Agriculture ​has been an everyday job for Cambodians since ancient times. As LIFT has discussed before, many young Cambodians don’t want to do this kind of work because they think that it doesn’t produce much profit. However, some of them are starting to jump right into agriculture jobs despite whatever they might be studying at college.

Master’s student in Administration Law, Rithy Panharith, started his agriculture job in April 2012.

“I run a small farm that contains chickens, ducks and fish in Somrong district, Khan Sen Sok. This business is easy to run and generates more profit as we already have this market in our country,” said Panharith.

“We are living in a developing country and currently the government is maintaining the agricultural industry, so it’s a good idea to get on board with agriculture business,” he added.

Panharith used to attend the short training course on how to run a farm business at 23 Tola School and continues to learn some more techniques from a friend who studies at Royal University of Agriculture.

“For chickens we need to spend 45 days or two and a half to three months, depending on which kinds are ready to sell. And for ducks, we need three to four months,” said Panharith. “The barriers we usually face during feeding time are weather and diseases. It forces me to put more effort into it.

“We also meet some difficulty due to farm product imports from other countries, especially our neighbouring countries. The price of import products is lower than ours, so we need to lower the price and if not we will lose the customers. This is the barrier that I face currently.”

Panharith said he will not give up on his business, and he still continues it and tries his best to expand his farm to become bigger.

“Doing agriculture the modern way is not as difficult as traditional agriculture and we can gain much profit, so Cambodian youth should reconsider the idea of a job in agriculture.”