Takeo rice farmers pray for rain

Farmer Nhem Tum says there has been much less rain this year than in previous years Daniel Quinlan

Takeo rice farmers pray for rain

Phnom Penh Post | 23 August 2014

After hours spent tunnelling through the wall of an irrigation channel, water finally flows out of Nhem Tum’s makeshift drain onto his dry quarter-hectare rice field. The success in tapping one of the few water sources in Takeo province is a small victory in the farmer’s ongoing struggle to cope with climate change.

“I have sown rice seed twice from May to July, but it does not grow,” Tum said earlier this week. He has lost $130 spent on rice seeds for his tiny patch.

Children by the roadside in Takeo province Daniel Quinlan

“There has been no rain this year, which is so different from previous years, when I would sow the rice seed and the rain would come, making enough water for rice to grow,” he added.

While reports of flooding and its mounting death toll have become fixtures in local media, Tum is among thousands of farmers in Takeo affected by a very different problem: drought. 

A yearly dry spell that typically only lasts for a few weeks of July has this year stretched well into August. According to provincial authorities, more than 25,000 hectares have been damaged by drought across Takeo over the past four weeks – five times the figure recorded last year.