Politics and Gender: Negotiating Conceptions of the Ideal Woman in Present Day Cambodia

This paper briefly describes a Khmer politician’s references to four women made during a 1993 campaign speech. It then reviews notions of the ideal woman from Khmer literature, and from life stories and ethnographic accounts. The politician manipulated gender symbolism, playing on multiple ambiguous notions of femaleness to prove his own powerful status and to comment on the current state of the Khmer social and moral order. In the face of the drastic changes of the last twenty years, he linked his own power and that of other men to their control over women’s sexuality. While he was willing to allow for, indeed participate in playing on, the ambiguity inherent in gender conceptions to create new ideal types of strong women, he simultaneously used appeals to tradition to maintain male authority over women.     

Genetic differentiation of the bronze featherback Notopterus notopterus between Mekong River and Tonle Sap Lake populations by mitochondrial DNA analysis

ABSTRACT:   Although the bronze featherback Notopterus notopterus is an important fish in South-East Asia, the population structure has not been investigated. In this study, genetic diversity and population structure of the bronze featherback were examined using nucleotide sequence analysis of the mitochondrial DNA control region for 332 fish collected from Tonle Sap Lake and the Mekong River in Cambodia. The average nucleotide diversity (π) of all samples was 0.033, and the Mekong River samples had higher nucleotide diversity (0.034) than Tonle Sap Lake samples (0.028). The nucleotide diversity between the lake and river samples varied from 0.029 to 0.037. The genetic differentiation between the river and lake populations was also supported by the pairwise F -statistic values and hierarchical analysis of molecular variance, indicating that the Tonle Sap Lake population is genetically isolated from the population in main stream of the Mekong River.     

Factors impacting yields in rain-fed paddies of the lower Mekong River Basin

The Mekong River Basin (MRB) is the biggest basin in Monsoon Asia. About 80% of the agricultural lands, which occupy about 40% of the basin are rain-fed paddy rice area. Therefore, it is assumed that changes in rain-fed paddy rice production affect the total agricultural production to a great degree in the Mekong River Basin. While there are many factors affecting the productivity of rain-fed paddies, such as climate, water use, rice varieties, applications of manure, fertilizer and agro-chemicals, sowing date and other agronomic practices, this paper focuses on the relation between rainfall and yields of rain-fed paddies. Agricultural statistics and rainfall data were collected and analyzed for all 24 provinces in Cambodia for the years 2001 and 2002. Factors such as soil fertility and other natural conditions were removed by comparing the yield and rainfall in one province for different years. Special attention was given to the relation between yields of paddy in the wet season and rainfall, considering factors such as rice varieties, soil fertility, irrigation ratio and the ratio of area damaged by flood, drought, and insect. Although it is not easy to assess those impact factors on yields because they are organically interactive, the following results were obtained: (1) The ratio of high yielding varieties (HYV), soil fertility, and irrigation ratio among many factors that affect yields individually, especially if they are combined, (2) Total rainfall did not have a significant influence on rice yields even for the rain-fed paddies if it was over 700 mm in wet season, and one of the reasons for this would be that there exist supplementary water uses through small ponds and water ponding in local land depressions in and around paddies.     

Impacts of climate change on snakehead fish value chains in the Lower Mekong Basin of Cambodia and Vietnam

ABSTRACT

The productive fisheries of the Lower Mekong Basin of Cambodia and Vietnam are essential to the food security and nutrition of 60 million people. Yet these fisheries, both culture and capture, are susceptible to the impacts of climate change. This article reports on a study undertaken to examine the vulnerability, as perceived by snakehead (Channa striata) fish farmers in Vietnam and fishers in Cambodia, to the impacts from climate change. Perceived impacts on various actors in the value chain are identified, as well as adaptation strategies currently being utilized and planned for the future. Recommendations are suggested to contribute to assisting snakehead farmers and fishers in adapting and preparing for the impacts of climate change.     

Ecophysiological study on weed seed banks and weeds in Cambodian paddy fields with contrasting water availability

Weed infestations are a major cause of yield reduction in rice (Oryza sativa) cultivation, particularly with direct‐seeding methods, but the relationship between weed dynamics and water availability in Cambodian paddy fields has not been documented previously. We surveyed the weed abundance and weed seed banks in the soil of paddy fields with inferred differences in their water regime in 22 farm fields in three provinces of Cambodia in the 2005 and 2006 rainy seasons. We studied rain‐fed lowland fields in upslope and downslope topographic positions and fields at different distances from the irrigation water source inside an irrigation rehabilitation area. The weed seed banks were estimated by seedling emergence in small containers and weed abundance and vigor were estimated by a simple scoring system. The estimated weed seed bank in the top 5 cm of soil ranged from 52.1 to 167 × 10³ seeds m^?2 (overall mean of 8.5 × 10³ seeds m^?2) and contained a high proportion (86%) of sedge species, such as Fimbristylis miliacea L. and Cyperus difformis. Several fields had particularly large seed banks, including one near the reservoir. No clear difference was found in the weed seed banks between the irrigated fields that were located close to (upstream) and distant from (downstream) the water source or between the irrigated and rain‐fed lowland fields, but the weed scores were larger in the rain‐fed fields and the downstream fields within the irrigated area. A water shortage during the late growing season in 2005 led to a proliferation of weeds in some fields and an associated increase in weed seedbank size in 2006. However, the weed scores in 2006 were more strongly associated with that year's water conditions than with the weed seedbank size.     

Comparison of soil moisture effects on surface conductance between late dry and rainy seasons in an evergreen forest of central Cambodia

Some forests in the Asian monsoon region are reported to transpire actively, even in the late dry season. The evergreen forest in central Cambodia is included in them. The surface conductance was estimated for an evergreen forest in central Cambodia in the late dry (May) and rainy (August) seasons, and the effects of environmental conditions on surface conductance were compared between seasons. The effects of soil moisture did not differ between seasons, indicating that soil water drought in the late dry season does not limit transpiration from the entire forest community. Evergreen forests in central Cambodia are thought to transpire actively in the late dry season.     

Impacts of water cycle changes on the rice market in Cambodia: stochastic supply and demand model analysis

A supply and demand model for rice in Cambodia, which includes among other factors evapotranspiration as a water supply variable impacting regional yields and planted areas, is developed to aid in the design of agricultural policies and planning. Impacts are determined stochastically by drawing on water cycle distributions and evaluating the resulting variation in production and price bands for local rice markets. The results of the baseline analyses indicate that production of wet and dry season rice steadily increases and the consumption per capita slightly decreases due to the negative income elasticity. Results of a partial stochastic analyses show that the production of rice in regions where elevations are high and the land vulnerable to flooding are the most sensitive to increased fluctuations in water supply. The changes also affect the rice market through equilibrium price changes. The upper price band, which is the width between average and 90th percentile, is larger than the lower band, which is the width between average and tenth percentile, suggesting that the situation of low income consumers could grow worse under an unstable environment with relatively larger upward price spikes. The results imply that development of irrigation facilities and water management systems maybe required for Cambodian provinces which rely heavily on agriculture, particularly rice production, under increasing climatic variation.     

Environmental degradation in karst areas of Cambodia: A legacy of war?

Karst areas in Kampot Province, southwest Cambodia, have suffered relatively recent soil erosion and partial infilling of caves by the eroded sediment. This soil loss is most pronounced in localities that have been a focus of human activity, such as along pedestrian and vehicular access routes and in areas subject to vegetation clearing and agricultural activity, but it also occurs more widely across the hillslopes. In comparable karst environments elsewhere in Cambodia and neighbouring countries erosion is similarly evident in areas that have been subject to intensive human use, but in contrast to Kampot it is absent from the broader landscape. The soil degradation in the Kampot karst seems to require disturbance of the natural vegetation cover which stabilizes the soil cover in the other karsts, probably during the latter half of the 20th century. No major changes in deliberate land‐use at the study sites that might have triggered this erosion have been identified. However, this part of Cambodia was subject to heavy aerial bombardment between 1965 and 1973, and the karst hills and their caves were a particular focus of military activity. This bombing in turn facilitated ascent of the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime which drove virtually the entire population into a subsistence rural existence, and then further armed conflict prior to that regime's overthrow, both of which are likely to have generated additional environmental damage. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Seasonal differences in the incidence of infection with Fasciola gigantica in cambodian cattle

Farmer's cattle were treated with triclabendazole and used as tracer animals to detect new infections with Fasciola gigantica in three villages located on the bank of the Bassac River (a major tributary of the Mekong River) and in a fourth village located on farmland away from the river, from April 1999 until January 2001. The month of infection was estimated by subtracting 4 months from the date when eggs of F. gigantica were detected in faeces. Farmers were interviewed each month to record the nature of the agricultural and animal husbandry activities that occurred during the previous month, especially events that might have exposed cattle to infection with F. gigantica. Results support the conclusions that infection of cattle in riverbank villages acquired from about August or September until November originated from herbage and water in irrigation canals and dams on the riverbank, and that the progressively increasing monthly incidence from December until April (up to 87% per month in April 2000) was derived from herbage and water in recently harvested rice fields and lakes adjacent to the riverbank. The abrupt cessation of new infection in riverbank villages in May coincided with flooding of low-lying land, the movement of cattle to land above flood height on the riverbank, and a change of diet to dry-land crop residues, stored dry rice stalks, and herbage and water that were unlikely to contain metacercariae. It was concluded that snails in dams and canals on the riverbank became infected with F. gigantica after cattle were moved to the riverbank in May, and cercariae shed from these snails provided the new infections that occurred in cattle in August and September. In the village located away from the river, infection of cattle between September and March coincided with the rice harvest, supporting the conclusion that feeding of fresh rice stalks and stubble after the rice was harvested was the main source of infection. The low monthly incidence observed (up to 6.4% per month) was consistent with the hypothesis that snails did not survive in the dry rice fields between crops and that few snails would have been available from the small number of aquatic refuges that persisted through the dry season to recolonize rice fields during the wet season. Between April and August there was no opportunity for new infection because cattle were fed forage from around houses and headlands, and on dry-land crop residues and stored dry rice stalks. Control of fasciolosis was proposed using a single treatment of cattle with triclabendazole in riverbank villages in May when cattle were moved to the riverbank, and after harvest of the last rice field in villages located away from the river.