Cocktails

Let's start with some overriding concerns. 
In recent months the European Commission and Parliament have been struggling with the inability to cut a deal on whether or not to tolerate glyphosate, a commonly used herbicide. Under pressure from producers, it seems that consumers and safety first precautions are of lesser concern. 
So you can only imagine how legislation is dealing with the same issue in Southeast Asia.
Take the Bangkok Post (Nov. 25), which draws attention to a well-known observation but the publishing these hardly breaks the surface alas:

'Over 60% of popular vegetables sold at shopping malls and markets are contaminated with a cocktail of pesticides farmers use to boost yields and ensure year-round sales, a food safety network warned Friday. The Thailand Pesticide Alert Network (Thai-PAN), a non-governmental organisation, conducted a survey on nine vegetables and six types of fruit in Bangkok and four other provinces in late August.
...
More worrying still, all of the tested produce was contaminated with multiple residues indicating a high usage of chemicals as farmers rely on a "cocktail of pesticides in their farming process", Prokchol Ousap, a coordinator at Thai-PAN, said.  
... 
Meanwhile, Biodiversity Sustainable Agriculture Food Sovereignty Action Thailand (BioThai), a group considered an ally of Thai-PAN, is preparing to sue the Department of Agriculture at the Administrative Court, it said. The group is gathering evidence for a suit as the department granted farmers renewed permits to use paraquat despite reports of it being toxic and putting consumers at risk, said Kingkorn Narindharakul Na Ayudhaya of BioThai.  
...
Thai-PAN also surveyed produce sold at five supermarkets and found that even though it was more expensive the levels of contamination were higher than at provincial markets'.

However it has provoked action. The Bangkok Post (Nov. 26) takes the results for the editorial: 

'News reports that over 60% of samples of popular vegetable and fruits taken at shopping malls and markets are contaminated with pesticides -- some are highly toxic farm chemicals banned in several countries -- are too hard to swallow. It merely shows a failure of the state, despite an ambition to become the kitchen of the world, to come up with and implement measures to ensure food safety, and the dilemma for customers who have limited options to live healthy lifestyles. 
... 
It is not certain if it's a coincidence that the survey results happened to come out at the same time as reports that the Department of Agriculture has discreetly extended the import and registration licence for highly toxic paraquat despite concerted efforts by a panel tasked with farm chemical controls to have it banned by 2019. The licence for this chemical, a popular choice of herbicide under the trade name Gramoxone, expired last month. The licence extension, if true, means there will be no ban of paraquat by 2019. That means the department is ignoring concerns over the impact of the chemical, raised not only by non-government organisations but also by its bureaucratic partners like those in the Public Health Ministry, which is a key player in the panel.
... 
The Public Health Ministry said over 50 other countries around the world have agreed to ban paraquat as well as chlorpyrifos. 
...
Thailand's FTA Watch said the country ranks as the sixth largest importer of paraquat'.

This editorial just shows how vested interests are collaborating with government officials in pursuing the love of capital at the expense of common sense and health interests. The Nation (Nov. 26) adds:

'Kingkorn added that the network [=Thai-PAN] also planned to sue the Department of Agriculture for failing to protect consumers by allowing the use of paraquat for an additional six years despite a proposal by the Public Health Ministry to ban the weed killer due to health hazards.

Worries

GRAIN (Nov. 8) has some murmurs from the hybrid rice front:

'Despite years of vehement public opposition to the field and feed test of Golden Rice in the past decade – a genetically engineered rice promoted for commercialization in Asia, the Department of Agriculture – Bureau of Plant Industry (DA-BPI), PhilRice has filed renewed application this year too pen field test the genetically modified crop in the municipality of San Mateo in Isabela and Muñoz in Nueva Ecija.
... 
In recent study, scientists from India showed that the derived lines of Golden Rice produced phenotypic abnormality and poor yield performance making it unfit for commercial cultivation. Farmers are worried that the trait can transfer to other rice varieties or weedy relatives thru cross-contamination once the open field testing is approved. This will contaminate our indigenous and farmer-bred rice varieties and prove disastrous to the already volatile rice production in the country'.

Certified
Then this from Mongabay (Nov. 16) caught my eye:

'In early 2017, the Sustainable Agriculture Network (SAN) decided that it was going to stop working with certification in agriculture. It was actually a fairly easy and straightforward decision: After working with this tool for over 20 years, we could look back and conclude that certification was not the best approach to improve the sustainability of most farmers in the world, especially when considering the huge challenges we face from climate change, poverty, deforestation, soil and water contamination, and human rights violations.
... 
But we have also increasingly come to recognize the limitations of certification as a tool to drive change in agricultural production systems at scale. 
In our opinion, there are four main interrelated limitations of certification in agriculture: 
Complexity  
Cost relative to value   
Scalability   
Effectiveness   
...
The above limitations mean that certification will work for farms that are already reasonably well-managed, have access to resources, have markets that are able to better value their products, and encounter fairly well-functioning local governance structures. These conditions are very specific and are not the reality most farmers in the world live in'.

The arguments are not new, but the decision taken is. 
My thinking would be that certification has always worked for foreign countries and the elites within the producing countries themselves. 
As certification has become more complex so as to garner more influence with western consumers there hasn't been much efforts in making sure the complexity is taught. 
In the end, it's trust by consumers whats required, while the trust issue for the farmer is just a bit part of his/her market issues.

Mongabay (Nov. 22) also looked at reliability of various certifications:

'The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil has the strongest set of requirements among certification schemes for edible oils and biofuels, even if its members often get away with flouting its standards.That’s the main conclusion of a new report from the Forest Peoples Programme (FPP), an international NGO
....
The FPP’s report ranks the certification schemes as follows:
Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil
Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials (RSB)
Sustainable Agriculture Network (SAN)
International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC)
Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil (MSPO)
Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil (ISPO)
ISPO is the Indonesian government’s official certification scheme. It is essentially a stamp of approval that a company is following Indonesian law'.

Finals
The most prominent rice related news from Cambodia might be actually less news worthy. The Phnom Penh Post (Nov. 9):

'For the third year in a row Cambodia has failed to take the top spot in the World’s Best Rice contest, instead earning second place after Thailand'.

Meanwhile, the Thai are gloating. Bangkok Post (Nov. 8):

'The World Rice Conference has declared Thailand's fragrant Hom Mali variety the world's best rice, maintaining Thailand's number one position after several years of lower rice quality due to a previous rice-pledging scheme'. 

First time I heard this latter claim, seems at best circumstantial.

No, probably the most important news for Cambodian rice is that the Bangladesh deal is off. The Phnom Penh Post (Nov. 13):  

'Cambodia has failed to finalise the terms of a massive 250,000-tonne delivery of rice to Bangladesh, with industry insiders claiming that shipments have been cancelled as millers do not currently have the stockpiles to meet export demand while hopes for further negotiations appear to be dwindling. The rice deal was originally made in August, when relevant ministries from the two countries signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) and made plans for initial shipments of rice to begin being shipped to Bangladesh in November. Hun Lak, vice president of the Cambodia Rice Federation (CRF), said that a letter of credit could not be reached because the two parties could not agree on finalised terms and conditions for the shipments.
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A report released in late August by Reuters claimed that two Bangladeshi officials had finalised a price agreement with Cambodia at $453 per tonne. While the Kingdom’s millers balked at the price as being unprofitable, Cambodian officials repeatedly denied that an official price agreement was ever made. Kim Savuth, chairman of Khmer Foods Group, said that the deal was ill-fated to begin with as millers would not have enough time to harvest white rice before the November shipment'.

No need to worry, there's always China. From the Phnom Penh Post (Nov. 13):

'The Cambodian government signed two memorandums of understanding (MoUs) with three giant Chinese state-owned institutions yesterday, creating partnerships intended to boost the production of Cambodian paddy rice and milled rice for export, according to a release from the Ministry of Economy and Finance. The first of the two MoUs outlines a government-to-government arrangement to further open market access and facilitate growth of Cambodian rice exports to China, the Kingdom’s single largest rice importer, while the second deal provides technical assistance intended to enhance the Kingdom’s rice warehouse and storage infrastructure.
... 
According to a report released last week, Cambodia has exported 142,768 tonnes of milled rice to China so far this year, a 59 percent increase from the same period last year accounting for nearly one-third of the country’s total rice exports in 2017.
Cambodia is expected to export a total of 200,000 tonnes of rice to China by the end of the year, and hopes to increase its exports to the country by 50 percent in 2018'.

In other news, the Phnom Penh Post (Nov. 16) discusses whether the rice season has been good or average.

Phnom Penh Post (Oct. 25) also has some notes on rice related loans:

'The government has already provided $9 million from its emergency rice loan fund to the Kingdom’s rice millers since the harvest season began in September, nearly triple the amount it provided when it first launched the initiative last year when millers showed little appetite for state financing. 

Kao Thach, CEO of the state-owned Rural Development Bank (RDB), said yesterday that the government had officially signed off on $9 million worth of loans out of a fund which has reserved $50 million in total an amount the government believes is sufficient to prop up the struggling rice sector.
...
Song Saran, CEO of Amru Rice, who received $1.5 million from the RDB by using approximately 5,000 tonnes of rice as collateral, said the government should expand the programme beyond its current limitations which as yet only allow fragrant rice to be used as collateral.

“The RDB has a good strategy to ensure the prices for paddy rice, but it would be better if the government approved loans for all types of rice varieties to promote exports,” he said'.

Soft

More rice is coming into the market. 
Philippines rice harvest is up by 10% (Business Monitor, Nov. 21) while Xinhua (Nov. 20) reports on Vietnam:

'Seeing more contracts signed since June, the Vietnam Food Association has revised its target of exporting rice this year by 400,000 tons to 5.6 million tons'.

Not all new rice spells good fortunes. The Bangkok Post (Nov. 18):

'With newly harvested rice entering the market, the government yesterday agreed to put off a sales plan for inedible-grade rice stocks to next year'.

Vientiane Times (Nov. 15) has an interesting article on rice growing in the more mountainous region of Xieng Khouan:

'Authorities in Xieng Khuang, one of Laos’ mountainous northern provinces, are preparing to celebrate the country’s most famous rice species, khao kai noi, and other local foods at a festival to be held this weekend.
This region boasts the largest fertile rice growing area in the country and is the main supplier of rice for both domestic and overseas consumption. Kai noi is a native rice species and is very popular because of its softness, good smell and flavour.
...
The province has 19,600 hectares of rice fields in total with kai noi rice occupying 60 percent of that area.
This year, the province’s agriculture sector projects that the total harvest will be 83,000 tonnes, of which 52 tonnes will be kai noi rice.
One kilo of milled kai noi rice sells for 6,500 to 10,000 kip depending on quality. The price is 1,000 to 1,500 kip more than that paid for other varieties, officials said'.

Finally, the Bangkok Post (Nov. 26) looks at a new government policy on rice:

'A government push to equip rice farmers with new technology could face a bumpy road ahead, a prominent critic said on Sunday. Theerayuth Boonmee, the coordinator of the New Rice Culture Network, warned that the government's attempt to give farmers high-tech ways to improve and add value to their crops could fall upon stony ground.
Most farmers would have problems adopting advanced technology, leading to higher production costs, he told a seminar entitled “Look Forward, Direction of Sustainable Agriculture” organised by the Thai Journalists Association. Mr Theerayuth, who works for the College of Interdisciplinary Studies, also warned of possible corruption in the purchase of farming technology'.

Reputations
The Phnom Penh Post (Nov. 21) has info on offer concerning growing banana's:

'Vietnamese conglomerate Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAGL) has shipped a total of over 9,000 tonnes of Cambodian bananas destined for the Chinese market since the firm first started exporting in July, a company representative said.
The firm, which owns 1,000 hectares of banana plantations in Ratanakkiri province, has been making weekly shipments of bananas through its subsidiaries, Hoang Anh Andong Meas, Hoang Anh Romphat and Hoang Anh Daun Penh Agrico'.

This follows a prior article on HAGL activities in Cambodia. The Phnom Penh Post (Nov. 17):

'Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAGL), a Vietnamese conglomerate that operates in property, mining, commercial agriculture and hydropower, will make its second official export of dragon fruit next week from its plantations in Ratanakkiri province, a company representative said.
The company is currently harvesting its second shipment of dragon fruit, said Thach Quanh Tha, director of administration for HAGL, and will transport it overland to port facilities in Vietnam and then load it onto a container ship bound for buyers in China. Its first shipment registered at 100 tonnes.
...
Meanwhile, HAGL has been making banana shipments to China since July from its 1,000-hectare banana plantation in northeastern Cambodia through its three subsidiaries, Hoang Anh Andong Meas, Hoang Anh Romphat and Hoang Anh Daun Penh Agrico.
Thach said dragon fruit and banana cultivation was part of the agro giant’s efforts to diversify its Cambodian operations beyond rubber and palm oil which have bottomed out on the back of low global commodity prices. The company has invested in planting 14 different types of fruit for export.
In Chayvan, president of Kampong Speu Mangoes Association, said that while he welcomed the news that Cambodian fruits are reaching the Chinese market, he questioned why the Vietnamese giant could breeze past stringent sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) regulations that have hamstrung the mango industry.
But Soy Sona, director of the Ratanakkiri Provincial Agriculture Department, said that HAGL already had its 380-hectare dragon fruit plantation certified with SPS standards by the Ministry of Agriculture when it made its first shipment.“The company has already passed SPS standards and it has a good network in Vietnam so that it can reach the Chinese market,” he said. “We will see if they can continue to secure stable orders before we encourage our local farmers to cultivate dragon fruit in order to earn individual profits.”

Phnom Penh Post (Nov. 24) notes this significant news on palm sugar:

'Cambodian-based specialty food producer Confirel won first prize for its Thnot Organic Sugar at the 15th Asean Food Conference in Ho Chi Minh City yesterday.
...
Confirel works with the Kampong Speu Palm Sugar Promotion Association (KSPSPA) and its member families to process palm-based goods including sugar, wine, vinegar and juice. Annually, Confirel receives approximately 150 tonnes of organic palm sugar from this partnership.
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However, he [KSPSPA President Sam Saroeun] remains afraid of counterfeit palm sugar products flooding the market. “We are always concerned about protecting palm sugar’s reputation in the market,” he said. “I hope the government will take action to help us.”

Then there's cassava news from Khmer Times (Nov. 22):

'With harvest season kicking off this month, cassava farmers across the country are upbeat. According to local cassava associations, the price of the commodity is significantly higher than in previous years due to heightened demand in foreign markets.
...
Fresh cassava is selling for about 220 riel per kilogram, an increase of more than 50 percent compared with last year.
... 
Recently, Amru Rice, Cambodia’s leading rice miller and exporter, signed a deal with Thai Starch Company to supply 8,000 tonnes of fresh organic tapioca – a starch extracted from the cassava root – with the first shipment scheduled for early 2019. He said they will increase exports to 40,000 tonnes by 2020.Song Saran, CEO of Amru Rice, said they would cooperate with more than 1,500 smallholder farmers in Kampong Thom and Oddar Meanchey during a three-year project to grow fresh organic cassava'.

The Phnom Penh Post (Nov.7) also mentions cassava:

'Minister of Commerce Pan Sorasak has announced that the government will be spearheading a new National Cassava Policy which aims to address challenges in the industry and work towards ensuring a sustainable and resilient crop, strong value chains and greater regional market presence. Speaking at a dedicated cassava investment forum yesterday in Siem Reap, Sorasak encouraged the private and public sectors to work together to find ways to boost the cash crop and expand market access – primarily to China.
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Total cassava exports in the first nine months of the year have reached only 2.3 million tonnes, a decrease of 21 percent compared to the same period last year. While China is home to the most demanding cassava market in the world, Cambodia has barely exported to the giant nation at all this year, with under 1 percent of its cassava exports reaching Chinese markets.
The Kingdom has sent 91 percent of its cassava exports to Thailand and another 8 percent to Vietnam'.

Slumping

Vientiane Times (Nov. 15) reports on coffee:

'The Lao government plans to expand the area under coffee cultivation as part of efforts to increase crop quantity and quality and sustain the earnings of growers until 2025, a senior government official has said.
...
Currently, the three southern provinces of Champassak, Xekong and Saravan are the main areas where coffee is grown.
The four northern provinces of Phongsaly, Xieng Khuang, Luang Prabang and Huaphan have been identified as possible new areas for the establishment of coffee farms.
Coffee plantations currently cover 4,000 to 5,000 hectares in Phongsaly province, the Deputy Minister said.
He noted that coffee farms may also be established in the southern province of Attapeu.
Due to a slump in coffee prices on the world market, the sale price of Lao coffee and export volumes have declined in recent years, and the government is making a push to export more coffee.
"The sale price of Lao coffee is still dependent on prices on the world market. But if we continue to produce coffee of higher quality, we can ask for a reasonable price," Dr Phouangparisack said, adding that more advertising is needed to promote Lao coffee worldwide.
...
According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, more than 20,000 families make a living from selling coffee beans and more than 300,000 people are engaged in jobs linked to the coffee industry'.

Bangkok Post (Nov. 15) has a small article on the perils of Thai agriculture, mostly debt related:

'Thai authorities are mulling stringent tax measures to pressure creditors to negotiate with their debtors in over 1,200 farmland-linked debt cases in the Northeast.
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Creditors have reportedly been profiteering by charging exorbitant interest rates and then seizing farmers' land when they cannot meet their repayments.
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One problem is farmers' lack of knowledge when it comes to legally binding contracts concerning debt, land and collateral, he [sol Lt Col Wichai Suwanprasert, secretary-general of the ministry's centre for helping debtors] said. As a result, many have agreed to deals without realising they could forfeit their land or property, he added'.

The Nation (Nov. 13) in same-same fashion:

'SEVERAL CHALLENGES have emerged during the Agriculture and Cooperatives Ministry’s ongoing efforts to produce “smart farmers” for Thailand.
...

For example, farmers in general still use inappropriate materials for farm production. Many have apparently overused fertilisers and chemicals and, as a result, their costs have soared unnecessarily – meaning problems when crop prices are low'.

 The Nation (Nov. 14) has what I believe a curious report:

'REPRESENTATIVES of rubber farmers yesterday demanded that the governor and all board members of the Thai Rubber Authority (TRA) be dismissed over falling rubber prices. Wreaths were also laid at the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives in a symbolic protest against the TRA’s leaderships. “Their management mistakes have hurt rubber prices,” Utai Sornlaksap, head of the Thai Council of Rubber Farmers Networks, said on behalf of rubber farmers, some of whom accompanied him.
... 
Last Friday, Tanomkiat Yingchuanan – an adviser to the network of rubber farmer groups – said rubber farmers from across the country would join the protest over the falling rubber prices. He also openly directed criticism at Chatchai. Tanomkiat, however, was taken to an “attitude-adjustment programme” at a military camp over the past weekend, along with other key leaders of rubber-farmer protests. As a result, many farmers cancelled plans to attend the planned rally. Chayanin Kongsong, a rubber farmer leader in Nakhon Si Thammarat province, said the military had asked for cooperation in not staging protests'.

Am I reading this correctly? Is the Thai junta re-educating protesters?

Finally, The Nation (Nov. 24) has a report on growing banana's in Laos:

'BANANAS are expected to be Laos’ highest revenue earner among agricultural exports this year, retaining the top spot achieved last year despite a decrease in exports by value.
This year, Laos expects to earn about US$184 million from banana exports, down US$13.8 million compared to last year, the Ministry of Industry and Commerce reported.
In the first nine months of this year, Laos earned US$158.5 million from banana exports, while last year overseas banana sales stood at US$197.8 million for the same period. The bulk of the crop was sold to China and some to Thailand
Other major agricultural export earners are expected to include cassava, with sales reaching US$158 million. Raw coffee exports are forecast at US$113 million, rubber at US$77.5 million, and maize at US$60.2 million.
In 2015, rubber was the top earner but this year it is forecast to drop to fourth place due to falling prices, while some farmers have switched to other commercial crops.
The export value of bananas is expected to slide further next year after the government banned additional plantations'.