been forced to abandon his produce as he is unable to sell it, unable to donate it, and has said that if anybody wants lettuce they can come and take it for free.
PHNOM PENH--In 15 years of farming, Tai Song is—like so many other Cambodians—struggling under the latest COVID-19 outbreak.

Since the Feb. 20 outbreak, Song’s farm in Kandal Province has seen a decline in customers, but when Phnom Penh and Takhmao City went into lockdown on April 15, his market disappeared completely.

Now, with the lockdowns extending, Song has decided to abandon his farm.

“There are no traders, nobody wants to buy the lettuce or vegetables because traders cannot ship to the markets—the markets are closed due to lockdown,” said Song.

He has spent close to $2,000 on farming equipment for one hectare of lettuce, but now Song worries it is all for nothing now that he cannot sell his produce.

At the age of 35, Song said he wanted to help the people who are struggling for food by distributing his vegetables, but he has not been able to get them to those in the lockdown.

“Neither lettuce nor other vegetables have buyers. I have plowed half a hectare of lettuce and in two or three days I will be plow another half a hectare,” he said. “If anyone needs a salad, they can come and get it for free.”

Before the pandemic, his lettuce could fetch up to 5,000 riel—roughly $1.25—per kilogram, but now it’s less than 500 riel per kilogram. He faces a similar problem with the sugarcane and onions that he grows.
“I’ve had to abandon a lot of vegetables in the last year,” he said, adding that he expects it will get worse.
https://cambodianess.com/article/farmer ... n-families
Unable to sell the vegetables, unable to donate them to the hungry, I understand the chain of events leading to this situation, but people going hungry while food is rotting is not acceptable.
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