Pumpkins for sale sit along a roadside in Thala Borivath district of northeastern Cambodia's Stung Treng province, August 2016. |
Falling Vegetable Prices Leave Cambodian Farmers in a Bind
RFA | 13 July 2017
Plunging pumpkin and corn
prices in Cambodia are driving farmers in two provinces to destroy their crops and block roads in protest in an effort to convince the
government to help develop the agricultural market, growers in the two areas
said on Thursday.
Farmers
in Sam Ang commune, Thala Borivath district, in northeastern Cambodia’s Stung
Treng province said they have destroyed several tons of pumpkins because
plunging prices have left them unable to offset their labor costs.
They have
now called on government to help develop the market for their vegetables, they
said.
As a
result of falling prices, most of them are now heavily indebted, and their
lands are subject to confiscation by banks from which they have taken out
loans, they said.
Phann
Narith, a farmer in Sam Ang commune, said on Thursday that farmers have been
concerned for years about falling prices for their produce and a lack of
markets where they can sell them, though government institutions have said they
would resolve the issue.
Some
farmers who grow pumpkins on small plots of land ranging from one to five
hectares per household have decided to destroy several tons of the vegetable
because of falling prices, he said.
The price of pumpkins has
hit its lowest point ever at between 150-180 riels (U.S. $0.036-0.044) per
kilogram comparing to an average price of 1,000 riels (U.S. $0.24) per kilo two
years ago, he said.
“Other farmers, including me, have borrowed money [from banks] to
[grow pumpkins], and we depend on being able to sell them to repay the loans,” he said. “I requested that the
government help find [new] agricultural markets for pumpkin farmers because we
are heavily indebted,” he said.
Another
farmer, Chhoeun Chhay, said he has little hope that area growers will be able to
settle their debts without intervention from the government and nongovernmental
organizations.
Some
farmers have been forced to look for work outside Cambodia to earn enough money
to pay off their loans because they have had to borrow millions of riels from
banks or microfinance institutions to get capital for their farming operations,
he said.
“Around 30-40 percent of them have chosen to migrate to Thailand and
China so that they can earn money [to survive],” he said.
With
prices of pumpkins and other produce such as potatoes continuing to fall,
farmers now do not have enough money to buy fuel for their tricycle tractors,
he said.
A
sensitive issue
Un Sokha,
acting head of the Stung Treng Provincial Department of Commerce, could not be
reached for comment on the issue.
Stung
Treng province spokesman Men Kong said provincial authorities do not have
grounds for controlling the fluctuating prices of agricultural products, but
instead have encouraged relevant institutions to study the issue and determine
the causes of drastic price drops.
Authorities
always encourage farmers to familiarize themselves with fruit and vegetable
prices in other regions before deciding to sell their produce, he said.
“Middlemen or traders purchase agricultural products at lower prices
so that farmers must study prices [in other regions] before they decide sell
their produce through middlemen or traders,” Men Kong
said.
“Our working group always disseminated this information to farmers when
visiting them at their localities,” he said.
Ngeth
Chou, an economy and finance expert, considers the falling prices a sensitive
issue to which the government must pay attention and not leave farmers in the
lurch by having to sell their agricultural products according to their own
luck.
He
suggests that the government help farmers market their agricultural products as
a measure to improve the national economy and reduce the occurrence of various
social crises such as migration.
“Such market connections can’t happen just by thinking about them.
Farmers today say they don’t have an adequate market for their agricultural
products,” he said, adding that there should be a
liaison to which farmers can turn to help them sell their fruits and
vegetables.
Farmers
now appear to be losing faith that the government will resolve the pricing
issues for them.
Protest
over corn prices
Hundreds
of farmers in the Kamrieng district of northwestern Cambodia’s Battambang
province staged a daylong protest on Thursday, blocking roads in downtown Takry
commune, to show their displeasure with the rapidly dropping price of corn.
Farmers
used more than 100 trucks to block crossroad number 30 in the commune’s heavily
trafficked downtown area.
Nak Vanny,
a farmer who participated in the protest, told RFA that he has lost at least
U.S. $20,000 annually for the last two consecutive years because of falling
corn prices.
Farmers
have asked authorities to intervene to ensure that their corn can be sold at a
price of at least 400-600 riels per kilogram so they can offset their
production costs, he said.
Growers
in Kamrieng district decided to stage the protest to put pressure on
authorities to help them, he said.
In the
past, traders from neighboring Thailand bought dried corn from the farmers at
an average price of five baht, or 600 riels, per kilo, Nak Vanny said. But now
the traders will purchase them for only 3 baht, or 400 riels, per kilo or less.
The
protest ended after Battambang provincial authorities promised to address the
issue within three days.
Yang
Saing Komar, former director of the Cambodian Center for Study and Development
in Agriculture (CEDAC), said the root causes of the plunging pumpkin and corn
prices might stem from the fact that agricultural products such as rice, corns,
beans, and sesame are all low quality and fail to meet market demand, or that
farmers have failed to form communities or groups to facilitate produce sales.
He also
noted that the government and relevant ministries are providing less support to
farmers than they have done in the past.
The
government is fully capable of stopping prices from falling by encouraging
companies or firms to process agricultural products domestically rather than
exporting them, or by directly contacting overseas markets, Yang Saing Komar
said.
In
addition, government officials could teach farmers better production techniques
or let them create a group or community to sell their output, he said.
At the
same time, the state should provide additional loans to companies to purchase
agricultural products from farmers, he said.
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