Kingdom of Cambodia
Nation Religion King
The
Royal Government
03/BK
Government
Communiqué
on the
Development of Family-Scale Rubber Plantation
Natural rubber is one of the agro-industrial
plants that contribute great benefit to the national economy. Every year,
Cambodia receives large revenues from exportation of natural rubber products.
Cambodia
has one hundred thousand hectares of red soil and other lands that have
cultivation potential for rubber plantations, however, we have not used all of
these potential resources.
Rubber
re-cultivation/plantation is developing slowly and has not yet responded to the
trend of rubber development in the country.
Although
recently price tendencies of natural rubber on the international market have
dramatically decreased to an all-time low, rubber prices shall recover in the
near future and the rubber plantations will still maintain their main role in
the national economy.
In
order to promote a rapid rubber development in all sectors, including
agro-industry, private sectors and in particular family-scale rubber
plantations, the Royal Government has given a top priority for such plantations
by inclusion into its policy for the second term the following which states, “The
Royal Government shall encourage farmers to plant rubber in their small
plantations based on the policy of providing credits, rights of possession, and
proper use of land”.
The main policies of the Royal Government to promote the development of rubber plantations are to:
·
Speed
up development of rubber plantations in the Kingdom of Cambodia;
·
Generate
sources of income obtaining from rubber exploitations and reduce poverty in
rural areas;
·
Increase
sources of revenues for the national economy by exportation of rubber products;
and
·
Protect
the environment against natural drought, heat and land erosion.
These
development policies are designed to assist small-scale farmers to plant high
yielding rubber and other farming plants between the rows of rubbers to support
their living until the first collection of rubber latex.
Farmers
who voluntarily participates in this development project shall be ensured and
encouraged by the Royal Government through:
·
Granting
of right of possession, use of farming land, succession, transfer to another
person and the State guarantee not to nationalize;
·
Facilitating
in borrowing credits from rural development bank under the terms/ conditions
and available methods;
·
Providing
training and technical services in planting, maintenance, harvesting and give
information about rubber markets;
·
Granting
the rights to receive products of their plantation, processing, and freely sell
rubber products; and
·
Farmers
are entitled to organize an Association of Rubber Farmers to protect the
interests of each member.
The Royal Government hopes that farmers in the country will actively participate in planting family-scale rubber plantations to promote the national economy and their happy lives.
Upon
receipt of this communiqué, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and
Fisheries, the Committee for Monitoring and Promotion of Family-scale Rubber
Plantation Development Projects, all relevant ministries, institutions shall
widely disseminate and use their best efforts to effectively implement this
activity and report to the Royal Government achievements and encountered
problems in order to have actual measures taken.