Cambodia: Shortage Of Land Might Hamper production

Agricultural experts have warned that rice production in Cambodia will be reduced big time in the years ahead if farmers continued to sell their rice fields for commercial purposes to be converted to business, factory or residential sites.

 Kit Seng, director of the planning department of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) has also expressed concern saying that he feared in the future, only non-fertile land will remain for cultivation because most of the rice fields will have been sold off.

Farms in Cambodia are currently run overwhelmingly by impoverished farmers, and because of this poverty they are often tempted to sell their land for ready cash.

Cambodia produces 6 million MT of unhusked rice annually and there are 2.3 million hectares of rice paddy land.