Hun Sen encourages farmers to focus on rainy season crops

By Soun Samnang

The Mekong Times

As early thunderstorms usher in this year’s monsoon season, Prime Minister Hun Sen (pictured) yesterday encouraged farmers to focus on rainy-season crops to cash in on the high price of agricultural products.

Growing wet-season rice, corn, potatoes and other staples will allow Cambodia to raise its profile in local and international markets and command high prices for home-grown agricultural products, the premier said.

Hun Sen encouraged farmers to try their best, adding that Kompong Cham – the most populated Cambodian province with nearly two million inhabitants and Hun Sen’s birthplace – has great potential for agriculture. “The current global food crisis is an opportunity for Cambodian farmers to grow crops and increase local production,” he told attendants of a Kompong Cham pagoda inauguration. “Even though the soaring rice price has affected people in cities, it helps the 80 percent of [Cambodian people who are] farmers to sell their products at a higher price.”

Yim Sovann, a Sam Rainsy Party lawmaker, questioned the premier’s remarks, saying the government should study the effect of inflation on farmers. “Prime Minister Hun Sen did not talk about farmers’ difficulties because farmers are currently borrowing money from banks or from their neighbors in order to sow crops. Therefore, the farmers who are growing crops now will not be able to sell their products for profit, but only to eat. Farmers buy fertilizers at a high price to farm; they cannot profit,” he said. “On the contrary, selling crops … has made farmers’ living standards deteriorate as goods such as fertilizers and gasoline increase in price.”

However, Prime Minister Hun Sen was optimistic, citing the government’s recent authorization of broken rice exports to countries such as Senegal as an economic victory. He said Cambodia will export more rice to other countries as global rice supplies run short.