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Agriculture is
central to Cambodia's socio-economic development,
contributing nearly 33 percent to the country's GDP.
It is the most important source of income and rural
livelihood for around 80% of the Cambodian
population. Cambodia's rural population faces new
challenges like high population growth, embracing
market economy and international private investment,
nationwide food security and decreasing agricultural
production conditions as a result of rapidly
changing socio-economic conditions since 1990. We
focus here on four major crops, rice, cassava, corn
and soy and periodically, feature other crops,
basically food related on Cambodian Business
review's continued focus on agriculture in Cambodia.
Agriculture is central to Cambodia's
socioeconomic development, contributing nearly 33
percent to the country's GDP. It is the most
important source of income and rural livelihood for
around 80% of the Cambodian population. Cambodia's
rural population faces new challenges like high
population growth, embracing market economy and
international private investment, nationwide food
security and decreasing agricultural production
conditions as a result of rapidly changing
socio-economic conditions since 1990. Major
agronomic innovations are the introduction of
improved new varieties as well as rice
intensifications systems like the SRI production
system. With more than 2.3 million ha of rice
production, there is no significant diversification
in the agrarian sector. Only some vegetable, cash
crop and fruit production have emerged to an
increasingly important, farming system. Predominant
agrarian strategies for small farmers as well as
economic investors are the exploitation and even
overexploitation of natural resources with little
investment into a more sustainable production.
Agriculture production is essential to the domestic
economy of Cambodia and also is the main employment
factor in rural Cambodia. According to FAO findings
subsistence consumption absorbs approximately 55 to
60 % of the overall agricultural output. Rural
agriculture is predominantly organized on the basis
of smallholder farmer communities and families.
Significant productivity gaps separate Cambodia into
three major areas, productive southeastern Mekong
floodplains and north-western lowlands along the
border to Thailand and less productive uplands
regions. Various agricultural reports on Cambodia
from 1995 until 2011, show that gross production of
agricultural and food products is increasing, rice
paddy area and production also increasing while the
average yield per hectare also showed increases. |
