News Details

Agri officials to help farmers with marketing, cultivation tips

NPO

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January 11, 2024

KHMER TIMES

The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries will deploy some 1,600 agricultural officials to every commune nationwide by 2025, tasking them to help farmers with marketing and cultivation techniques.

Over 250 agricultural officials, the first batch of the plan, will be stationed in the prioritized communes of rice production in 17 provinces after recruitment was made completely in December last year, said the ministry’s Secretary of State Yang Saing Koma.

The first batch of agricultural officials will start their work based on the community from February and March this year, as currently, they are in training courses on fulfilling the jobs, he said.

“Commune agriculture officials will work to assist farmers, supporting them with farming techniques, finding solutions from the ministries and relevant institutions to help farmers to have active production chains and to secure markets to get them high incomes,” Koma said on Wednesday.

The Commune Agriculture Official Selection Exam held last December was the first round of recruitment for new civil servants for the seventh mandate of the government led by Prime Minister Hun Manet.

“The government has set a range of policies and strategies to develop the agricultural sector into a modern and competitive sector to support the national economic growth, improve the farmers’ livelihoods, and contribute to achieving the upper middle-income status by 2030 and the high-income status by 2050,” the premier said.

As planned, a total of 1,600 officials will be recruited and deployed to every commune nationwide by 2025, he said, citing that the recruitment is made in many stages.

“Having commune agricultural officials is to get close to farmers, hearing their issues and challenges to take actions immediately to help them. This is one of the ways to lift the agricultural sector in the country,” he said.

The ministry will continue to push for key strategic programmes for the future of agricultural programmes, including rice seed systems along with better production chains to improve the livelihoods of farmers, national food security and the competitiveness of the country’s rice-growing sector, Koma said.

Agriculture is one of the four pillars supporting Cambodia’s economy. The sector contributed 24.4 percent to the gross domestic product (GDP) of the country in 2021, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries.

Cambodia exported 8.4 million tonnes of agricultural products last year, earning around $4.3 billion in revenue, said a report from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.

The main products Cambodia exported included rice, bananas, mangoes, cassava, cashew nuts, corn, palm oil, pepper and tobacco.