What does farming have to do with freedom?
We believe preventing exploitation before it happens is one of the most critical ways we can prevent human trafficking
80% of Cambodians rely on farming for their income and livelihood. Most depend on a single crop to survive, often providing less than enough income to feed everyone.
Risk Factors
Even if the crops yield the expected harvest, \”middle-men\” take the majority of their profits, leaving them on the edge of poverty. The desperation of farming families often leads them into the hands of traffickers, ready to exploit their vulnerability. False job recruitment agencies lure Cambodians into jobs abroad, but sell them into slavery once they arrive.
Our Response
Ratanak will be building three rice mills for farming communities that have been identified as vulnerable through a multi-year research study. With their own rice mills, new jobs will be created and the community can mill their own rice, removing the need for a middle man. This increases income for families, preventing the poverty that can lead to exploitation.
![\"On the first day of training, what I hoped to gain from the [rice mill] was how to be able to send my two lovely kids to university. But as the training went on for a few days, I started to see what all the [rice mill] had to offer – being able to save other farmers like me from having to use the high prices made by brokers and middle-men.\"
– Malai, cooperative leader of an existing rice mill](https://www.ratanak.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/rice_flat.png "rice_flat")
\”On the first day of training, what I hoped to gain from the [rice mill] was how to be able to send my two lovely kids to university. But as the training went on for a few days, I started to see what all the [rice mill] had to offer – being able to save other farmers like me from having to use the high prices made by brokers and middle-men.\”
– Malai, cooperative leader of an existing rice mill
Without rice mills
farmers receive $0.17/kg for their unprocessed rice
With rice mills
farmers can be paid $1.23/kg for the rice,
a 623% increase
By milling their own rice, farmers will be able to mill and sell not only the unprocessed rice, but also the husks, broken bits, and bran that are by-products of milling. Greater income for families also means safer and more secure communities, less at risk of being tricked into human trafficking.