FAO/GIEWS - Foodcrops & Shortages 02/02 - CAMBODIA (1 February)
Harvesting of the country’s main wet rice crop, which accounts for nearly 80 percent of rice production, has been completed. Notwithstanding the extremely dry month of July, which registered the lowest precipitation in 30 years, and the torrential rains and flooding which followed during most of August, aggregate paddy output in 2001 was 3.6 million tonnes (2.2 in milled rice equivalent), which was average. Rice accounts for about 84 percent of annual food crop production. The satisfactory output should help stabilize the overall food supply situation which was destabilized by flooding in August, when thousands of people were forced to leave their homes and needed food assistance.