Chinese High-tech Ag in Cambodia

Du Changwen

Northern Cambodia is home to Tonlé Sap Lake， the largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia. Connecting the Tonlé Sap and Mekong rivers， this giant turquoise pool in the flat and broad plain of the Tonlé Sap basin measures 500 kilometers long and over 110 kilometers wide. The Tonlé Sap plains bountiful sunshine， water and fertile land have made it the most important agricultural production base in Cambodia. The premium rice produced in the region has won the championship of the World Rice Conference many times and is renowned as White Gold.

However， the ideal natural environment and world-class rice species still do not guarantee a good harvest for local farmers working the 3 million hectares of paddy fields. Due to a shortage of advanced agricultural technologies and infrastructure， water and fertilizer resources are not fully utilized， restricting the average production of local fields to as low as less than 3 tons per hectare. It has become a pressing issue for Cambodia to increase the income of rural households and help them increase rice production.

Chinese Technologies Introduced to Cambodia

In March 2016 at the first Lancang-Mekong Cooperation （LMC） Leaders Meeting， Chinese Premier Li Keqiang gifted leaders of the five LMC countries Chinese hybrid rice. He declared that Chinas hybrid rice breeding would go global and help LMC countries become the worlds granary. His remarks received an enthusiastic response from LMC leaders including Hun Sen， Prime Minister of Cambodia.

Jiangsu Lianfa Textile Co.， Ltd. is a renowned manufacturer and the biggest dyed-yarn fabric producer in China. After assessing national needs and business development strategies in recent years， the company increased its investment in agriculture and affirmed a development strategy of integrating secondary and tertiary sectors with the primary sector. The consensus reached by Premier Li and the LMC leaders reassured the company that the environment would be conducive to conducting agricultural projects in Southeast Asia. In January 2018， Kong Xiangjun， chairman of the company board of directors， visited the Institute of Soil Science under the Chinese Academy of Sciences three times and decided to cooperate with the institute on carrying out agricultural projects in Cambodia to help boost the countrys agricultural production. They devised how to optimally harness the favorable conditions in light， temperature， water and heat in local fields by planting rice in rainy season and cotton in dry season.