Cambodia farmers living on the edge

Letters to the Editor/ The National | April 20, 2014

       

 

I am writing with reference to article Bitter Sweet in The Review section (April 19). From 1997 to 2002, I worked as a consultant on agriculture programmes in Cambodia and in the district of Kampong Speu mentioned in the article. 

That included establishing and training the first Khmer media unit within the agriculture department. These internationally funded aid programmes and our media unit concentrated on encouraging sustainable practices in rice farming.

Perhaps we were naive in believing that subsistence farming could be sustainable. However, what is now happening with land grabbing within Cambodia – and not only of agricultural land – is that the lives of the impoverished Khmers are being reduced to serfdom. The Khmers had earlier faced the onslaught of the Pol Pot regime. Now they are facing the unbridled forces of the global economy.

AE Vass, Abu Dhabi