Desperate Times for Cambodia's Farmers

PURSAT, CAMBODIA: The first rainfall this year did not arrive until early June to Pursat, a province located in the northwest of the country, where land looked bare and thirsty at the height of the planting season. The devastating drought, which the government has described as the worst since 1979, adds to poor rainfall last year, when peasants had to dip into the drinking water dispensed by the government to irrigate their crops.

Soy Hourn and her neighbors in Pursat say they do not remember anything like this in more than a decade. “The radio said this year it would rain more than the previous [year], so we keep trying,” explained Phaly, a 27-year-old farmer. Her family and the dry land surrounding her small wooden shack were waiting impatiently for precipitation. In Southeast Asia, the year is divided into two periods: the dry season and the rainy season, which usually reaches Cambodia in May and lasts until October. The arrival of the rains is key for farmers in the region — it’s when they start planting and wells for the rest of the year are filled.

After six months of the dry season, the months before the monsoon are usually difficult for farmers in the area, but conditions worsened dramatically in 2015 and 2016 with the arrival of El Niño, a weather phenomenon that causes excessive heat and decreased rains, in addition to food shortages. On average, El Niño occurs at intervals of two to seven years and can last up to 18 months. According to the predictions of climatologists, the 2015-16 phenomenon could become the strongest ever recorded.

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