TAKEO
Mrs.
Ren
Chey
Chauk Village
Mrs.
Ren is 74 years old; she is illiterate with 3 children but
2 of them are married. There are 5 members in the whole
family and they moved to live in Chevy Chork village, Chevy
Chork commune and Borey Chollsa District, since 1980. She
has 3 hectare of farmland but she can only grow rice on
this land once a year as it floods. During transplanting,
they spend much money to buy insecticide and they don’t
have grass (80,000R), fertilizer to make the rice establish
quickly, rice crop, plowing labor (150,000R) as they don’t
have any cattle, and the rice seed they get from selling
labour during harvest at other villages. They spend 1 month
labouring and get 10 thangs of the rice; 5 thangs to support
the family and 5 thangs for rice seed.
The wife said, in doing farming I used to borrow money from
the moneylender, 1 chi with interest of 1 chi also, and
I had 4 months to payback 2 chi. If I didn’t have
money to payback at the fixed time they will add my interest
to the capital.
I make income through spreading fishing hooks out with my
husband and I collect water lily to sell. I earn 4,000 riel
a day from the water lily (1000 plants) and I sell only
a few days in a week, it’s up to the Vietnamese orders.
From day to day my husband only fishes. In the dry season
the people in the village always go to Tounlob to sell labour
in harvest (March) and we went for half a month. When we
go there we always take a tent and we walk and this happens
twice in a year. My husband and I can earn from the harvest
7000 riel per day and we have to pay for food and rice,
6 cans equal to 1000 riel per day, and the cigarettes for
my husband cost 600 riel also. While we are harvesting in
Tounlob, my mother cooks and takes care of our son but sometime
we all go to Tounlob together.
I used to borrow rice from the moneylender to eat, 60 cans,
and payback when we can save some money from selling the
water lily and some fish from our work over 5 or 6 days.
I feed a chicken of a neighbor but I must exchange with
them. When I have 10 chickens, I must give them 5 and a
chicken. In my house we never boil the water to drink and
we only drink lake water.
Many
days before this my mother had a fever and I have to buy
some medicine for her and one time equaled 1500 riel. Beside
the harvest season my husband goes to catch mice and in
a day he can get 2kg equal to 2000 riel only in the dry
season. This year we had a lot of money from digging ponds
near the school in this village. We spent 2 months and per
day must to dig 2m and after 2 months we get 300,000 riel
per family. All this money it’s me that keeps it,
although my husband earns money from fishing, he gives me
all the money and when he needs to buy something we must
to consult before it is purchased.
We both decide to borrow money from the moneylender and
before we do anything else. My husband and I cannot find
both fish and water lily in a day, so if we go fishing,
we don’t go to get water lily, and if we go to cut
water lily, we don’t go to find fish, because of we
only have one boat.
In
harvest season we can earn a lot of money, but we get very
tired because we have sold our labour for harvest in another
village. I hope that I can get a good yield from my farm
but it is far away from the canal and this makes it difficult
to do. If we talk about rice seed it is very expensive,
1 Thang equals 15,000 riel.
The villagers have lived in this village since 1980, the
last 4 or 5 years no one has migrated to other villages,
but before this time there were a lot of people that migrated
to other villages, over 300 families.
I find that the moneylender doesn’t do anything beside
give money to borrowers, but they are still wealthy and
have a lot of farmland also. Many days my husband goes to
reorganise the neighbours house and gets 10,000 riel, and
each day we eat 6 cans of rice.
I
think that because Vietnam make the dam, it has made a big
problem for the people in this village, the dam has made
the flood waters in this village less likely to recede quickly.
Mr.
Nok So Kom
Sangkae
Chuor Village
Smann
Nhor is female 43 yrs old. Her hasband is Doeu Khis 48 yrs
old. There are 8 members in his family include husband and
wife. He has got 2 boys and 4 daughters. One boy and 2 girls
are in school. The oldest child is 19 yrs old and the youngest
child is 2 yrs old. He has got 4 hectares of rice land from
the state distribution. The land now is cost around 3-5
chi of gold per hectare (1 chi of gold is around $36-$37).
She cannot read and write but she used study Vietnam language.
She has lived in this village since 1984. Before she lived
Yaing Yao commune, Tin Rieng district in Vietnam. Now their
business is catching fish, collecting grass and morning
glory. There are 3 people in her family who can earn the
income (she, her husband and 1 daughter). They went around
the village to collect all the resources that she mentioned.
In one day they can earn from 3000dong to 5000dong.
There was some assistance from CCK organization (rice, money,
60 liters plastic container…). She borrowed money
from her mother to buy a boat and I pay back to her mother
little by little when she has money. When there is someone
in the family get sick she/he just stay at home without
treatment. Sometime, she borrowed from the neighbor. Now
a day, she still owe the moneylender 6 chi of gold. In each
chi of gold they charge interest for 1 hun per month per
chi (1 damloeung = 10 chi, 1chi = 10 hun = $36-$37). Now
she could not find anything from the natural resources and
also cannot grow rice because of flood and draught. This
amount I borrowed from Khmer who live along VN border but
there must be somebody takes responsible for that, or else,
nobody will give the loan to us. Prior the year, 1998 I
can grow rice 100 thaing of paddy per hectare of rice land
(1 thaing equal 30 kg of paddy).
But
since than till now I could not grow that much any more
therefore I started borrow money to grow rice (IR rice).
I paid for fertilizer and seeds. And than I could only get
30 thaing of paddy per hectare from the rice land, because
of lack of water and not enough fertilizer to feed the rice
during the grow process. In term of borrowing money, if
we are not able to pay back the 1st loan with interest we
could not borrow more. I used to ask for the moneylender
2 times to postpone the period of payment and they agreed
but if they find out that we lie to them they will come
and insult/curse at us. The condition of the loan is to
pay back every four months. If any members in family get
sick we will bring them to VN because it is near and cost
around 30,000 to 40,000dong.
Here we encounter with the problem such as diarrhea, the
children could not study regularly. They only can study
during dry season for 3-4 months. I used to stop my children
from schooling for sometime so that they can help me to
earn income to pay back the debt (selling labor). I am planning
to borrow another 3 chi of gold to invest more on growing
rice so that I can pay them back some but I am afraid they
may not give me again. The highest income that I can earn
is fishing during the rainy season. In each time that I
fished I can get around 5,000-15,000dong per day. If I earn
less than 10,000dong per day my family will be in crisis
because the need is increased now. There have been 5 families
left this village to their original village to earn income.
The
reason that I left from my original village because I have
no personal land and I have heard that here is very easy
to earn money. The life here is better than my original
village because I have land but I do not have money to make
business. During the month that we are in short and could
not earn anything we have to leave from this village to
work as worker in other area but if we are really could
not find any work and have nothing to eat, the only choice
is to borrow rice from the neighbor in the village.
The term of borrowing is 1 thang of paddy charge 1 tao interest
(1 thaing = 2 tao, 1 tao = 15 kg of paddy) and I have to
do like this for 4 months. In 1 hectare of rice field I
used 2 sacks of fertilizer and each sack cost from 150,000-200,000dong,
and 8-10 bottles of pesticide. When I sprayed pesticide
each time I do not have equipment to protect myself sometime
I get headache or dizziness.
