Agriculture and fishing
Thai Deputy PM insists on using administrative order in rice cases
Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam has reiterated the government is not bullying ex-PM Yingluck Shinawatra when it demands compensation from her for damages from the rice-pledging programme using using the 1996 administrative tort law instead of the Civil Code. Damages can be claimed in one of the ...
Auctions of rotten rice to begin this month
The Thai government will begin auctioning 2 million tonnes of rotten rice by the end of November, looking to offload stockpiles of the staple grain built up under the rice-pledging programme. The world’s second biggest rice exporter after India is holding about 13 million tonnes of ...
Women in central Vietnam work hard at sea to keep families afloat
In the coastal Hoang Hoa District in the central province of Thanh Hoa, fishing is no longer a male preserve like it is in most places. Hundreds of women, many of whom suffered from severe seasickness once, accompany their husbands out to sea to make their ...
Vietnam sees 44,000 cases of hand-foot-mouth disease
The Ministry of Health has reported 44,000 cases of hand-foot-mouth disease nationwide this year, including five fatalities, all in the south. “The number of cases is down 30 percent from last year,” Tran Dac Phu, director of the ministry’s Centre for Preventive Health, said. Keep reading ...
Better Rice initiative to help Mekong farmers
About 3,000 farmers from three Mekong Delta provinces will benefit from a project called Better Rice Initiative Asia that has been launched in Can Tho City. Carried out as part of the Integrated Coastal Management Programme, the project aims to promote private-public partnerships along the rice ...
Thousands sign petition against Mekong dam construction
Huynh Thi Kim Duyen said her community in Ca Mau Province has seen a significant decline in fish stocks and water levels in the Mekong River in the past decade. Duyen is among thousands of people in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand who have signed off on ...
Kampot pepper defying drought fears
The increased cultivation area of Kampot pepper has offset losses due to drought, with farmers of the premium quality peppercorn estimating that production could reach 80 tonnes in the coming harvest, nearly 40 per cent more than last season. “Even though our farms were impacted by ...
Koh Kong reps deliver UDG petition
Ten representatives of 318 families in Koh Kong on 12 November filed a petition with the Senate and the National Assembly, asking the government to intervene in their land dispute with Chinese company Union Development Group. Keep reading ...
Thai rice exports to stay strong, say shippers
Thailand’s rice situation is stable thanks to several pending purchase orders under government-to-government (G-to-G) contracts with the Philippines and China, president Charoen Laothammatas said on 11 November. He expects Thai paddy prices will remain steady at 8,000 to 8,500 baht a tonne next year. Keep reading ...
Rubber market to be built in Mawlamyine, Myanmar
Myanmar’s first central rubber market will be built at Mawlamyine in Mon State as authorities seek to help the industry amid low prices and sluggish sales. Mon State is the country’s top rubber producer and the commodity is considered a “promising export” in Myanmar’s National Export ...
