New transport links bring buyers to farms in Cambodia’s O’Soam
Community networks are helping growers reach urban markets, while border fighting has weighed on tourism, local representatives say.
Growers in Cambodia’s mountainous O’Soam commune are finding customers at their farms after improvements to transport links, local officials and community representatives say. They credit National Road 10 and the Russey Chrum Bridge with easing journeys that previously made selling harvests difficult.
During a district visit by journalists on October 23, Veal Veng governor Theang Leng said agricultural output had increased and farmers were receiving better prices. Produce from the Pursat province commune can move through Pursat provincial town towards Phnom Penh, with another route running towards Koh Kong province, he said.
Noun Lim, a representative of the tourism community, said collective networks gave larger plantations access to buyers in Battambang, Sihanoukville and Phnom Penh. He said residents had previously limited cultivation because they lacked customers, but were now rotating crops across the seasons instead of leaving land unused.
Bananas rank among the commune’s best-selling crops; growers also produce coffee, turmeric, ginger, pepper and taro. Lim, who operates a homestay, said visitors could purchase crops from households beside the road or directly from plantations. Some bought coffee beans for roasting or young plants to take home.
Leng said the infrastructure had made O’Soam more accessible to tourists beyond its earlier adventure-travel visitors. However, Lim reported fewer visitors following fighting on the Cambodia-Thailand border. He said the community still offered guiding for forest treks, motorcycle trips and mountain biking.
