By Sopheavy Ty SRI-LMB Regional Workshop

1. Key Policy Options forSRI-LMB
Countries
November1-2, 2018
By Sopheavy Ty
SRI-LMBRegional Workshop

2. Background
 Rice is the most important crop grown in Asia, providing livelihood for millions
farmers.
 Small-scale producers are responsible for the rice supply - food and income
insecurity due to increased pressures and competition for land, water and
inputs.
 Women play a major role in rice farming in all countries in Asia: transplanting,
weeding and harvesting – mostly their work is unrecognized, lack of ownership ->
limited access to finance, extension services and other technical support.
 What needs to be done:
 Invest in agriculture focusing on the crucial role of smallholder’s agriculture
for food security
 Tackle the complexity of smallholder production system and other
constraints

3. Macroeconomic Situation

4. With proper investment, agriculture will go beyond food and job security to
include trade and exports that contribute enormously to GDP growth
- Proper implementation of policies
- Development of infrastructure
- Fair distribution of land and clarification around land ownership
- Developing good agriculture technologies
- Facilitating irrigation
- Providing better access to inputs including credit, mill and markets
- Supporting trade and export
- Build capacity to become competitive
- Promote gender equality
- Providing alternative livelihood and skills
- Efficient coordination among stakeholders etc.

5. Trends: Land Access and
Gender
 Women-headed households are generally more likely to be land poor or
landless
 Across all four countries, in-depth studies of gender and its changing
relationships to land access and land tenure are inadequate.
 Remittance also contribute significantly, further research on the links between
migration, livelihood change, and gender is needed.
 Changing opportunities for employment across the region lead to cross-border
innovation beyond national policy.
 Land access is often blocked by the power of market and the power of force.
 While land titling program may seem like the “best” solution, in many cases
marginalized people are not monitored or well understood.

6. Challenges for Smallholder
Farmers
 Inadequate education and training
 Support would-be farmers’ aspiration
 Traditional and indigenous knowledge is no longer sufficient – climate
change -> New farming methods
 Access to information and training
 Constraint to market integration
 Insufficient quantities to fully meet market demand leading to loss of income
and competitiveness
 Poor economic geography – infrastructure to maintain the quality
 Sanitary and Phytosnaitary
 Working with Private companies
 Limited access to capital and input resources
 Remoteness
 High collateral requirements/interest rate

7. Policy Environment and
Innovation
 Condition of access & use and Forms of ownership
 Forest protected area, has disproportionately affected the ethnic minority
 Large economic land concession, often excluding smallholder farmers from
land
 The risk of ASEAN-FTA is risky for countries with the poorly developed
industrial base
 Influx of cheap goods
 May become source of cheap raw material for other powerful ASEAN
countries
 Impact:
 The migration of skilled labor to low skill countries to run FD ->
diminishing local labor opportunities
 The migration of low-skill labor to higher-skilled countries -> increasing
the rice labor shortage

8. Key Policy Options for LMB
Countries
1. Invest in agriculture to continue -> food security and job security
2. Education program for crop holiday time as alternative livelihood
3. Modernize agriculture technique and building knowledge of SSFs to take
advantage for a higher price
4. Look at alternative, high value crops or value added systems that can help SSFs
increase their income
5. Market information (smart phone)
6. The respective LMB governments should develop policies and ensure
appropriate implementation to enable SSFs play a significant part of the macro-
economic scenario of each country.
7. A integrated policy that agriculture ministry needs to coordinate with other
departments and develop a vision for a practical policy and also to include gender
issues.
8. Beyond policies, stricter implementation with bottom-up coordinating mechanism.
9. Role of Private Sector

13. ThankYou