Rice Experts See Better Prospects in New Seeds

Pich Samnang,
VOA Khmer, Phnom Penh
Thursday, 24 February 2011

“Our farmers have small plots of land, so they are not very interested in the company’s seeds.”

For five years now, Yin Narong has used a new method to plant rice. Instead of planting from the seeds of the previous year’s harvest, he buys new seeds from a local company.

The difference, he said in an interview, has been a boost in yield of 200 kilograms of rice each harvest on one-fifth a hectare.

“Now with pure seeds we get up to 900 kilograms,” the 52-year-old farmer in Phnom Penh’s Dangkor district said. He also uses less seeds, about 15 kilograms with the new method compared to 20 kilograms with the old.

A relatively low number of farmers like Yin Narong are using the new-seed method. But traditional habits persist, preventing the country from reaching its rice potential, agricultural economists say.

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