Agriculture and fishing
Royal water project to reinvigorate farming
Pid Thong Lang Phra, a foundation dedicated to promoting the sufficiency economy vision of King Bhumibol Adulyadej The Great, has launched water-development schemes to address the scourge of mass unemployment caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Karan Supakitvilekakarn, director-general of the Royal Initiative Discovery Institute under Pid ...
CHATRUDEE THEPARAT & PENCHAN CHAROENSUTHIPAN
Food security concerns mount as COVID-19 disruption leaves Myanmar farmers unable to plant
Food security concerns in Myanmar are looming as farmers are unable to start the new growing season due to COVID-19 disruptions. “Since COVID-19, there is no longer usual trading as crops simply don’t sell anymore,” said Ba Myint, a farmer in Taungup township in southern Rakhine ...
JOHN LIU
CERP should focus more on agriculture, livestock sectors: businesses
Economists said the government’s COVID-19 Economic Relief Plan (CERP) should focus more on essential sectors such as agriculture and livestock, which affects longer term food security. The CERP was announced on April 27 to mitigate the negative impact of COVID-19 on the economy. “Myanmar is an agricultural ...
THIHA KO KOZEYAR HEIN
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 residents flee as nature turns hostile
Their ancestors had come to settle the Mekong Delta, turning it into the nation’s agriculture and aquaculture hub, but now they are fleeing. At three in the morning, Dang Van Binh, 34, wakes up in his hut by a river in An Phu Trung Commune in ...
Hoang Nam, Pham Linh
Mekong basin water levels back to normal long-term averages
The Mekong River Commission(MRC) yesterday said the water levels across the vast majority of lower Mekong basin have now returned to their normal long-term averages. The announcement was made after the MRC last month called member countries and Dialogue Partners to improve the management of the ...
Ben Sokhean
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.
Two Years on, Sesan’s Ethnic Communities Attempt to Restart Their Lives
SREKOR COMMUNE, STUNG TRENG PROVINCE — Fut Kheun has been keeping a close watch on the water levels at the Sesan II reservoir, in the remote Srekor commune of Stung Treng province. The ethnic Kreung villager is living close to the water at the reservoir, two ...
Sun Narin
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