The noticeable rise in foreign direct investment (FDI) in
\nagricultural land in developing countries in Africa, South and Central Asia and
\nLatin America in recent years has sparked concerns among civil society groups
\nand international organisations as to the potential impacts on poor local
\ncommunities\u2019 access to resources. Growing interest from foreign investors in agriculture
\nin Cambodia, particularly in agro-industrial crops like rubber, cassava,
\nsugarcane and maize, has likewise raised concern about the potential effects of
\nsuch investments on community livelihoods, the environment and national food
\nsecurity. \u00a0Agriculture has traditionally been a steady contributor to the
\nnational economy, employing a significant proportion of the rural workforce and
\ngenerating substantial foreign exchange earnings. Now in its fourth
\nlegislature, the Cambodian government is focussing even more strongly on
\npromoting the sector by relaxing taxes related to agricultural products and developing
\nrural infrastructure such as roads and irrigation. New measures have been taken
\nto help people in local communities, including the removal of big fishing lots
\nfrom private ownership which allows local communities better access to fishery
\nresources without having to fish in deeper waters or further from the
\nriverbank. \u00a0The government has also undertaken forestry reform to facilitate
\ninvestment in forestry and crops through the establishment of legislation on
\nconcessions, forestry community formation and environmental protection. The
\nSub-decree on Economic Land Concessions (ELC), adopted in 2005, helps in the
\ngranting of land concessions to foreign and local investors to exploit unused
\nand\/or infertile land. \u00a0Laws relating to sanitary and phyto-sanitary issues and animal
\nhealth have been enacted to control livestock production, prevent losses and
\ncontain disease. Through the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries
\n(MAFF), the government recently prohibited the import of livestock from
\nneighbouring countries to prevent the spread of swine flu and reduce the risk
\nof animal disease pandemics. \u00a0Meanwhile, the government, with the support of development
\npartners, has provided technical assistance to rural people engaged in rice
\nfarming, fisheries (aquaculture) and livestock production. It has also renewed
\nefforts to improve the irrigation system so as to reduce farmers\u2019 dependency on
\nrain, particularly in rice production, and bolster resilience to climate
\nchange. \u00a0As the agriculture sector is one of the main drivers of economic
\ngrowth in Cambodia, a market mechanism has been set up to promote trade and
\nchannel agricultural products to local and international markets. To help the
\nsector become more competitive, soft infrastructure related to rules and
\nregulations, bureaucratic procedures and costs of doing business has been improved.
\nAttracting investment in the energy sector is also deemed important, as the
\nprice of electricity in Cambodia is still high compared to other countries in
\nthe region. \u00a0The share of agricultural investment in total investment is small,
\naveraging around 6 percent between 2000 and June 2010, despite the growing
\ninterest during this period from investors from countries such as Thailand,
\nChina, Vietnam, Korea, Singapore, Japan, Malaysia, Canada, America, India,
\nFrance, the UK, the USA and Denmark. Investors engage mainly in crops, namely
\nrubber, cassava, maize, sugarcane and cashew nuts, and forestry, such as teak and
\nacacia. The dramatic rise in interest in recent years has triggered concern
\nfrom various\u00a0stakeholders as to the potential effects of foreign ELC
\nprojects on community livelihoods, local environment quality and national food
\nsecurity. \u00a0Preliminary examination using data from the Council for the
\nDevelopment of Cambodia (CDC) and MAFF shows both positive and adverse effects
\nfrom FDI projects. Some projects have created significant employment for local
\ncommunities; others, however, have not. Notably, land conflict resulting from a
\nweak land tenure system and limited consultation with local communities prior
\nto the granting of ELC projects has become commonplace. Moreover, some projects
\nthat entail forest clearance have eliminated vital sources of traditional
\ncommunity environmental income from the collection of non-timber forest
\nproducts, such as vines, wood resin, bamboo and rattan, and hunting.
\nFurthermore, the filling in of streams by some ELC companies could lead to
\nwater shortages. Overall, from the investigation of the selected projects it
\nappears that costs of FDI projects tend to outweigh the benefits. \u00a0<\/p>\n
With a rapidly expanding population and increasingly limited land,
\nfood security is another cause behind the growing concern in Cambodia. From our
\nanalysis of CDC (2000\u201309) and MAFF (1995-09) data on ELC investments and
\npreliminary fieldwork on a number of FDI projects, and despite the traditional
\nwidespread informal paddy rice export to Thailand and Vietnam, we find that
\nCambodia will not suffer from food insecurity in the short and medium term.
\nNevertheless, in the long term, land use conflicts, water shortages and
\ndisappearing income sources compounded by the dramatic expansion in ELC
\ninvestment in recent years could lead to a decline in household food
\nconsumption and a reduction in nutrition. Particularly at risk are subsistence
\nfarming households and those that cannot earn enough from growing rice, such as
\nin Kraya commune in Kompong Thom province. \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The noticeable rise in foreign direct investment (FDI) in agricultural land in developing countries in Africa, South and Central Asia and Latin America in recent years has sparked concerns among civil society groups and international organisations as to the potential impacts on poor local communities\u2019 access to resources. Growing interest from foreign investors in agriculture in Cambodia, particularly in agro-industrial crops like rubber, cassava, sugarcane and maize, has likewise raised concern about the potential effects of such investments on community […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33106","publications","type-publications","status-publish","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n