Cambodia

Agriculture remains a significant part of the Cambodian economy and accounts for about two-thirds of employment. The agriculture sector remains highly relevant to Cambodian economic growth in the medium term, not only because of its on-going contribution to employment but also because other recent growth sectors, including the garment industry, construction and tourism, have contracted in recent times.

The Cambodian agricultural production environment is, in general, harsher than the fertile lowlands of other South-East Asian countries. Soils are generally poor, often becoming waterlogged during the wet season, and three-quarters of the agriculture is rainfed. The predominance of rice-based farming systems on infertile, poorly structured soils means that Cambodia has rather low agricultural productivity on the basis of both labour and land area.

Water management is a particular challenge for both dryland and irrigated cropping, as the flatness of many prime rice cropping areas means that it is difficult to both control flooding through drainage management and impound water for later use in irrigation. Many farmers are able to produce only a single crop per year. Combined with the problems of low productivity, volatile yields and strong seasonality, this has contributed to poor market linkages. In addition, there is a lack of investment in plantations and in contract farming and other financial arrangements that could provide incentives for increasing productivity.

Average rice yields are low, and Cambodia's predominantly rainfed farming systems are also highly prone to the effects of seasonal climate variability and, in the long term, impacts of climate change. The poorest farmers will bear the brunt of climate change because they live in the more vulnerable areas. The impacts of climate change will amplify the current food security crisis. ACIAR's focus during 2009-10 will be to develop capacity to support adaptation to climate change at the farm scale.

The overwhelming driver for most Cambodian smallholder farmers is to secure their household food production to avoid annual hungry periods. Before diversification strategies can be investigated and implemented, ensuring such security is critical. In 2009-10 there will be increased emphasis on research to underpin food security. This will be closely linked to the increased emphasis on climate change adaptation research, and will focus on the same rice-based production systems.

To improve overall labour productivity, there have been slow but significant moves to mechanisation, with introduction of small-scale equipment and the use of direct seeding for rice. For this reason, the ACIAR research program has pursued the twin objectives of assisting with rice security (managing constraints and threats to rice production) and supporting research to foster agricultural diversification. There is significant year-to-year variation in production, highlighting the dependence of Cambodian farming on rainfed systems.

The suite of current, proposed and completed projects targets two areas of research: improving rice productivity by assessing land suitability for a second rice crop; and developing options for the production and marketing of non-rice crops. The latter area includes production and marketing systems for other field crops such as maize and legumes in upland and lowland situations, and for production and marketing options for vegetables in areas with good access to markets. Cambodia's low population density, particularly in the uplands, should provide potential for increasing ruminant livestock production. However, challenges remain in the supply of low-cost animal feed and the maintenance of product quality. Smallholder livestock are important in the Cambodian agricultural economy, and ACIAR will support research to assist control of transboundary diseases and increases in animal production, particularly of ruminants.

The Cambodian Agricultural Research Fund (CARF), established in 2002 with AusAID and ACIAR co-funding, provides Cambodian scientists with opportunities to identify research priorities and design demand-driven agricultural research projects, compete for agricultural research funds and lead the selected projects. Over the last few years ACIAR has diversified its R&D provider base in Cambodia. The Cambodian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI) is expected to continue as a key research provider in the rice-based farming systems area. However, in studies of horticulture, livestock, fisheries and economics, and in assessments of community impacts from research, additional partners are important. These include national and provincial departments under the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries; Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology; and the Ministry for Rural Development. Other partners include universities and agricultural colleges; and a range of non-government, community-based and private sector organisations. Considerable progress has been made in developing the scientific expertise of a number of Australian-trained Cambodian researchers who are poised to contribute significantly to the development of Cambodian agriculture. ACIAR's focus is on continuing individual capacity building through postgraduate training and mentoring of Cambodian scientists through project involvement as well as supporting the development of major research-providing institutions through partnership with international counterparts in research and extension projects. ACIAR will also maintain an emphasis on short-course training in areas such as R&D priority-setting and management, enhancing research- extension linkages; scientific proposal and report writing in English; and experimental design and analysis. This also includes training and technical assistance with production of the Cambodian Journal of Agriculture.

ACIAR's program has a focus on the southern provinces (Kampot, Takeo, Kandal, Prey Veng and Kampong Cham), two Tonle Sap provinces (Kampong Thom and Siem Reap), and two north-western provinces (Battambang and Pailin, mainly emphasising non-rice field crops). These provinces were selected on the basis of access to emerging domestic and international (Thailand, Vietnam) markets and as key production locations for the agreed priority crops and ruminant livestock. The geographic focus of CAVAC is Takeo, Kampot and Kampong Thom. Where possible, ACIAR will establish linkages with other donor programs.