Officials are seeking expert firms to implement projects on so-called contract farming and the enhancement of the involvement of farmers’ organisations in paddy collecting and processing, officials said.

Contract farming is an agreement on agricultural production carried out between a farmer and buyers, which est-ablishes conditions for the production and marketing of a farm product or products.

Buying companies advance capital to farmers and then farmers are required to sell their products to specific firms.

Mao Thora, secretary of state for the Ministry of Commerce, said Agence Francaise de Developpement (AFD) provided €6 million ($7.7 million) for projects including contract farming and providing loans.  

“Now they seek the experts to implement the project,” he said, adding that “when they have experts to cover contract farming works, they will handle it with the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Commerce”.

“This project needed to be improved because it has taken a long time to implement,” he said.

Lay Sokkheang, an administration and finance staff member at the Supreme National Economic Council (SNEC), a government institution, announced they were looking for proposals from consulting firms or organisations to provide the consulting service.

“We will officially launch the project soon,” he said, adding that, however, he could not provide more details of the project because it is a competitive bidding process.

Lim Bunheng, a president of leading rice exporter Loran Import-Export Co Ltd, said that through the contract farming project, farmers could change from producing long-term paddy rice to producing fragrant rice, as well as  short-term paddy rice, because companies need the paddy rice for milling for export purposes.