Phnom Penh, January 28, 2015: A group of active NGOs – the NGO Forum on Cambodia (NGOF), the Network for Development of Food Security and Safety in Cambodia (NDF-C), Action Aid, RACHANA – joined together for a half day meeting with Ministry of Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) in order to continue the discussion on the Agriculture draft law and provide an update on key achievements.
Several concerns and objectives were brought up during the meeting such as:
- Presentation of the key achievements and the three year action plan 2015 – 2017 of the Agriculture Policies Monitoring Project in the Environment Program of NGOF
- Result received from the fifth National Farmer Forum including the farmer declaration, an update on the onward motion of the finalization of the selective service law on Agriculture, Land as well as the draft Agriculture Sector Strategic Development Plan (ASDP) 2014-2018
The meeting was led by H.E Ty Sokun, Secretary of State, MAFF and Co-chairs of the Technical Working Group (TWG) on Agriculture and Water, and was facilitated by Dr. Tek Vannara, NGOF’s Executive Director (ED), and the representative of the NDF-C members.
The key achievement’s presentation by NGOF and NDF-C, which highlighted the great benefits provided to the farmers, specifically, smallholder farmers, was appreciated by the MAFF, and each party welcomed further collaboration between both sides.
The proposed of the NGOF and NDF-C delegation to include the incorporation of the farmer declaration into the draft ASDP 2014-2018 for discussion during the workshop on February 4, 2015 at Cambodiana Hotel was welcoming by MAFF representatives who recommended that the inputs from CSOs, could help to improve the livelihood, food security and agricultural production.
“The draft law will be finalized very soon, and MAFF will open space for NGOs/CSOs, development partners and affected communities to provide comments, inputs and recommendations,” said H.E Ty Sokhun during the meeting.
Moreover, MAFF suggested a direct contact with the department of MAFF to seek for partnership upon Dr. Tek Vannara proposed whether there is a possibility that NGO Forum could host a consultation workshop to collect input and recommendations on the revised draft law and an official presentation for the last version of the draft law of Agriculture Land and the draft of ASDP 2014-2018.
Since May 2014, the General Directorate of Agriculture (GDA) has formed a working group in order to continue the process of providing and collecting feedback and comments on the draft law in cooperation with related CSOs and NGOs through NGOF.
Furthermore, after several meeting conducted by the working assembled by the inter-departments of general of agriculture, the draft law’s name, which was originally named Law on the Use and Management of Agriculture Land in 2011, was revised to become The Law on Agriculture Land Management.
