Agriculture and fishing
Shape up or ship out: Ministry warns agents to clean up act
After years of complaints, the Myanmar government says it is finally ready to act against dodgy employment agencies that cheat seafarers. The trigger for moves to clean up the sector has been the signing of the Maritime Labour Convention 2006, which parliament approved on 28 August. Keep ...
Palm oil nut growers demand price support
Palm tree planters have again asked the government for price support to guarantee them an income equivalent to 3.38 baht a kilogramme for fresh palm nuts. Planters’ representatives gathered in the provincial hall on 15 September to make their latest demand after earlier attempts to get assistance from the ...
Outbreak turns consumers away from pork
Pork sales at local markets have taken a hit following the recent outbreak of blue-ear pig disease as fears have spread among consumers that the meat is not fit for human consumption, pork vendors said on 14 September. First identified in Siem Reap in mid-August, Porcine ...
Child workers in Thai seafood industry face hazards, injuries - report
Children employed in Thailand’s seafood processing industry are more exposed to workplace hazards such as fire or gas, and twice as likely to be injured than minors working in other industries, experts said on 14 September. Under Thai law, the minimum age of employment is 15 ...
Tiny wasps protect rice in the Mekong
Trichogramma are tiny beneficial wasps that feed on the eggs of several pests, including stemborers and leaffolders. To help rice farmers in the Greater Mekong Region, a project was launched in 2011 to promote the establishment of Trichogramma mass production facilities and affordable and practical ...
US slashes anti-dumping tax on Vietnamese shrimp
The US Department of Commerce has cut anti-dumping tariffs on Vietnamese shrimp by up to 86 percent, giving rise to hope that shrimp exports to that country will increase in the remaining months of this year. Keep reading ...
Floods wreak havoc with Rakhine
In the aftermath of the deadly flooding that devastated Rakhine State, one third of paddy acreage in the northern part of the state is littered with fallen trees and branches, dead animals and the detritus of wrecked houses. Deep deposits of mud dumped by the ...
IUU laws fail to curb abuse of fishermen
Measures to tackle illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing practices should be accompanied by rigorous labour protection measures, activists said on 9 September at a Chulalongkorn University seminar. Following the European Union’s final warning — a yellow card issued to Thailand in late April — the government has rolled ...
Trees ‘felled for pepper’
Batambang’s Phnom Samkos Wildlife Sanctuary is being illegally logged for pepper posts, with brokers bribing environment officers to transport the timber, residents and NGO workers have said. Keep reading ...
Drought improves in Battambang; concerns remain
Despite improving drought-like conditions in Battambang province, farmers and rice millers alike are still concerned about yield and quality levels of rice in one of the country’s leading rice-producing regions. In last month’s report on the drought situation from the Agriculture Ministry, Battambang, along with Banteay ...
