To obtain a licence to use small aircraft for agricultural purposes, companies must ensure the aircraft can be operated safely and that their pilots have a valid pilot’s licence. Photo supplied
Three leading agricultural firms have unveiled plans to use small aircraft for fertilising agricultural crops, especially yellow bananas, in a bid to increase production for an expansion in exports to $2 billion by 2022.
Hoang Anh Andong Meas Co Ltd, Hoang Anh Lumphat Co Ltd and Daun Penh Agrico Co Ltd, subsidiaries of Vietnamese agribusiness firm Hoang Anh Gia Lai Agrico (HAGL Agrico) registered in Cambodia, have a combined investment in agro-industrial crops in the Kingdom of more than $400 million.
State Secretariat of Civil Aviation (SSCA) spokesman Sin Chansereyvutha told The Post on December 21 that the SSCA is reviewing and evaluating the technical conditions in order for the companies to be licensed to use small aircraft for agricultural purposes. The assessment is set to be completed between April and May 2021.
He said: “This is the first time we’ve considered allowing the use of small aircraft for the fertilisation of agro-industrial crops. We are now reviewing and evaluating the certification of applications.”
To obtain a licence, he said companies must ensure the aircraft can be operated safely and that their pilots have a valid pilot’s licence.
The airport facilities for the take-off and landing of the planes must also be built according to aviation technical standards, he said.
“The company has already studied the use of aircraft and determined that it will not affect the environment or national security.
“We believe it will reduce labour costs and that it can control crop disease, help to maintain high yields and to achieve the high quality required to meet export standards,” Chansereyvutha said.
The companies will use one aircraft in the first phase, he said, adding that plans to import more aircraft were in the pipeline.
He said: “We encourage the private sector to use modern technology in agriculture as long as it’s legally approved.
“We also encourage other businesses to use small aircraft to serve domestic tourism.”
In December last year at the inauguration of a packaging factory, HAGL Agrico CEO Nguyen Quan Anh noted that the firm is developing agro-industrial crops on 18,000ha with a capital investment of more than $400 million.
Of that, bananas are planted on more than 7,000ha and more than 3,000ha are currently being harvested, he said, adding that the company currently has 10 packaging plants with a capacity of 250,000 tonnes per year.
“The company plans to increase the production of fresh bananas to 500,000 tonnes a year for 2021,” Anh said.
Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Veng Sakhon told The Post on December 21 that the application of modern technology in the agricultural sector is in line with the government’s agricultural modernisation policy.
He noted that the company will be the first to use small planes to fertilise fruit crops such as yellow bananas, as it aims to generate between $1-2 billion in revenue by 2022.
“The company has good qualifications in the area of cultivation for export to the Japanese market and the ability to meet different standards according to the destination for their products, which could be Japan, South Korea or China.
“It is smart to maintain a flexible infrastructure when exploring foreign markets for export of agricultural products,” Sakhon said.
He said the use of agricultural machinery is causing the size of the labour force in Cambodia’s agricultural sector to decline from year to year.
In 2018 the labour force in the agricultural sector accounted for 34 per cent of total employment with the ministry forecasting that the number will continue to decline and it is expected to be no more than 22 per cent by 2050.
“We see that much of the private sector now consists of companies cultivating large plots of land that can benefit most from new technologies in agriculture and they will continue to adopt them,” Sakhon said.
Hun Lak, a director at Longmate Agriculture Co Ltd which invests in banana cultivation in Kampot province’s Chhouk district, noted that the majority of the private sector companies with investments in agriculture are increasingly using drones to fertilise their crops.
He said: “The use of such technology can only be effective on flat land infrastructure, otherwise the fertiliser will be wasted.”
Cambodia exported more than 235,171 tonnes of fresh yellow bananas to international markets in the first nine months of this year, an increase of more than 225 per cent compared to the corresponding period last year, according to ministry data.
