Agriculture and fishing
Indonesian government challenges another green group over freedom of information request
The Indonesian government is going to the Supreme Court over an NGO’s freedom of information request for detailed maps of land on which oil palm companies have been licensed to operate in Kalimantan, the country’s portion of Borneo island. Civil society groups have tried for ...
Sugar yield quells ethanol shortage fear
Ethanol shortage concerns in Thailand have subsided on the good sugar yield from the latest sugar cane crop, providing abundant molasses for the ethanol industry, says a senior industrial official. Thai SugarMillers Corporation Ltd, which includes all Thai 52 sugar factories, said the current 2016/17 ...
Mekong Delta 2016: historic drought, saline intrusion destroys crops
Dried fields, cattle dying of thirst, expensive drinking water, sea water overflowing houses. In 2016, the lives of millions of people in Mekong Delta, Central Highlands and central region were upset because of drought and salinity intrusion. In the first months of 2016, when the north ...
Heavy push for rice megafarms
The government is committed to ramping up the rice megafarm scheme this year, for which it provides soft loans, machinery and agricultural equipment to farmers in order to cut production costs and raise productivity. The scheme will cover 1.05 million rai of related farmland. Chutima ...
US builds blood centre for southern provinces
The US Embassy to Laos has built a blood centre in Champassak province as one of several major infrastructure assistance projects completed last year, at a total cost of over US$850,000. The new blood centre will provide emergency blood services to people in the southern ...
China to buy 20,000 tonnes of organic rice from Laos
China has approved the purchase of 20,000 tonnes of organic rice a year from Laos, according to Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith. Mr Thongloun said in talks with Khong district authorities in Champassak province last week that Chinese premier Li Keqiang had agreed to the deal. The ...
Vietnam fears protectionism will affect farm produce exports
Vietnam in 2016 saw a high farm produce trade surplus of $7.6 billion, but big difficulties are still ahead, including returning protectionism with Brexit and US President-elect Donald Trump. Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Xuan Cuong said at a press conference on January ...
Draft consumer law completed
The Ministry of Commerce has finished the draft consumer protection law and will soon submit it to the Council of Ministers, according to a senior government official. Mao Thora, the ministry’s secretary of state, said yesterday that all chapters of the draft had been completed ...
Firmer prospects as rubber rebounds
Cambodia’s beleaguered rubber industry looks set for a turnaround as international rubber prices continue their strong rebound. Local traders and industry officials said on January 12 they were optimistic that rubber prices, which doubled during the course of 2016, would continue to rise as the ...
Cassava woes still persist
Local cassava producers still do not fully understand the process of obtaining a sanitary and phytosanitary certification, a necessity for those exporting their produce to Thailand. Department of Agriculture deputy director-general Hean Vanhan said that there were no barriers for local cassava vendors to export to ...
