Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries

Cambodia's first draft law for the regulation of agriculture cooperatives is near completion, and is expected to reach the National Assembly this year, officials said.

The draft law aims to formalise the Kingdom’s more than 250 cooperatives and provide a framework for those created in the future, officials said.

“This law is important because it is based on the international system that governs cooperatives,” Khem Chenda, director of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries’ administration department, said.

“Many countries use it to make it easier for farmers to do business,” he said, adding the Food and Agriculture Organisation consulted on the draft law.

Cambodia's fish exports decreased 14 per cent in 2011, although total export revenues rose about 50 per cent on higher market prices, according to a government official.

Nao Thouk, director of the Fisheries Administration at the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, said fish exports in 2011 had totalled about 30,000 tonnes, a drop from 35,000 tonnes in 2010.

Despite this, export revenues rose to US$60 million from $40 million in 2010, he said.

Increased export prices fetched in high-demand international markets had resulted in a jump in revenues, Nao Thouk said.

The average price for exported fish in 2011 was $2,000 a tonne, compared to $1,143 a tonne in 2010, he said.

Nao Thouk pointed to the government’s greater emphasis on producing fish for the domestic market as the reason for the drop in total exports.

Crocodile farmers in Siem Reap are turning away from the export of hatchlings to Vietnam, choosing instead sell the reptiles for their skins.

Luon Nam, president of the province’s Crocodile Feeding Association, said yesterday the reliance on Vietnam was an unsustainable strategy for the industry.

Any change in demand from Cambodia’s eastern neighbour left farmers vulnerable to falling prices, he said.

The CFA shipped about 200,000 crocodiles to Vietnam this year. That was 100,000, or 33 per cent, fewer than in 2010, Luon Nam said.

Cambodia's total paddy rice output reached 8.4 million tonnes in 2011, up from 8.25 million tonnes last year, according an initial assessment by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.

Provincial MAFF officials from across the Kingdom met in Phnom Penh on Saturday, when data was collected for an early tally of the country’s rice crop.

Ngin Chhay, director of MAFF’s rice department, said the first-phase results showed an average of 2.97 tonnes to 3.1 tonnes of paddy rice per hectare, planted on 2.7 million hectares, for a total of 8.4 million tonnes.

Cambodia harvested 8.25 million tonnes of paddy in 2010, Prime Minister Hun Sen said during the 16th Government-Private Sector Forum held on November 23 in Phnom Penh.

The Japan International Cooperation Agency pledged US$4.4 million on yesterday to help improve the productivity and income of farmers in areas along the Tonle Sap lake in Battambang, Pursat and Kampong Chhnang provinces. 

Yasujiro Suzuki, chief representative of JICA Cambodia, said at signing ceremony that the JICA-sponsored project would help the Cambodian government reach its goal of boosting rice exports to 1 million tonnes by 2015. 

San Vanty, undersecretary of state at the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, said that the project – which will focus on agriculture production techniques, seed quality and irrigation – would target 30 communes in Battambang province, four in Pursat and two in Kampong Chhnang.

“In the near future, agricultural productivity and income of farmers in the target areas will be improved through collaboration and implementation of this project,” he said. The project is to commence in September and last for four and a half years.