Agriculture and fishing

The Lao Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry is asking farmers around the country to grow 4.2 million tonnes of rice this fiscal year, seeking to boost commercial production and ensure food security. According to the figures provided by the ministry, 2.1 million tonnes of the total ...

The Lao government is taking steps to promote and develop various agricultural products in the face of regional competition and international integration. Officials from the various concerned sectors implementing the “Sustainable food security and agricultural product promotion for commercial basis” project met in Vientiane to discuss ...

Agricultural experts met in Vientiane to review the Northern Uplands Development Programme for 2014-15 and discuss the plans for 2015-16. Participants reported on progress and noted the content of future plans comprising the systematic registration of land, legal awareness creation, local governance and planning, and facilitating ...

The rice market is expected to continue gaining ground in export, as the Philippines plans to import a million tonnes in early 2016. The announcement comes on the back of winning previous bids to sell 450,000 tonnes of rice to the Philippines and a million ...

Cambodia’s fishing crime busts rose 150 per cent during the first nine months of 2015, compared with the same period last year, while anti-forestry crime actions dropped 13 per cent. Keep reading ...

As a fickle rainy season that has seen areas of Cambodia plagued by drought draws to a close, the country’s rice production remains nearly on target, though food insecurity is still a problem for individual communities, according to the World Food Programme. The season’s slow start affected 234,695 ...

The Thai government will roll out an executive decree and other measures next week to deal with illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. Speaking after chairing a meeting 29 October on the problem, Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Prawit Wongsuwon said a committee set up to tackle IUU ...

Agribusiness operators in Phongsaly province are struggling for trade after Chinese authorities banned the import of some agricultural produce. Commercial crops including green tea and sweetcorn being traded by Lao entrepreneurs in the province cannot be exported to China, the provincial Green Tea Processing Factory Director, ...

Asia’s largest sugar producer, Mitr Phol, is responsible for violating the rights of hundreds of villagers in Oddar Meanchey who saw their land grabbed, homes destroyed and livestock killed to make way for plantations, according to the National Human Rights Commission of Thailand (NHRCT). The Thai ...

A giant Vietnamese rubber company that has faced repeated accusations of illegal land and forest grabbing in Cambodia has been stripped of its accreditation as a sustainable forestry product supplier by the world’s leading forest certification body. In a damning report, the Forest Stewardship Council claims ...