We truly live in uncertain times. Just as we thought
the virus is gone, at least here in Cambodia, another 11 cases popped up from
people returning to Cambodia from Indonesia. Some airlines are operating
already and that brings the total of cases in Cambodia to 141 and 129 already
cured with no dead’s reported. This definitely has an impact on people as they
start to wear masks again in order to curb the spread. Everywhere we hear about
difficulties with work and people sitting at home without any income. Reports
coming in are not promising to the people as they predict even worse situations
this year as more people still have lots of loans to pay from last year. No
jobs and no food security is bringing hardship to local farmers that have no
backup plans for the future. Read the report at the bottom.
My truck decided that it’s about time to break again
and it’s in the hospital. So maybe by the end of this week, I will be able to go
to the jungle again. I am keeping myself busy by repairing old bikes that I
want to pass on to pastors, what a job that becomes. I enjoy the challenge and
hope to bless some people with a bike. This can be a real blessing for a pastor
to have a bike in order to go to his members and visit faraway churches. I already
have 3 bikes to give away, thanks to some friends. It is really cheap to fix old bikes and make
them look new. I do not need licensed bikes as they will be used in faraway
places where the police are not busy. So if you know of someone that does not use
an old bike, please let me know.
We really need to think outside the box these days to
do ministry. Well for me that is the case, not sure for other missionaries.
Doing medical can be a bit challenging and we do not want to offend the
authorities so try our best to be on the straight and narrow. Toinette is
visiting families to go and teach children at their homes. They are only
allowed to have a few children together but it seems to work well. This way
they can build more relationships with families as well. Most people are happy
that their children can have school as the schools here are closed till next
year. Lots of children are working now and not really do school. For children
in the city, they can use the internet or Tv-school but lots of people do not have access
to those commodities.
Please pray for the following people:
Ouma Paula is back at home. Praise God for providing a
nurse that can come and help her at home. Please pray for her shoulder to get
healed and that she will not have pain.
My brother in law, Pieter’s mum passed away last week
due to cancer. Please pray for the family for strength in this very difficult
time.
My Khmer friend Heang asks that we please pray for his
uncle, Heng Saven that is currently in the hospital due to bleeding on the
brain. After they started a prayer link for him, he is doing much better. It is
really encouraging for me to see these local Christians to start to pray for
their people and ask for healing in Jesus' name. God is working in these people’s
hearts.
My cousin asks that we please need to pray for her
friend, Moira Mallion. She got a hip replacement and need to get Chemo on her
hip and chest.
Please pray against the Covit-19 virus. It has a great
impact on the world and will be felt still for many years to come. Pray that we
will be vigilant to protect ourselves and our friends.
We want to pray for you all that so willingly pray for
us. We count ourselves so privileged, ya I know that is not a good word to use
these days, but we are privilege to have all this prayer. So we want to ask you
to let us know what we can pray for you.
Love
Rossouw-clan
COVID-19 leads to possible food crisis in
Cambodia
In Cambodia, where a large part of the economy is
dependent on fisheries and agricultural food processing, COVID-19 has deeply
impacted the industry resulting in reversing the developments related to SDG 8
of decent work and economic growth with respect to its farmer community,
especially along the Mekong basin.
Cambodia’s agriculture sector is responsible for
generation of more than 20% of its GDP and employs around 30% of the
population. Its position on the Global Food Security Index is below average at
90 out of 113 countries. Furthermore, UNDP estimates that around 70% of
Cambodia’s farms engage in subsistence agriculture by primarily taking loans
and repaying them after the harvest season. There’s a wide-spread poverty in
the country, with the nation coming under the low per-capita income category.
After the Mekong River crisis, around 45,000 hectares
of rice farms were damaged creating a debt crisis for poor farmers. Consumers
on the other side of the spectrum have been hit hard by lack of food supplies,
rise in prices of staple foods and a halt in income caused due to COVID-19. The
failure of last monsoons and the presence of Chinese dams in the Northern part
of the basin have unleashed drought-like conditions leading to poverty and food
insecurity. It has affected farmers growing rice on their fields as well as the
fishermen, who reported a fall in fish volume by 60-70% due to the drought-like
conditions in the Mekong Basin.
Despite the government working towards ensuring a
continuous operation of supply chains, food security is affected by lack of
safety income-net for these Mekong delta inhabitants who are at the mercy of
natural events and weather. In the long-term, this region will face a
two-pronged attack on its food security. Firstly, the lockdown measures under
the COVID pandemic having caused an unprecedented shortage of labour for
agriculture coupled with the drought the region will be facing, there will be a
slowdown in its supply-side activities.
This would affect income equalities and food
supply-chains for the larger public in Cambodia, Lao, Vietnam, Myanmar and
Thailand. Secondly, due to the pandemic, unemployment and price rises will result
in income shortages. Prices of staple foods in areas like Siem Reap have been
estimated to have shot up by 33.33% in Cambodia. This will impact the demand
due to inability of the buyers to pay for the food items like rice and fish.
As countries strive to be more self-sufficient and
reduce import-dependency by promoting local supply chains, the Mekong River
Basin could be heading towards post-COVID-19 food insecurity. Furthermore,
water shortage is also a reason behind slow progress in sanitation in rural
areas, which could cause a major health-crisis.
In this scenario, adopting sustainable agricultural
practices and latest irrigation techniques that reduce reliability on weather,
especially when the globe is facing an acute climate change crisis, will be
beneficial. If not tackled timely, the Mekong River Crisis coupled with the
COVID-19 could see rollback of any progress made not only on SDG goals 1, 2 and
6 regarding no poverty, zero hunger and water sanitation, but also on SDG 13
and 14 regarding climate action and sustainable usage of water resources.
(Tamanna Dahiya is an intern with OneWorld Foundation
India). This article was first extracted from One World.net and originally
published in Global Goals 2030. https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50739118/covid-19-leads-to-possible-food-crisis-in-cambodia/
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