Losing Gradually
By Sim Socheata
End of June is the time when the rice farming is in progress. As you drive along the roads that take you from Kandal to Kampong Cham through to Prey Veng, back to Kampong Cham province again and then all the way up North of Cambodia, there are just so many things that you witness along the way. There are some remarkable changes that take place over the last several years that I have witnessed through my works particularly each time I do my field work in the provinces and talk to people in the villages. Their stories always add a new piece to the trend of the changes that are taking place. Being away from the country for several months this year, the changes I witnessed when I travel out of the city again seems to be afresh feelings.
The rice fields fill with farmers, men, women, generally the middle-aged people hurriedly transplant the seedlings into the muddy field. This is such an important time to transplant all the seedlings as few heavy rain falls has provide enough water and wet ground for the rice to begin its life. In most villages, you find that the young people left the villages to work in the garment factories, construction or other leisure industry in the city and unable to help with the work in the rice field any longer.
Cambodia has faced a huge problem of land issue in the last decade. The increasing integration into the free market helps to exacerbate the promotion of land tenant, land title, and individual land ownership. An example of this is visible right at the rice field. While the rice fields are usually passed from the parent to the children for generations, at least two generations since after the Khmer Rouge regime ended, things has changed. What you can see now is the cemented poles erected in the rice field to draw the border lines of the different owner of the fields. This is a remarkably new evolution among Cambodian farmers. Of course the rice fields always have the owners but they are hardly separate by cemented poles as such. Cambodians are known as the farmer type of population who would not leave their farm to go and work in the administration during the French colonisation and that was the reason why the French had to bring over workers from Vietnam to work in the administration. The Khmer Rouge leaders forced the whole population out of the city to reside in the rural villages and work in the rice field to produce rice. Everything then was a common property that belonged to the states/Angkar. This is not to say that the common property is a great model that should be pursued but what I am pondering if weather the promotion of individual land ownership and the previous rapid increase in land and real estate price bring harmony and social unity among the population!!!
Recently, I met a former colleague who is now choosing to leave development work and began life as farmer with his family in a village in Svay Rieng province. He shared with me briefly about his life as farmer, which is not an easy life. He also said that he intends to sell a plot of farm land near his house to collect the money to buy Telethong – a ploughing machine. This intention of him generally represents the trend among Cambodian farmers who gradually abandon using draft animal such as cow, oxen and buffalos to help with work in the rice and embrace the more advanced technology such as Telethong machine. With the increasing price of petrol and diesel, the choice of using machine for the seasonal, family size rice field does not appear to be the great move among many farmers in Cambodia.
Cambodian farmers also attract to the introduction of new hybrid seeds available through many rice seed companies. The propaganda that the new rice seeds generate higher yield draw the attention of the farmers while the needs for the use of chemical fertilizer, more water supply to the field are also part of the context that are not mentioned in this introduction of the new seeds. The excessive use of chemical fertilizer in order to keep the rice grow and generate the same if not less than the previous year traps the Cambodian farmers into the circle of poverty as the cost of the fertilizer keep increasing from year to year. Many farmers force themselves to take loan from the micro finance institutions at the interest rate of 3% a month to buy the fertilizer for their rice growing. Or else, they buy the fertilizer from the trader on credit and repay the cost plus the interest rate when they harvest their rice crops. Often time, the cost to produce the rice is higher than the cost to buy the rice from the market and this is particularly true if the farmers work on a small plot of land.
What does all this mean for our farmers at this moment in their life? Have life been more prosperous for them that is why they are able to consider the border of their rice field, buying new machines to use in their fields, using the new seeds, more chemical fertilizer for their rice growing? Or the situation is a reverse and they are getting poorer due to the new way of life as farmers in time of the liberalisation of agriculture? Or this question should not be pondered aloud as the growth of the economy is over 10% each year? Does this indicate the improved livelihood of our farmers?
While everything about farming in Cambodia seems to change, there is one thing that is not changing and it is a very important element in the course of farmers life. The Farm Land. Farmers keep tilling on the same old land that have been used for generations by their families. There are changes that occur when each farmer began their works on the field as mentioned earlier. It seems that the trend has not been to enrich and nourish the fertility of the land from year to year but the adaptation to the new way of growing rice take away the nourished fertility of the land. In some field, the land become harder and harder to till and that is the reason why machine needs to be replaced the traditional ploughing method to cope with the hardness of the land. Some field has turned the land into the sandy land after several years of continuous use of chemical fertilizer.
Land Is Life for Farmer and When the Land Starts to Lose Its Life, So Does Its Owner.
End of June is the time when the rice farming is in progress. As you drive along the roads that take you from Kandal to Kampong Cham through to Prey Veng, back to Kampong Cham province again and then all the way up North of Cambodia, there are just so many things that you witness along the way. There are some remarkable changes that take place over the last several years that I have witnessed through my works particularly each time I do my field work in the provinces and talk to people in the villages. Their stories always add a new piece to the trend of the changes that are taking place. Being away from the country for several months this year, the changes I witnessed when I travel out of the city again seems to be afresh feelings.
The rice fields fill with farmers, men, women, generally the middle-aged people hurriedly transplant the seedlings into the muddy field. This is such an important time to transplant all the seedlings as few heavy rain falls has provide enough water and wet ground for the rice to begin its life. In most villages, you find that the young people left the villages to work in the garment factories, construction or other leisure industry in the city and unable to help with the work in the rice field any longer.
Cambodia has faced a huge problem of land issue in the last decade. The increasing integration into the free market helps to exacerbate the promotion of land tenant, land title, and individual land ownership. An example of this is visible right at the rice field. While the rice fields are usually passed from the parent to the children for generations, at least two generations since after the Khmer Rouge regime ended, things has changed. What you can see now is the cemented poles erected in the rice field to draw the border lines of the different owner of the fields. This is a remarkably new evolution among Cambodian farmers. Of course the rice fields always have the owners but they are hardly separate by cemented poles as such. Cambodians are known as the farmer type of population who would not leave their farm to go and work in the administration during the French colonisation and that was the reason why the French had to bring over workers from Vietnam to work in the administration. The Khmer Rouge leaders forced the whole population out of the city to reside in the rural villages and work in the rice field to produce rice. Everything then was a common property that belonged to the states/Angkar. This is not to say that the common property is a great model that should be pursued but what I am pondering if weather the promotion of individual land ownership and the previous rapid increase in land and real estate price bring harmony and social unity among the population!!!
Recently, I met a former colleague who is now choosing to leave development work and began life as farmer with his family in a village in Svay Rieng province. He shared with me briefly about his life as farmer, which is not an easy life. He also said that he intends to sell a plot of farm land near his house to collect the money to buy Telethong – a ploughing machine. This intention of him generally represents the trend among Cambodian farmers who gradually abandon using draft animal such as cow, oxen and buffalos to help with work in the rice and embrace the more advanced technology such as Telethong machine. With the increasing price of petrol and diesel, the choice of using machine for the seasonal, family size rice field does not appear to be the great move among many farmers in Cambodia.
Cambodian farmers also attract to the introduction of new hybrid seeds available through many rice seed companies. The propaganda that the new rice seeds generate higher yield draw the attention of the farmers while the needs for the use of chemical fertilizer, more water supply to the field are also part of the context that are not mentioned in this introduction of the new seeds. The excessive use of chemical fertilizer in order to keep the rice grow and generate the same if not less than the previous year traps the Cambodian farmers into the circle of poverty as the cost of the fertilizer keep increasing from year to year. Many farmers force themselves to take loan from the micro finance institutions at the interest rate of 3% a month to buy the fertilizer for their rice growing. Or else, they buy the fertilizer from the trader on credit and repay the cost plus the interest rate when they harvest their rice crops. Often time, the cost to produce the rice is higher than the cost to buy the rice from the market and this is particularly true if the farmers work on a small plot of land.
What does all this mean for our farmers at this moment in their life? Have life been more prosperous for them that is why they are able to consider the border of their rice field, buying new machines to use in their fields, using the new seeds, more chemical fertilizer for their rice growing? Or the situation is a reverse and they are getting poorer due to the new way of life as farmers in time of the liberalisation of agriculture? Or this question should not be pondered aloud as the growth of the economy is over 10% each year? Does this indicate the improved livelihood of our farmers?
While everything about farming in Cambodia seems to change, there is one thing that is not changing and it is a very important element in the course of farmers life. The Farm Land. Farmers keep tilling on the same old land that have been used for generations by their families. There are changes that occur when each farmer began their works on the field as mentioned earlier. It seems that the trend has not been to enrich and nourish the fertility of the land from year to year but the adaptation to the new way of growing rice take away the nourished fertility of the land. In some field, the land become harder and harder to till and that is the reason why machine needs to be replaced the traditional ploughing method to cope with the hardness of the land. Some field has turned the land into the sandy land after several years of continuous use of chemical fertilizer.
Land Is Life for Farmer and When the Land Starts to Lose Its Life, So Does Its Owner.
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