Cassava plantings decrease in Cambodia
- A worker
lays cassava out to dry on a plantation in Sala Krao district in Pailin
province last year. Photograph: Heng Chivoan/Phnom Penh Post
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- Monday, 23 July 2012
- Rann Reuy
-
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- Cassava plantings in Battambang province dropped more than 18 per cent
in the first half of the year compared to the same period in 2011,
according to agriculture officials.
Deputy Director of
Battambang’s Agricultural Department Chhim Vuthra said the planting of
cassava decreased from 66,000 hectares (hc) to 54,000hc in the first six
months of this year.
The decease is a result of that previous
year’s yield fetching a low price and farmers having no place to store
cassava after harvesting, resulting in damage to the produce and a lower
quality yield which traders showed no interest in, he said.
In
April a shipment of 1,600 tonnes of cassava was blocked at the border to
Thailand but was eventually let through once the traders had been
granted expediated licenses for the sale of cassava.
Other
difficulties have plagued Cambodian cassava growers, such as Thailand
requesting Cambodia to curb its exports to the neighbouring kingdom in
an effort to maintain Thailand's own high prices.
Chea Kea, a
local trader based in Pailin, said he planted red corn instead of
cassava on about 1,000hc, but the corn did not grow well because of
insufficient rainfall last season.
He thinks the price of the
cassava is unstable for the coming harvest and is unsure whether it will
increase as first he needs to see the market.
Chhim Vuthra said
that red corn plantings reached 54,000hc in this year compared to last
year’s of only 27,000hc across the province for the first six months of
2012.
"The decease in cassava planting will affect the cost,
leading to higher prices once the produce is moved to market – a good
thing.”
A wholly-Cambodian owned cassava processing plant being
built in Battambang province will reportedly add value to the cassava
being exported.
Heng Bung Hor, director of the Agricultural
Department of Banteay Meanchey province, said the cassava plantings in
the province decreased about 2,000hc from 42,000hc last year to 40,000hc
this year.
He said that though cassava-growing farmers were
affected by the last year's price, cassava is easier to grow than other
crops because it is not difficult to take care of and provides a large
output. “If the market is good, they will have a lot of benefits.”
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