Push to stop farmers using chemicals in rice

Experts in the rice sector have expressed their fears over the ban in exporting milled rice containing the chemical Tricyclazole to the European Union (EU), while the government is trying to educate and spread word of the ban to farmers. The EU commission has announced that Cambodia’s milled rice industry must eradicate the use of Tricyclazole by June and that exports of Cambodian rice must not contain more than 0.01 milligrams of the chemical per kilogram this year or it will face bans.
 

The bans will affect Cambodia’s milled rice exports if the use of the chemical is not stopped quickly, said Hun Lak, the vice-president of the Cambodia Rice Federation, a private body involved in exporting Cambodian rice to foreign markets. “We are worried about the EU’s ban because the EU is the biggest market for Cambodia’s milled rice exports. So the ban on Tricyclazole is facing a problem during the rice planting season because farmers usually use chemicals to protect their rice from diseases,” Mr. Lak said.
 

He added that educating farmers on eradicating the use of Tricyclazole needs time so they can be prepared and find new chemical fungicides to be used instead of Tricyclazole. “By June, the CRF thinks that the deadline is too close for finding new fungicides to be used instead of Tricyclazole and if farmers keep using Tricyclazole, it will be a big problem and we cannot produce rice for export to the EU,” he said.

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