“We used some of the land but there were areas we didn’t use because we didn’t feel safe. We were afraid to work in the area with landmines, but there was no other land.”
Mrs Bot, Oddar Meanchey, Cambodia
Oddar Meanchey is a province in the remote north west of Cambodia, bordering Thailand. Mrs Bot’s family have lived here for generations. They own a farm which is currently home to Mrs Bot, her husband and three grandchildren, Rachana, Sopit and Veasna. The oldest is 12, the youngest just four. The children’s parents spend most of the year in Thailand, working hard to send money home to support the family.
The farm covers a large area and could support their needs but the majority of the land has not been safe to use. From 1985-1989 the Khmer Rouge laid mines across the whole village, including the Bot's farm, to stop PRK troops from re-taking the countryside during the struggle for control of Cambodia's government. The presence of landmines meant the family were limited to cultivating a small area of sloping land which made irrigating the rice paddies almost impossible.
"There is no storage for water and no way to trap the water on the land. We lost income many times because the rice was not good enough to sell. When we had good rain, we got around 20 bags of rice, but when there was no rain we only got around ten bags.”
Mrs Bot, Oddar Meanchey, Cambodia
Between October 2021 and February this year, HALO worked to make the land safe, discovering two anti-personnel mines in the process—capable of causing devastating injuries.
Now the land is cleared, life on the farm has improved dramatically. The Bot family have already begun preparing new rice paddies, which will sit on the easy to irrigate flatlands.
A Safer Harvest
“Because the area cleared of landmines is flat there will be enough water for the rice, we will be able to get more than 20 bags of rice in the future.”
A more secure income also means the family may finally be able to reunite permanently.
“I am very happy that we have safe land. I believe that we will have better crops because the land is flat. If possible, we want to use our income to buy more land so our children can come back from Thailand to work in our fields.”
Mrs Bot, Oddar Meanchey, Cambodia
This work was made possible thanks to:
The Government of the United States
The Government of the United Kingdom
The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation
Visit our HALO USA website
