Agriculture

Agricultural commodities, processing and products

The COVID-19 rice economy: what a pandemic means for Southeast Asia’s staple

As cities and countries impose lockdowns, people around the world, from the UK to India, are struggling to access food. The causes vary, with some communities facing lost income and local scarcity while others deal with barriers to movement, but the drivers of this food insecurity are primarily ...

Skylar Lindsay

Mekong Delta farmers switch to other crops in response to climate change

More farmers in the Mekong Delta have restructured their crop cultivation to adapt to the effects of climate change. The delta, the country’s largest rice, fruit and seafood producer, has faced severe drought and saline intrusion in recent years and local authorities have encouraged farmers to switch to ...

Lao Villagers Lose Farmland to Chinese Banana Grower

Villagers in Laos say a Chinese-owned banana plantation in has unfairly acquired the land of 46 families in the northern part of the country, many of whom were coerced by authorities into selling for a miniscule compensation package The 46 families sold 60 hectares (148 acres) ...

RFA’s Lao Service. Translated by Max Avary. Written in English by Eugene Whong.

Vietnam halts new rice export contracts as it reviews stocks

Vietnam will not sign any new rice export contracts until March 28 at the earliest as it checks whether it has sufficient domestic supplies to cope during the coronavirus outbreak, the government said in a statement on Wednesday. Vietnam’s rice exports rose 4.2% last year to ...

Khanh Vu

Dams, Sand, Rice: The Life and Possible Death of the Mekong Delta

What would Vietnam be without the Mekong Delta? Envisioning such a reality is difficult, but it is entirely possible that this will come to pass, albeit long after anyone reading this in 2020 is dead. The delta is Vietnam’s most vital agricultural region, producing 50% of the ...

Michael Tatarski

ANZ compensates Cambodian families forcibly evicted to make way for sugar plantation

ANZ has agreed to compensate hundreds of Cambodian families who were forcibly evicted from their land to make way for a controversial sugar plantation and refinery. Phnom Penh Sugar, owned by tycoon and ruling party senator Ly Yong Phat, received a $40 million loan from ANZ joint ...

Farmers in Mekong Delta province switch to more lucrative Thái jackfruit

Famers in the Cửu Long (Mekong) Delta province of Đồng Tháp have switched to growing Thái (Thai) jackfruit on around 1,000ha from other fruits and low-yield rice since it fetches a higher income. It includes 200ha in Châu Thành District and 100ha in Tháp Mười District. Nguyễn ...

Thailand's sugar output to hit nine-year low due to drought - trade body

Thailand’s sugar production is likely to fall 28% year-on-year in 2019/20 to a nine-year low of 10.5 million tonnes as drought curtails cane supplies, the head of a leading trade body told Reuters on Friday. The lower production will limit exports from the world’s second-biggest exporter ...

Farming and Food: Hungry for change

The year is 2040 and the time is coming up to midday. Lunch at her office desk is the sole option for Sopheap Jing, one of the many people in Cambodia and elsewhere whose careers have become something of a paradox.  Under-employed and over-qualified, Sopheap is ...

Simon Roughneen

Pineapple growers call for official export channels to China

Pineapple growers are asking the government negotiate official exports of the crop to China as soon as possible, a farmers association says. The call comes after pineapple cultivators suffered estimated losses of K700 million (US$458 million) during the previous harvest season when China suddenly banned imports ...

Chan Mya Htwe

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