Exclusions in the Cambodian irrigation sector: perspectives from Battambang province

Abstract

This article offers a case study in Battambang province that examines agrarian and land dynamics in an irrigated command area. Building on the “powers of exclusion” framework developed by Hall, Hirsch and Li, we show how irrigation reshapes socio-spatial configurations locally and reinforces the dynamics of social differentiation between smallholder farmers. We argue that the uneven geography of water and the transformation of land ownership structures to which the irrigation project in question contributes run in the opposite direction of a pathway that would support the development of inclusive pro-smallholder irrigation.

A Secure Rubber Supply Chain Management System Based on Hyperledger Fabric Blockchain: A Use Case in Cambodia

“…Numerous RSS processing facilities exist near smallholder farms, accessible within a day by motorcycle. Large landholders may sell directly to RSS facilities, exporting processed rubber to destinations such as Korea, Vietnam, China, India, and Malaysia [3].…”

“…The majority of NR processing and export is composed of 78% Technically Specified Rubber (TSR) and 21% Ribbed Smoked Sheets (RSS), with the remainder being Concentrated Latex (CL) [2]. The Cambodia RSCM sector also involves 284 participants, including estate agencies, manufacturers, and cooperatives [3]. Despite lacking a rubber futures market, Cambodia relies on MRB pricing, influenced by international markets such as TOCOM, SICOM, and Shanghai.…”

Chinese infrastructure as spatial fix? A political ecology of development finance and irrigation in Cambodia

“…Instead, the negotiation and contestation over maintaining irrigated landscapes has forged a multiplicity of state-society relations (Barnes, 2017). These water contestations have, in turn, produced social and spatial differentiation within Battambang's agrarian landscape (Diepart & Thuon, 2022).…”

“…Constructed over two phases from 2010 to 2016, the project was the largest irrigation scheme to be built in the country at the time (see Figure 2). Once fully completed, Kanghot was designed to provide irrigation to 47 000 hectares in the rainy season, and 12 000 hectares in the dry season, throughout Banan and Sangkae Districts in Battambang Province (Pen et al ., 2019; Diepart & Thuon, 2022). China's Export‐Import Bank financed the majority of the project.…”

“…Consider again the case of Kanghot. The first Kanghot irrigation system was actually constructed in 1976 by Cambodian labourers during the Democratic Kampuchea regime (Diepart & Thuon, 2022). 1 From 1975 to 1979, hundreds of thousands of Cambodians were forcibly relocated out of urban centres to work on collectivized farms throughout the country, particularly in the northwest region where Kanghot is located.…”