Recently, Cambodian prime minister, Hun Sen, has ordered the purchase of longans from the farmers in all provinces along the Cambodian-Thai border who have been unable to export their fruits due to Covid-19 restrictions.
Meanwhile on social media, four photos showing a watermelon farm and people crying were posted recently. It shows that Cambodian farmers crying due to being unable to export or sell their fruits. There have been mixed comments regarding above mentioned post and shared by many Cambodian Facebook users.
This is about our investigation over this.
Social Media Claim
On September 6, 2021, one of the Cambodian Facebook pages called Sdach Reading posted four photos, one of them showing an old man holding a watermelon crying on a watermelon field while another woman was also seen crying. This facebook page has linked and stated in his own post that they were Cambodian farmers who were unable to sell their products.
A screenshot captured the claim in Khmer language translated in English as “Let Cambodians help Cambodians, help promote the agricultural products of our compatriots. No one helps our Cambodians other than our Cambodians”.
Similarly to the above claim, another Facebook page called Khmer Post also posted photos with similar claims on February 10, 2020. A snapshot captured the claim in Khmer language translated in English as “Please share, mother’s tears are flowing because unable to pay the bank due to border closure. Support them by buying or helping those who were sick”.
Fact Check
Fact Crescendo Cambodia has started its own investigation of this claim above by running a Google Reverse Image search which led us to some reliable sources as follows.
According to a Vietnamese news website Zing News published on April 25, 2014, it has shown an exact photo of this old man crying at the watermelon field. This website also stated in their report that many watermelon farmers in Tan Thanh commune, Thoi Lai district, Can Tho city have picked their watermelons and poured them into the canal, because all the watermelon fields that were about to be harvested have been completely damaged by the rain.
A screenshot captured from the above news website reads in Vietnamese as “Ông Bùi Khánh Đãng nước mắt tuôn giữa ruộng khi 1,5 ha dưa sắp thu hoạch gần như mất trắng. Ông cho biết, dưa xuất hiện bệnh sau trận mưa lớn, vì đa phần nông dân ở đây trồng theo kiểu truyền thống có phủ rơm trên mặt ruộng, không lên liếp dòng như các vùng chuyên canh khác” .English translation of it according to Google translate is “Mr. Bui Khanh Dang shed tears in the middle of the field when 1.5 hectares of melons about to be harvested were almost lost. He said, melons appeared diseased after heavy rains, because most farmers here grow traditionally with straw covered on the field, not on the line like other specialized areas”.
Zing News Report | Archived Link
We also found an exact photo of the woman crying as well on a report published by a Vietnamese news website VINAGRI News on March 3, 2014. This report does not indicate that she was a Cambodian farmer and crying due to being unable to sell her watermelon at all.
The following is a snapshot captured from a news website that described in Vietnamese as “Người chăn nuôi khóc vì dịch cúm gia cầm” or translated via Google Translate which means “Farmers were crying because of bird flu”.
VINAGRI News Report | Archived Link
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Conclusion
Fact Crescendo Cambodia have found out that the photos with the above-mentioned claims are misleading. There are not any official announcements confirmed on the watermelon crisis in these days in Cambodia as depicted by certain social media posts . This woman was actually a Vietnamese crying due to bird flu while the Vietnamese old man was crying due to his watermelon farm being destroyed by the rainfall.
Title:Fact Check: Is a watermelon crisis happening Cambodia?
Fact Check By: Kakada SimResult: Misleading
