Cambodian farmers plant paddy rice mostly in rainy season. Paddy rice plantation is the core business of farmers in their whole year of life. They also have other small businesses to generate income. Like in this picture I shot in April 2008 in Prek Tamak commune, Ksach Kandal district, Kandal province, farmers produce it to generate more income to afford their living.

I interviewed them. They said they need 300,000 Cambodian Riels to produce 70 units which take 25 days and employ 2 people. After sales, they got 100,000 Cambodian Riels as their own income.

Due to the figures, we can see that they earn very small amount of income. If we think 100,000 Riels for two persons for 25 days, you will see that the two persons earned 4,000 Riels per day. Though it is suspected that they did not take full days for this product, the income is still small.

I think what we should think of is to balance between cost of labour forces and their time for rice cultivation. If paddy rice production gets high yields and can be done two times per year, they may get higher income.

BY IM SOKTHY