FAO/GIEWS - Foodcrops & Shortages 04/00 - CAMBODIA (21 March)
The dry season for rice is reported to have progressed more slowly than the previous year, whilst in areas where a recession crop was planted there were delays due to the slow withdrawal of water along the Mekong and Bassac rivers. Dry season and flood recession rice account for a relatively small proportions of aggregate production in the country, the bulk coming from the wet season which extends from September/October to December/January. Overall 1999/2000 paddy production is officially estimated at 4 million tonnes, up 12 percent on the previous year.
Rice accounts for some 84 percent of annual food crop production and is planted on around 90 percent of cropped area, mainly in the Central Mekong Basin and Delta and the Tonle Sap Plain. Despite a satisfactory food supply situation overall, a sizeable section of the population remains vulnerable to food shortages. In part some of these needs are being met through a WFP Protracted Relief and Recovery Operation. In 2000, WFP will assist approximately 1.5 million beneficiaries in targeted food-insecure communes in 24 provinces, providing on average two months of basic food needs, primarily through food-for-work activities.
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