Rainsy: Gov’t Has Abandoned Kingdom’s Farmers

Khmer Times
Tin Sokhavuth

A farmer carrying hay in a rice field in Prek Pnov, Phnom Penh. KT/ Mai Vireak

Sam Rainsy, the Cambodia National Rescue Party’s (CNRP) self-exiled president, spoke up for Khmers in the countryside on Monday via social media. “An increase in agricultural productivity is key to poverty reduction in the countryside,” he wrote.

The post quickly garnered more than 20,000 “likes.”

According to the opposition leader, the majority of the produce found in Cambodian markets is imported from neighboring countries. This fact alone, he says, might explain why Cambodian agricultural products are barely able to compete with the same products from other countries in the international market, he suggested.

Mr. Rainsy added that because Cambodia imports the majority of its agricultural products, millions of Khmer farmers are losing money every year and cannot afford to repay their loans, leading to an exodus of farmers looking for jobs in Thailand.

Mr. Rainsy is recommending seven steps the government could take to reduce Cambodia’s reliance on foreign agricultural imports.

These are: give more land to farmers by canceling 99-year land concessions, install more irrigation systems, provide farmers with low-interest loans, open agricultural technical centers to help improve productivity, encourage the formation of voluntary farmer cooperatives, support price policy in neighboring countries and build a stronger and cheaper transportation network.

Mr. Rainsy said that farmers also need stronger support from local authorities.

According to Sok Ey San, spokesman for the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP), Mr. Rainsy’s ideas are well intended but flawed – unless he delivers what he has promised.

“How can he [Mr. Rainsy] find the money to provide loans with low interest to our farmers? With the money from fundraising abroad that his party used to do, he could not provide these kind of loans to our farmers,” said Mr. Ey San.

The spokesman added that Mr. Rainsy is making the same mistakes as former Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra – Ms. Yingluck gave money to Thai ministries to buy rice from farmers in order to prop up the price in the Thai market, while the price was falling internationally.

This cost the government billions of baht, Mr. Ey San.

“Mr. Rainsy likes to make tons of empty promises, such as giving 40,000 riel a month to whoever votes for him, providing loans to students for their studies, etc. But he never did what he had promised,” added Mr. Ey San.

For Kem Ley, a social researcher, low-interest loans for are a good move. But, he said, government would need to negotiate with developed countries to gain more funding to provide low-interest loans.

“The reason the ruling party uses money from loans to build infrastructure is a kind of demagogy,” Mr. Ley said.

“We have to study to find the best way to use borrowed money – using it to build infrastructure or using it to provide low-interest loans to farmers?”