Cambodia is due to send 200 students from the Royal University of Agriculture (RUA) to Israel for agriculture internships soon, Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Veng Sakhon said on August 27.

And as preparations are being finalised for these students to embark on their internship adventures, the minister took to Facebook to congratulate another 38 RUA students who were due to return to Cambodia from Israel later that day, after completing two-year agriculture internships there.

Another 13 students are currently on two-year internships at a dairy cow farm in the Middle Eastern country, while another 197 are on other 11-month internships there. They are due to complete and return to the Kingdom on September 10.

“And now, the 200 university students are gearing up to take off for Israel for the new internship cycle once the formalities have been sorted out in the near future,” he said, without expressly indicating the duration of the internships. Presumably, most if not all will be 11-months long.

Nonetheless, the minister went on to say that a total of 1,271 RUA students have gone to Israel for internships over thirteen 11-month cycles since the university signed a memorandum of understanding with Israeli-based Agrostudies in 2008.

Given that at least 13 students have reportedly gone on two-year programmes – and potentially others for varying durations – it is not clear if the 1,271 figure counts all interns or merely the ones who have taken part in 11-month internships.

Agrostudies bills itself as an international training centre that provides a programme for agricultural education in the Middle Eastern country to interns from developing countries.