Agriculture and fishing
No more land concessions in Champassak
No more state land will be released under concession for planting rice, coffee, rubber, cassava or maize in Champassak province, as most areas suited to agriculture are already being utilised. Champassak agricultural authorities in Laos advised that prospective investors should go to the province of Saravan ...
Mekong dams’ annual impact put at $450M
A 30-month study by Vietnamese researchers on the impact of 11 proposed hydroelectric dams in the Lower Mekong Basin has found that the economic damage to Cambodia alone will be worth some $450 million per year. According to the researchers, the Mekong River at Kratie could, ...
Drought killing next year's sugar crop
The El Nino weather phenomenon has played havoc with crops across Southeast Asia and beyond. Thailand, the world’s second-largest sugar exporter, will ship 20% less of the sweetener to international markets this year than last, and farmers fear the damage already inflicted on young cane ...
Cardamom brings great changes for Phongsaly farmers
Many local farmers in Laos’s Phongsaly province are shifting to plant cardamom, after earning lucrative income from growing this crop and selling it to Chinese traders. Some families earned as much as 40 million kip per year from growing cardamom, which enabled them to send their ...
Vietnam plans to replace rice with more profitable crops
Vietnam plans to gradually reduce rice production and switch to other more profitable crops, a plan that experts say makes sense since the country grows so much paddy and is a massive exporter of the unprofitable crop. The National Assembly’s Economic Committee recently agreed with the ...
Palm sugar finds a sweet market niche
Demand for Kampong Speu palm sugar has surged, with orders already up 70 per cent this year, as appetite for the premium organic sugar product grows, boosting its price. Orders for 260 tonnes of the palm sugar have been placed this year, compared with 150 tonnes ...
Drought in Vietnam will become 'dangerous' in April: forecast
Drought and saltwater intrusion in Vietnam’s southern and central regions will persist through April, according to experts. Nguyen Dang Quang, a drought expert at the National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting, said at a Monday forum in Hanoi that the intense El Nino phenomenon from last year ...
Charoen Pokphand group stung by 'bald mountain' accusations
Embattled Charoen Pokphand (CP) Group will launch a social enterprise in Nan province to encourage farmers to grow cash crops other than maize, as a long-term solution to the problems created by deforestation, which has resulted in khao hua lone, or bald mountains. Suphachai Chearavanont, vice-chairman of ...
Koh Kong locals seek land’s return
Representatives of 526 Koh Kong families hopped on their motos on 25 March to deliver petitions to their district town halls calling for the return of land taken from them by a 2006 economic land concession (ELC), as well as compensation for lost crops. In 2006, a ...
Cashew prices reach highest in a decade
The local cashew industry has seen a spike in cashew prices, marking a 10 year record high, mostly due to increasing global prices. Keep reading ...
