Rice Farm Woes

It is strange how adverse events all over the world seem to be coming into focus. China stopped exporting the two main fertilizers used by Cambodian farmers last July. Last year, prices were normal during planting season but in the last month, as farmers attempted to plant, reality has bitten! Most of our rural churches are made up of poor rice farmers and they are in a struggle to survive. 

FCOP went to spray our rice crop with a herbicide that last year cost us $12.50/hectare and it's now $58.00/hectare. Fertilizer prices are up 350%. However, rice prices are forced down through government policy to keep city dwellers happy and are flat at best. Farmers have a choice: borrow money to plant into what appears to be a guaranteed loss or leave their land fallow. Most will plant but, without adequate fertilizer or weed control, yields will be greatly reduced by as much as 75%. Farmers openly speculate on having enough rice to feed our own country. The elder population reminds the younger that in 1975 people in the cities were forced from their homes to plant rice without adequate inputs and starvation and disease accounted for about 2/3 of the 3 million deaths over the next four years of the Khmer Rouge Genocide. Please be praying with us as we finish planting this crop. 

May you have a blessed and fruitful June. 

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