Plant and animal

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Leaf

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Moovers and shakers...

Cambodia's Mong Reththy Group (MRG) and British farming company Lordswood Farms Ltd signed a deal in November 2009 to set up a $27 million joint-venture farm to produce beef, dairy products as well as goat meat and milk. The farm will include an abattoir and a dairy unit. MRG and Lordswood will each hold a 50 per cent stake in the project.

The deal was negotiated by Malcolm Pearce, principal of Lordswood Farms Ltd.

This agreement comes after another successful joint venture by the British pig breeding company ACMC in which 600 genetically-advanced breeding pigs were shipped to Cambodia in 2008 as part of a 20-year franchise agreement. A $5 million self-contained breeding unit was established to supply enough commercial AC1 sows to produce 1.1 million slaughter pigs annually. The project is already reaching its production targets with domestic distribution of 3,000 newly reared pigs due to start in April 2010.

Another agreement has also been signed whereby MRG will import $1 million worth of cattle semen through Lordswood from the United Kingdom for a breeding programme to meet local demand.

English Beef & Lamb Executive (EBLEX) export manager Jean-Pierre Garnier said: “These developments are of great importance for countries that rely almost totally on imports of pork, beef and dairy products. The English livestock sector has shown once again that it can provide a lead in commercial developments in new markets”.

Mong Reththy, president of MRG, said that work would begin early in 2010. The farm will supply the local market to reduce Cambodia's reliance on imports. "Currently, both cow milk and goat milk is 100 per cent imported into Cambodia. The best-quality beef and goat meat is also imported" he said.

The farm will be located on 200 hectares in the Oknha Mong Port Development Zone in Preah Sihanouk province, which is owned by MRG in a joint venture with Thailand's TCCI.

Agriculture

Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life.^[1] Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the development of civilization. The study of agriculture is known as agricultural science. Agriculture is also observed in certain species of ant and termite,^[2][3] but generally speaking refers to human activities.

The history of agriculture dates back thousands of years, and its development has been driven and defined by greatly different climates, cultures, and technologies. However, all farming generally relies on techniques to expand and maintain the lands suitable for raising domesticated species. For plants, this usually requires some form of irrigation, although there are methods of dryland farming; pastoral herding on rangeland is still the most common means of raising livestock. In the developed world, industrial agriculture based on large-scale monoculture has become the dominant system of modern farming, although there is growing support for sustainable agriculture (e.g. permaculture or organic agriculture).

Modern agronomy, plant breeding, pesticides and fertilizers, and technological improvements have sharply increased yields from cultivation, but at the same time have caused widespread ecological damage and negative human health effects.^[4] Selective breeding and modern practices in animal husbandry such as intensive pig farming have similarly increased the output of meat, but have raised concerns about animal cruelty and the health effects of the antibiotics, growth hormones, and other chemicals commonly used in industrial meat production.^[5]