Phnom Penh, 5 February 2021 – On the 9^th of February 2021, the National Institute of Statistics (NIS) of the Ministry of Planning (MoP), in partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF), and with support from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), will organize the Cambodia Inter-censal Agriculture Survey 2019 (CIAS 2019) Report Release Workshop. The CIAS 2019 is the first large-scale survey of the agriculture sector since the Cambodia Agriculture Census in 2013. It is funded by the Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the FAO and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The CIAS 2019 collected information on crop cultivation, livestock and poultry raising, aquaculture and capture fishing. The survey used statistical methods to select a representative sample of Enumeration Areas (EA) throughout Cambodia, from the 2013 Agriculture Census Sampling Frame. Data collection was conducted between July and November 2019 by over 400 staff from the Provincial Departments of Planning and Provincial Departments of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. Over 16,000 interviews were completed with household and juridical (non-household) agricultural holdings.

The CIAS 2019 estimated that there were a total of 1,726,000 household agricultural holdings in Cambodia, or approximately 50 percent of all households in the country (3,438,000 households as per the Cambodia Socio-Economic Survey 2017). Crop activity was reported on 88 percent of all household agricultural holdings in Cambodia while 75 percent of all household agricultural holdings reported raising livestock, poultry, or insects. An estimated 234,000 household agricultural holdings were involved in capture fishing activity, with 63 percent of those holdings reporting their fish catch as lower than previous year, and only 9 percent reporting it as greater than the previous year. The survey assessed that 31 percent of the household agricultural holdings reported an agricultural income lower than the previous year. Household agricultural holders were also asked to estimate the share of their total household income that was accounted for by their agricultural income: an estimated 32 percent of holders reported that about half of their total household income was accounted for by agricultural income, 17 percent reported that most or almost all of their total household income was accounted for by agricultural income, and only 4 percent reported that all of their total household income was accounted for by agricultural income.

Mr. Alexandre Huynh, FAO Representaive in Cambodia emphasized that, “The CIAS 2019 helps to close the agricultural data gap and will contribute to effective planning, financing, and implementing of agricultural development stategies. Timely and quality data will support the RGC to ensure food security and mitigate the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in Cambodia.”

Because the CIAS 2019 data was collected before the global COVID-19 pandemic was declared, it will have the potential to be considered as a “baseline”, a “pre- COVID-19 agriculture situation snapshot”. It will therefore be possible to compare the CIAS 2019 data with data from the following survey rounds, and to produce an in-depth assessment of the pandemic impact on the agricultural sector in Cambodia.

“This essential national level data will provide critical information to the Royal Government of Cambodia to drive transparent and data-driven policy making,” noted Ms. Veena Reddy, USAID/Cambodia Mission Director. “This data will inform agriculture development, poverty reduction, and economic growth in Cambodia, contributing to greater prosperity and sustainability.”

A smart and sustainable data collection tool

Data for the CIAS 2019 was collected through Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI) mode, using tablets, a first for a national survey in Cambodia. Mr. Piero Conforti, Deputy Director ad interim of the FAO Statistics Division and a project Lead Technical Officer from the FAO Headquarters in Rome, highlights some of the benefits of this innovative approach, ranging from improvements in data quality, to timely data access and better overall cost-efficiency:

“The Cambodia Inter-Censal Agricultural Survey (CIAS 2019) is an important opportunity to promote technological innovation in agricultural surveys, along with a significant enhancement in the quality of the data. The CIAS 2019 will entail for the first time a large-scale use of CAPI for data collection, which will bring about significant cost savings while ensuring smooth transmission of data and a great reduction of errors”.

For Ms. Sangita Dubey, Senior Statistician and a project Lead Technical Officer from the FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific in Bangkok, the CIAS 2019 also owes part of its success to the excellent level of cooperation between FAO and the government partners, NIS and MAFF:

“The Cambodia Inter-censal Agricultural Survey exemplifies good partnerships between FAO and a national government. FAO provided training and technical assistance to adopt cost-effective data collection and dissemination technologies and international standards, government experts put this newly acquired expertise into practice, highlighting a successful transfer of knowledge and skills, and leading to better and more timely data to inform agriculture program and policies.”

The quality of the partnership was also praised by Her Excellency Hang Lina, Delegate of Royal Government of Cambodia in-charge of Director General of the National Institute of Statistics:

“I wish to thank FAO for giving NIS access to new technologies, which resulted in the first national tablet-based data collection. I also wish to express my gratitude to USAID for their significant financial support, which was fundamental in successfully completing the CIAS 2019.”

While most development projects generally focus on building capacity at central level, the CIAS 2019 also helped to train provincial staff on the main survey processes, as mentioned by Mr. Mak Mony, Director of the Department of Planning and Statistics at MAFF.

“Through the good partnership with NIS MoP and FAO during the CIAS 2019, MAFF staff built strong capacity at national and sub-national level on data collection, quality control and data analysis processes.”

The CIAS 2019 is part of the “AGRISurvey”, a multi-year program aimed at providing quality information to planners and policymakers and building national capacity on best survey practices. As of 2021, the AGRISurvey will be incorporated into the “50x2030 Initiative”, a 10-year global programme, led by the unique partnership between the World Bank (WB), the FAO and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). The Initiative aims to fill the agricultural data gap in 50 low and lower-middle income countries by year 2030, and to inform their agriculture-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Cambodia is the first country to join the Initiative in Asia.

For more information, please contact:

1. H.E. Nor Vanndy, Director of Economic Statistics Department, NIS.

Tel: 095 855 285, Email: [email protected]

1. Mr. Mak Mony, Director of the Department of Planning and Statistics, MAFF.

Tel: 077 512 871, Email: [email protected]

1. Ms. Tet Chann, Communication Officer, FAO Cambodia.

Tel: 011 276 775, Email: [email protected]