Cambodia's Rice Yield Hits Record

Cambodia produced 6.4 million MT of rice last
year, the highest yield for the impoverished country in a decade, Prime
Minister Hun Sen said Tuesday.
 
  The average yield was 2.4 MT of rice per hectare, the premier said at a
government agriculture conference.
 
  "The yield was considered a historical yield record for the last decade," he
said. "This high yield is a big success compared with the 1950s and 1960s, when
the rice yield was only 0.6 to 1.6 MT per hectare."
 
  Hun Sen attributed the bumper harvest to good weather conditions, no serious
natural disasters and efforts to rebuild irrigation systems.
 
  He said agriculture accounted for 30% of the country's gross domestic product
in 2006.
 
  Cambodia, where 85% of the 14 million people are dependent on agriculture,
exported 1.2 million tons of rice in 2006, most of it to neighboring Vietnam
and Thailand.
 
  The paddy harvest in the 2005-06 (April-March) crop year totaled 5.98 million
tons.
 
  Hun Sen late last year called on rice exporting nations along the Mekong
River to join hands to form a cartel modeled on the Organization of Petroleum
Exporting Countries or OPEC.
 
  He said Cambodia, Laos, Burma, Thailand and Vietnam export at least 10
million MT of rice each year and should set up an OPEC-like rice exporters'
association.