More Rice, Less Hunger?

“The rice production in 2006 broke the record of Cambodia in a decade,” Chan Sarun, Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, told reporters in an annual meeting of ministry. [link]

It will be fascinating to see how this might impact the levels of hunger, malnutrition, and food poverty which are endemic in Cambodia. My guess is that we’ll see rice prices continue to drop, farmers continue to respond to droppping prices by engaging in attempts at short-term solutions that end in loss of their land and subsistence base, and an increased amount of hunger, despite the increased production of rice. But hey, I’m a pessimistic guy, sometimes. Still, I’m not the only one.

UPDATE: An article from Xinhua news service reprinted at KI Media notes that most of the profits from the bumper rice crop are likely to have already been captured by foreign-owned exporting companies, rather than farmers or national processing groups.