SVAY
REING
Mr.
Muon Yam
Prey
Koki Village
Muon
Yam (female) 75 years - widow
Six people in her household, which includes her daughter,
her husband and 2 children.
Yam
lives in a modest house that adjoins her daughters sleeping
house. Three members of the household work in and around
the village, labouring, transplanting, digging, or carrying
things. One son has gone to Phnom Penh to work in an Ice
Factory one year ago as there was nothing available in the
village. Yam’s would like to see her grandchildren
all attend school, including the girls, but she understands
that “if times are hard, the boy will be preferred”
for schooling.
If
Yam is sick, she and the family go to the commune health
centre. As collaborated with the rest of the interviews,
the cost per visit is 500R and usually they are supplied
with medicine for three days. There is no Kru Khmer in the
village.
Yam
has 1 ½ HA of rice land. Each year they apply 2 sacks
of D-A-P type fertilizer costing 49,000R per bag. They mix
this with cow manure to improve the strength of it. Yam
said “there is never any need to use pesticides in
my fields”. If the weather is good, Yam can get 30
– 40 tang from the fields. Yam said that “we
have had to use more and more fertilizer every year just
to get the same harvest, the soil is poor”. A good
harvest can feed the family for 5 – 6 months, after
this time the family has to find alternative sources of
income to buy food.
Members
of the family dig earth, one cubic metre is worth 2000R
with no meal, a day of transplanting is 2500R. Often the
family borrows money (in gold) from the money lender in
the village. Often they borrow over 6 – 7 months,
One chi of gold is repayable as two chis and payback is
generally after harvest. Yam knows that there are credit
facilities available trough an organisation in the village,
but she does not know all the details.
Yam
said that “poor people get in debt and get poorer,
with the drought, debt is bigger and there is no way out”.
When it comes time to borrow, the time being decided by
the women in the house, a family meeting is held and the
women the approach the moneylender. Yam said “ultimately
I decide how much to borrow”.
An
alternative method of borrowing is to borrow more than 3
Chi over two years. The interest that is payable is for
the moneylender to use your land. But “you always
get your land back after the debt has been paid”.
One or two families have left the village due to their inability
to pay their debts. Other families in the same situation
as Yam collect things from the fields and fish to feed them
daily.
Yam
also borrows from the rice bank. If you borrow 10kg you
pay back 14kg after harvest. At this time, the rice bank
is completely empty as all borrowing has taken place. Yam
said “life is getting harder from year to year and
we can only buy rice daily to eat”. The price of rice
has been increasing also “2000 it was 5,000R a tao
(12 kilos), 2001, more than 10,000R a tao and this year
15,000R a tao. For the poor this makes it more difficult”.
She observed “the money lender is getting richer,
the rich go higher and the poorer go down”. This money
lender engages in many types of business, from pig raising,
rice fields, renting out a koyun and the use of borrowers
rice fields in lieu of interest.
Mr.
Nok So Kom
O
Ta Mao Village
There
is a family that has resided in O Ta Mao village since 1983.
There are 3 members in that family. There are husband, wife,
and child. Husband’s name is Nok So Kom, 21 years
old and has studied to grade 3. The wife’s name is
Kum Chanta, 19 years old and has studied to grade 2. Both
husband and wife stopped studying because of their poor
families.
We get marred and get a wedding gift it is a ½ Ha
of rice field from their parents to do farming, says Kom.
We use a 50 kg of sack of fertilizer that costs 45,000riel
and mix this with ash fertilizer. 100 tang pay around 50,000
riel. Transplantating costs 1.5ji of gold and the result
is 60 – 70 sacks of rice a year. To just do farming
is enough for our standards of life each year.
When we get diseases we always go to the hospital. Just
500 riel at once for a health check. Private visits by the
doctor for check-ups cost over 20,000 riel. I used to borrow
money from SANTESANNA to buy fertilizer the first time.
Borrowing money doesn’t require us to use as a deposit
the family book yet. But it has an interest list at SANTESANNA.
Only 50,000 riel short term fixed for 6 months. We both
decided to Borrow and sponsor for expenses, I give the right
to my wife.
We save money through transporting pigs, chickens for the
owner of those pig, chicken from the border to the house,
distill Pra Chak; Eucalyptus) and if we do not earn money
on time, we must sell rice to pay them back. Borrowing money
doesn’t have many conditions, just a fixed time of
payments.
We have to go to a meeting before borrowing, says Chanta.
But she forgot what happened there. Borrowing money from
a neighbour or sibling are the same as with an Organization,
but borrowing privately is 5ji return 7.5ji a year (200%
p.a.). I used to borrow money from neighbor also, but we
didn’t put any conditions like the family record book
or house title.
Finally we deemed that borrowing money from the Organization
and our siblings are both good. Over a few days we can distill
pure oil (Pra Chak; Eucalyptus) one litre and sell it to
Viet Nam gets us 15,000 riel/litre.
